Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Hearts with Rich Truffle Filling

Happy Valentine’s Day 2012! Trader Joe’s always comes out with a few items for the holiday (if you can call it that!) and usually it involves chocolate. This year was no different and I’m glad that they do something different every year!

One of the products that they were really pushing was this box of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Hearts with Rich Truffle Filling. Truffles you say? Not that fungus that grows in the ground and is thousands of dollars a pound! No, this is the European styled chocolate truffle filling, which is a rich and gooey chocolatey filling. Funny thing is when I was shopping the other day, they had stacks of these and I saw some teenage girls buying boxes of them. For who, I can only imagine!

Becky is pretty particular when it comes to chocolate. Just like cheese, she has, how shall I say, a refined palate and while I wouldn’t dare say the word picky, she likes what she likes! I didn’t buy these for her, but it was fun to try them together and see if we liked them or not.

What you have here is a nicely designed box that contains 16 dark chocolate hearts filled with a chocolate truffle filling. They are from Belgium, which is always a good sign. Trader Joe’s must be working with some chocolate factory over there because a lot of their chocolates seem to be coming out of Belgium lately. I can tell you first hand that you have not experienced some of the best chocolate in the world until you’ve been to Brussels!

When I ate one, I first had to bite through the hard, dark chocolate exterior, which was OK for dark chocolate, not the greatest or complex, but OK. It was a little hard for me, but that just is in comparison to hand made chocoloates from local chocoloatiers. The dark chocolate had hints of smoke, dried fruits and earth. Then as you bite down you encounter the truffle filling which is very nice and then chewing everything up and mixing it in your mouth is quite nice!

I wouldn’t give this to my wife, but I might give them to a teacher or co-worker or put them out on my desk at work or at a party. Seeing that they are a seasonal item, I expect them to be gone by about February 15th!