Russell Stover Private Reserve Origin Select

[Fat Guy]

We recently had some discussion of the Hershey's Cacao Reserve line of single-origin chocolates. That Hershey's is trying to play on the fine-chocolate field is certainly a trend marker, and if there was any doubt before I just had it cleared up by another experience:

We were driving home to New York from North Carolina along I-95 and passed a billboard for the Russell Stover Factory Outlet. We figured it was as good a place as any for a rest stop. Maybe we'd get some chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies left over from Easter for a few cents a piece, and surely they'd have nice bathrooms, air conditioning and plenty of parking. There wasn't actually any signage for the outlet once we got off the exit, but after driving along for a bit we figured the office park we'd driven past a ways back was the only place the outlet could possibly be. We turned in, drove past various low buildings housing companies that sell things like hard-to-find halogen lightbulbs, and finally came upon the Russell Stover factory outlet, which did indeed to be an outlet store attached to a Russell Stover factory or at least a distribution center of some sort.

Anyway, we did find the bunnies. But on the checkout line, next to a pile of Whitman's Samplers on sale for a buck, there was something a bit surprising: and assortment of "Private Reserve Origin Select" bars in 4.5 ounce format in elegant, understated white paper box packaging. The dark chocolate options (though, as with Hershey's, dark chocolate in this vernacular still does include milk fat as an ingredient) were Ghana, Venezuela and Ecuador, and there was also a milk chocolate option labeled Belgian (not that they grow cocoa beans in Belgium, but whatever). We grabbed the three dark ones -- a buck fifty each at the outlet! -- and they were all quite good. They had a nice snap, buttery but not waxy mouthfeel, and clear flavor notes like wine, cinnamon and the other things you look for in distinctive chocolates. They weren't on the level of really good chocolate like Valrhona or Cluizel, but they were better than the equivalent Hershey's product -- at least I thought they were, based on memory, without doing an actual side-by-side tasting.

I imagine these bars will be available at the supermarket level, and in other places where you'll never see Valrhona, so they might be worth checking out. They also make some other permutations, including sugar-free.

[zoe b]

the fancy chocolate bars sound good, but I can't stop thinking about chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies at a discount!!!

I have fond memories of eating one and loving it, then pigging out on the second one and feeling sick.

Zoe