The Good: Good taste, Decent quantity, Generally natural ingredients, Reasonably priced, Good aroma.
The Bad: Limited edition nature, Light on vanilla bean flavor.
The Basics: Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares are good, but does not adequately balance the two promised flavors it is supposed to possess.
I love limited edition chocolates. My wife has a tendency to get them for me for holidays and for Valentine’s Day this year, she picked me up the limited edition Dark Chocolate With Strawberry Filling Ghirardelli chocolate squares (reviewed here!) and the limited edition Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares. Ghirardelli clearly prioritized the one chocolate square over the other, so much so that it has taken me this long to get around to reviewing the Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares!
That is not to say that the Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans are bad – they aren’t. But they are not extraordinary the way the other Valentine’s Day exclusive chocolate square was. If Ghirardelli had only traded on creating a white chocolate, the Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares would be fine, but the fact that they are supposed to have a vanilla bean flavor and fail to undermines them.
Basics
Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares are one and three-quarter inch squares of chocolate that are about one-quarter of an inch thick. Each of the squares comes individually wrapped in a white wrapper. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine Ghirardelli chocolate squares not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.
Each chocolate square is a seamless square that is essentially a chocolate square that is solid. In this form, the 6.38 oz. bag, the individually-wrapped chocolate squares are packaged together in a thick foil paper bag. This size has eleven squares and the thick foil paper bag does little to protect the squares. The bag is not resealable, though this matters very little considering that the chocolate squares do not go bad as they are individually wrapped.
One of these bags tends to run in the $5.00 range and that is a fair price for them, despite the fact that they are not superlative in any way.
Ease Of Preparation
These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the foil wrappers around the actual chocolate square one wishes to eat. There is no great secret to eating Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares.
Taste
The Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans squares smell strongly of vanilla beans. The scent is distinctive, almost like vanilla extract without any hint of alcohol in it. The aroma is actually very inviting to anyone who likes vanilla and it manages to foreshadow a creamy taste through the olfactory stimulation. This scent is strong, but non-invasive, very much the embodiment of vanilla.
The scent from the Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares completely foreshadows the flavor of the squares. The soft white chocolate is creamy and sweet. Interestingly, despite the strong aroma of vanilla beans, the flavor in the mouth is almost completely that of white chocolate, which makes the Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans a somewhat monolithic taste experience. There is almost a messing with the mind for the consumer as the aroma prepares one for vanilla, but the taste buds scream “white chocolate!” Either way, consumers get a creamy, sweet, very light flavored chocolate square that is likely to meet the expectations most consumers.
The Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares have a slightly sweet aftertaste that only lingers in the mouth for about a minute after one has consumed them. This is neither unpleasant, nor enduring.
Nutrition
These are candy, so they are not supposed to be especially healthy. The Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares are not nearly as bad as they could be, though, especially for a candy. The primary ingredients are sugar, cocoa butter, and whole milk powder. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies and everything in these could be readily identified by me.
A serving of the Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares is considered one square. From a three square serving, one takes in 200 calories, including 13 grams of fat. There are 5mg cholesterol, 15 mg sodium, and two grams of protein. There is a smattering of vitamins and minerals; only 4% RDA of Vitamin C and 6% RDA of Iron in these chocolate squares.
These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that tree nuts pass over. They are, however, kosher.
Storage/Clean-up
The bags of these Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares remain fresh for quite some time. The bag my wife gave me back in February had an expiration date of July 31, 2014, but they were too good for me to let them sit around for that long. One assumes that if they are kept in a cool, dry environment they will not melt or go bad. Given that they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.
As for cleanup, I applaud those who actually throw the wrappers away in socially appropriate places, as opposed to litter. Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these chocolate squares melt into most fabrics, they will stain. Getting them to melt is very easy as the white chocolate is soft to begin with.
Overall
The Ghirardelli Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares are good and likely to satisfy those who like subtle, sweet flavored white chocolate. But for those who love vanilla bean flavoring or the blend of white chocolate and vanilla bean, Ghirardelli makes a fair try with the Sublime White Vanilla Dream White Chocolate With Vanilla Beans chocolate squares, but it does not get it completely right.
For other Ghirardelli chocolate squares reviews, please check out:
Cookies & Creme chocolate squares
Ghirardelli Double Fudge Chocolate Squares
Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark With Dark Chocolate
7.5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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