Wild Coast Fruit – Dark Chocolate Cranberries
I love chocolate covered nuts. Well, except for cashews. And I haven’t really had chocolate covered pistachios…at least not to my knowledge. But most nuts in general are a safe choice. Something about the texture of nuts with the subtle flavour work well with chocolate. Fruits are a bit more hit or miss in my personal experience. Maybe my issue is with dried fruit in general. Apart from dried mangoes, I can’t think of too many dried fruits that make me go “oh, I want some of that!” Dried berries and raisins are sort of….just ok for me. So the idea of throwing chocolate on it doesn’t thrill me, similar to how throwing regal robes onto a homeless person doesn’t change that they are homeless or likely in need of a warm shower.
I tried the blueberries before and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were my favourite, I did enjoy them and would consider getting them again. In the interest of trying new things though, I decided to go for the cranberries this time. Cranberries on their own don’t draw me in, but when they are with the right accompaniment, they can be quite tasty. Like in cookies with white chocolate, or in a cocktail.
Similar to most chocolate covered berries, these are misshapen and uneven. Which if you think about it is probably more comforting than seeing everything super round or super uniform. How unsettling would that be?? I also love seeing these giant pieces that are clearly where two berries fused together in the coating process and created a Frankenstein chocolate.
If you’ve had dried cranberries, you would likely be familiar with that tart, slightly sweet flavour of cranberries. These are basically just that but covered in a generous amount of dark chocolate. The chocolate itself is of a darker variety so it’s not super sweet and more of a semi-sweet flavour. The dark, slightly bitter and earthy chocolate flavour actually compliments the sweet yet tart flavour of the cranberries quite well. I’d say that the overall flavour works together better than the blueberry one, which thinking back on it, was more of a sweet, floral flavour. Not to say that’s bad, but this one is much more snackable in my opinion.
When it comes to texture, this is basically very similar to the blueberries, or any chocolate covered dried fruit really. The chocolate shell is thick so it’s not crisp or snappy, but it’s more like biting into a chocolate bar that just happens to have some cranberries in the middle. I’d say the ratio of fruit to chocolate is actually pretty good, since the cranberries themselves are very soft and tend to fall apart easy. The thicker chocolate helps things stay together a bit longer. The cranberries themselves aren’t squishy but by no means hard or tough and relatively soft to chew through.
If you’re looking for chocolate covered fruits as opposed to the usual and more common chocolate covered fruit jellies like Brookside, these are a refreshing change of pace. I personally prefer the cranberries over blueberries but both are tasty options.
