more Vosges bars

I've been obsessed with Vosges chocolates for several years now, so when D went on his business trip to Vegas and asked me if I wanted anything, I rattled off a list of new Vosges bars that I wanted to try. I asked him to buy "three or four" but apparently there was some special bulk discount so he came home with six!

I've now tried all of them, and some were noticeably better than others. In reverse order of preference:

Blood Orange Caramel: blood orange + Campari + burnt sugar caramel + hibiscus flowers, 70% cacao dark chocolate. This one was terrible. It sounded delicious, but when I tried to break the bar into pieces, the caramel came spilling out. The blood orange and Campari were supposed to be tart enough to offset the caramel, but they weren't. I may not even finish this one.

Marzipan: Sicilian almond marzipan + amaretto, 62% cacao dark chocolate. Like the Blood Orange bar, this bar consisted of chocolate filled with gooey stuff inside. I'm not a fan; I prefer the ingredients blended into the chocolate itself. I guess I'll have to read the descriptions more carefully in the future, so I can avoid these. On the bright side, in this case the marzipan was not as sweet as the caramel, so although I disliked the texture, the taste was okay.

Bapchi's Caramel Toffee: Sweet butter toffee + walnuts + pecans, 45% cacao deep milk chocolate. After the experience with the Blood Orange bar, I was afraid of anything labelled "Caramel" but I was pleasantly surprised; in this case it was just caramel flavor in the crispy toffee. If this had been a dark chocolate bar I would have liked it even better, as it was a little bit sweet, but it was good anyway (I've nearly finished it already).

Peppermint Candy Cane: all natural candy cane + peppermint, 62% cacao dark chocolate. For once, the bar tasted just like it sounded. It was yummy but not very exciting.

Cherry Rooibos: African rooibos tea + dried Michigan cherries, 45% cacao deep milk chocolate. This one was D's favorite, and my second favorite. The tea gave it a nice exotic flavor, and the cherries reminded me of one of my all-time favorite Vosges bars, the Goji bar. Although it was milk chocolate, we did not find it too sweet, and between the two of us, we finished this bar within a week.

Gingerbread Toffee: gingerbread spiced toffee, 65% cacao dark chocolate. I liked this one the best. The spiced toffee was subtle, crunchy, and delicious with the dark chocolate. Unfortunately it seems to be a seasonal bar as I can no longer find it on the Vosges website.

Overall, I think Gingerbread Toffee and Cherry Rooibos have joined Mo's Bacon Bar (the dark chocolate version) and the Goji bar as my favorite bars. As far as the truffles go, I'm still waiting for spring so I can order the Green Collection...