D’aaw, You Guys!
There are few things in the world that can penetrate my scabby carapace, and one of those things is candy from strangers.
A little while back Sara emailed me and asked for my address and I was all, whatever you want, person I’ve never met.
Well! It seems Sara has mistaken me for someone who deserves charming lady-gifts, right down to cards that she makes herself and sells at her shop.
Ah so! She knows how to speak Angerburgarian! Two very important words: backup chocolate.
First, though, the reason for the package in the first place: the Cadbury Cherry Ripe. While not formally of the peanut-and-cherry chocolate family I have sworn myself to destroy, Sara was right to assume I wanted to try a coconut-and-cherry chocolate bar as well. The crazy thing is that I was in New Zealand twice in the last ten years and both times I remember looking right at the Cherry Ripe candy bar and passing it up for something else. I’m not sure what the lesson here is.
Look at it! It’s gorgeous. Big pieces of candied cherry and lots of coconut – to Americans, this is basically a cherry-flavored Mounds bar. Excellent! I even like the flat profile that seems more popular in European candy bars. Delicious.
But wait! There’s more! I didn’t even notice until I was photographing it, but the backup chocolate is hibiscus flavored. I’m not sure if Sara did this consciously or not, but I have a recent and disappointing chocolate to compare this directly against.
Tom and Sally’s hibiscus chocolate nails it. The bar itself took a beating in the mail, but it smelled floral and ethereal even before I’d unwrapped it. Naked, the odor intensified: hibiscus’ pure, sweet-tart pomegranate-esque clarion, like little pink faeries climbing up my nostrils. The taste is solid too, though less dizzying than the odor. Still, I could actually taste the hibiscus, which is more than Vosges had going for them. Unfortunately, my malware detectors go batshit when I try and load Tom and Sally’s website, so I won’t link to them here. Maybe your computer is less prissy than mine.
Anyway: Sara, thank you. There’s a reason I have a blog and not a vlog, and that’s because I don’t want anyone to have to endure the sound of my bird-like shrieking when I receive such nice gifts.
November 12th, 2010 | Food Rant
Very sweet (pun intended) of them.
I too tried to visit their web site and Firefox threw up the Iron Gates.
… hmmmmm …. something is amiss in Chockytown!
I visited my best friend in Australia around 10 years ago. I left there with about a dozen Cherry Ripes in my suitcase. Every Christmas she sends me a fistful of them. Of course, you can get them in any decent alternative candy store but something about knowing they came all the way from my Melbourne, via my pal’s hands, makes them all the sweeter. Here’s to thoughtful people.
For reals! I’m not sure I’d be nearly as excited if I came across a Cherry Ripe here. What I did bring back 10 of from NZ both visits was a Pinky bar, which is basically this ultra-sweet marshmallow covered in caramel and chocolate. In a convenient bar form. Eating one makes my ears ring and my ability to make insulin reduced by 5% forever, but they sure are tasty.
that cherry ripe bar looks unreal!
perhaps ill have to send you its canadian counterpart!
Wait, are you saying there IS a Canadian version? Don’t tease me here Alana.
I still love you, think about you all the time, will visit you when we get to LA. My husband (kind of like a Scottish/Australian Viking) loves the Cherry Ripe. I don’t know what my point was. I’m full of love, as I’ve been influenced by The Tequila. I drank whiskey the other night, though (Basil Hayden–lovely vanilla aroma), and thought of you.
Love,
Sunny Melons.
And the sugar keeps coming! I still love you too, Clair. I have a shortlist of people I’m pretty certain are in my karass, and you’re on it.
Oh you kids and yer Literati shit. Fuck that drunkard Vonnegut and the whiskey truck he rode in on.
Yay! Glad you liked it. I do what I can to send random strangers candy to make them happy. The hibiscus flavor was chosen on purpose, cause I pay attention. FYI, I bought their Green Tea Chocolate and it was pretty rad too.