Ghiradelli – Peppermint Bark

Ghiradelli is a chocolate brand that’s been around for quite some time, though truthfully I don’t know too much about them personally. My knowledge of them extends to the fact that they are a historied American chocolate brand that’s been around since the 1800s in San Francisco and is currently owned by Lindt. There’s something notable about brands that manage to stay alive for that long, even if they change ownership and end up owned by a bigger corporation.

Truthfully I find it a little shocking I haven’t had this particular flavour before. As someone who loves chocolate mint, and by extension peppermint bark, it’s wild that I haven’t tried these out yet. I guess when I think of this brand I usually opt for the squares with filling since that’s what they seem to do really well. But hey, a first for everything right?

They’re packaged perfectly to be shared.

This square has a top layer of white chocolate with candy cane bits, and a bottom layer of milk chocolate. I’m honestly not sure what the milk chocolate brings to the table, other than reduce the proportion of white chocolate and candy bits. It could just as easily be a cost cutting thing. To me if the thought was the reduce the overall sweetness of the white chocolate section, dark chocolate would have been a better option. Though in all fairness, milk chocolate draws in more crowds than dark chocolate does.

They’re certainly fancy to look at.

The texture is much less peppermint bark, and more like a milk chocolate with a few pieces thrown about. I can taste the candy cane pieces but they aren’t very crunchy or present, and feel kind of soft and lackluster. When I think peppermint bark, I think of something that’s more brittle and has a crunch or snap to it. These barely have that, and it’s just kind of generic and somewhat softer, bordering on the waxier side.

Clear and distinct dual layer.

The flavour is somewhat muted and mild, and it feels less like peppermint bark and more like milk chocolate with a hint of candy cane. I might just be intense, but when I get peppermint chocolate I expect a strong hit on mint. These have a passable mint flavour to it, but it’s not that strong and somewhat disappointing.

I went into this expecting something similar to Andes but as it stands I prefer Andes due to a stronger minty punch. That isn’t to say these are bad, but for the price if I want something more noticeable peppermint bark-y, I’d go for Andes or some other brand over these.

Not sure I like the trade off here.

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From the frigid, majestic North (Canada), hails a creature like no other. Is it a bear that took up viking-ing? Or a viking that turned into a bear? Perhaps it is beyond human comprehension what the creature truly is, much like Bigfoot or Nessie. What we do know, is that much like everything else in the universe, it is made of star stuff.