chocolate goes with everything!

I've written before about my obsession with spicy chocolates. I think it's evolved, and now I like all kinds of interestingly flavored chocolates.

Over the holidays, a family friend brought my mom a box of Vosges exotic truffles, and I quite enjoyed "Absinthe" (Chinese star anise, fennel, pastis), "Naga" (sweet Indian curry powder, coconut), and "Budapest" (sweet Hungarian paprika).

Last month, I discovered a box of Choxie chocolates (from Target) in my fridge. Although they were a bit pasty and/or waxy (perhaps due to age?), there were some interesting flavors, such as eggnog, peppermint, champagne, pecan pie, gingerbread (my favorite!), and others.

Last week at work, I got to taste test the four flavors of TCHO chocolates: nutty, fruity, citrus-y, and chocolate-y. I loved the texture and appreciated the concept, but decided that I only really liked the citrus-y one, flavor-wise.

Over the weekend, in belated honor of St. Patrick's Day, I made two Guinness chocolate cakes with cream cheese frosting. They turned out quite well, even though I ran out of superfine sugar and had to use the raw stuff I'd bought in Jamaica for the second one. I thought the Guinness gave the cakes a nice rich flavor, and it also kept them good and moist for several days. I hear there is a "Bittersweet Chocolate Irish Whisky Cake" recipe somewhere; maybe I'll try that next year.

On Sunday, I finally made it to Bi-Rite Creamery, where I was prepared to try their "Chai Spiced Milk Chocolate" ice cream, but they didn't have it that day, so I ended up eating "Salted Caramel" and "Coffee Toffee" instead. The "Salted Caramel" was less flavorful than I had envisioned, but the "Coffee Toffee" was delicious. In fact, I was even inspired to buy a bag of toffee chip cookies to go. Yum!