A Review of New Things I've Tried #28 (Sjaak's Chocolates Edition)

 A combination of factors led to me having enough examples of Sjaak's chocolates to review here, and for that I'm grateful! A friend sent me some for my birthday, not knowing I'd already ordered some for myself. Sjaak's is a vegan brand of fancy chocolates, all handmade in California (they apparently even make their own nut butters!), and the chocolate itself is fair trade. It's usually far too expensive for me but sometimes things align just right. And if you're not a fancy chocolate person, they also make candy bars. I'm reviewing both things today.

1. Sjaak's Nuts & Chews Melk Chocolate Truffles

The lighting here makes it look like these are floating in space on one side, but that was how I managed to avoid having the box lid cast a shadow on these babies. In this case, to fully appreciate them, you need to see how cute they are. A friend sent this to me as a birthday present, because it's hard to buy chocolate boxes like this for yourself (although I have definitely done it). I think my tastes have changed a bit as I've gotten so used to dark chocolate--these were definitely convincing as milk chocolate but oh, so sweet! I liked the nuts a bit more than the chews, but they were all really good. Be forewarned, though: The cherry pepper one is spicy!

2. Sjaak's Truffles and Mini Bunnies (Assorted)

After Easter, I was able to get some of these adorable little bunnies for a great price! (Buying chocolate bunnies on sale after Easter is far more my speed for what I purchase on my own.) They are organic cinnamon churro white chocolate, coconut lime in melk chocolate, and cherry truffle in dark chocolate. All were delicious, but my favorite was the cinnamon churro white chocolate--the little crunchy bits of churro in the milk chocolate were so nice. I was expecting more of a cherry cordial-type thing with the cherry one, but it was filled with a proper soft, fluffy pink truffle filling.

Here's another assortment, but not in bunny form: Hazelnut butter, green tea-lime, and orange caramel. The caramel here, unlike in the others I've had, was not dense and chewy, but rather the more liquid sort, reminiscent of Caramello from my pre-vegan days. All of these were delicious.

Mixed bunnies and not-bunnies here: Peanut butter, mint, and almond butter. The nut butters here are light and fluffy, not like a peanut butter cup you might be more used to--much more like a fluffy truffle. The mint is also not quite so dense as a peppermint patty (at least on my memory), but soft and delicious.

3. Sjaak's Eli's Candy Bars

The Celebrate bar is their melk chocolate with coconut caramel and almonds. The caramel is very dense and chewy, which was not what I expected but fun! I very much enjoyed this candy bar.

The Treasure bar is hard to describe, but so good. It has crunchy peanut butter bits in it like bits of Butterfinger, as well as fluffy peanut butter and some chewy caramel. There's a lot going on here, which makes it extra fun to eat.