Speaking of mint, which can be really gross letâs FACE IT already, how do you feel about peppermint bark? I am pro, mostly because Iâve developed a late-20s white-chocolate urge that surely indicates Iâm turning into my mother. The more white chocolate the better these days. But what exactly IS it? The Wall Street Journal explained, in a poky li'l article titled 'White Chocolate, a Blank Slate for Flavor, Wins Converts,' that: âWhite chocolate is made from the cocoa butter separated out when cocoa beans are roasted.â So it really is a distant relative of real chocolate, and apparently there are standards, which is niceâWikipedia tells us, âRegulations govern what may be marketed as âwhite chocolateâ: In the United States, since 2004, white chocolate must be (by weight) at least 20% cocoa butter...Before this date, U.S. firms required temporary marketing permits to sell white chocolate.â What I would give for a framed white-chocolate permit.
Back to peppermint bark. Itâs hard to blow it with this candy (Williams-Sonoma has a nice fancy one, and Trader Joeâs standard bark always does the trick), but right now I'm pretty into Hersheyâs Candy Cane Kisses, which consist of white chocolate, red stripes, and little dots of crunchy candy caneâjust enough mint to be safely outside the sweet-toothpaste danger zone. They're less intense than classic barkâyou can eat them without candy-cane shrapnel flying everywhere and they don't involve the dark chocolate bottom layer, which I can usually live without. (For you mint lovers out there, they also offer a dark chocolate mint truffle Kiss, which is a green mint-paste blob wearing a dark-chocolate smug jacket.)
Two other holiday treats I found in my grocery- and drug-store travels:
Red Velvet Santa: From Russel Stover (the Wet N Wild of confectioners)âa lump of pinkish red-velvet-flavored clay-like substance covered in chocolate. For the record, itâs not shaped like a Santa at all, more like a damaged triangle; red-velvet cake mix is listed as an ingredient, which is why, I assume, the lump is gritty. But really, it was kind of good. Dominic Holden described it best: âThis is deliciously disgusting.â
Gingerbread-Flavored Men: These Peeps marshmallow buddies are light brown and shaped like little gingerbros. I wasnât expecting it, but they actually taste like gingerbreadâright down to the ginger/mollasses-y spice kick. Paul Constant didnât hate them: âBetter than a Starbucks gingerbread latte, which is as good as youâre going to get from me.â
(In other Peeps news, Safeway currently has a gift set containing two boxes of Peeps and a STUFFED PEEP CHICK WEARING A SANTA HAT on mega sale right now. I just bought three, so they only have a couple left at the Central District location.)Now then, does anyone know of any good New Year's candies?