Harry and David Royal Cherry Chocolates
Written: Jul 14 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: delicious, portable treat
Cons: easy to eat way too many
The Bottom Line: Unless you hate cherries and/or chocolate, give these a try.
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| serc's Full Review: Harry And David Chocolate Covered Fruit Bing Cherr... |
I really love chocolate. Probably too much. I'll confess that I eat chocolate no less than twice a day, and often more than that. So I'm always on the lookout for a new chocolate treat. One that I have particularly enjoyed over the past few years is Harry and David's Royal Cherry Chocolates, or as Epinions.com refers to them, "Harry and David Chocolate Covered Fruit Bing Cherry."
The chocolate cherries themselves are dried, pitted Bing cherries dipped in milk chocolate and a red pastel candy coating. The result is a chewy, chocolate-y cherry item about the size of a quarter, but fatter. They make a nice snack or casual dessert item, and I particularly like that the candy coating means that I'm unlikely to smear chocolate all over whatever I pick up right after I eat them. Plus, they are quite portable; I wouldn't hesitate to sneak a few of these into a movie theater with me.
I bought my most recent Harry and David chocolate cherries in a bulk batch of "Chocolate N' Fruit;" it cost $19.95 for 2 pounds, 4 ounces of candies. (It included not only the chocolate cherries, but also the blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry versions - all very good and highly recommended!) I purchased my box of treats at the Harry and David store at the Mall of America, but you can also order a one pound box of just the Royal Cherry Chocolates at www.harryanddavid.com for $22.95, plus shipping and handling. Or you could order a combination "Tower" of treats from Harry and David which includes the chocolate cherries with some of their other gourmet treats. The catalog prices are likely the same as the website's. I do think it's worth seeking out the brick and mortar stores if there is one near you, as the prices can be cheaper and you eliminate the cost of shipping and handling. I noticed that smaller packages of the chocolate covered fruits were available at the store as well with the price being proportionally cheaper.
Because of the bulk nature of the package I bought, it is difficult to precisely determine what the ingredients are for each of the different kinds of chocolate covered berries. Here's the ingredients list from the back of my package of Chocolates N' Fruit:
Coating (Sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, whey (milk), nonfat milk, emulsifier [mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin], water, gum acacia, modified cornstarch, dextrin, hydrogenated coconut oil, citric acid, sorbic acid, vanilla), chocolate (sugar, chocolate liquor, milk, cocoa butter, emulsifier [soy lecithin], vanillin [an artificial flavor]), apple raspberry pieces (diced apples, sugar, concentrate [black raspberry, marionberry, red raspberry], dextrose), dried blueberries (blueberries, HFCS), dried cherries (cherries, sunflower oil), dried strawberries (strawberries, HFCS, ascorbic acid, dextrose), artificial color (fractionated coconut oil, red #40 lake, emulsifier [lecithin]), blue #1 lake, carmine, blue #2 lake), citric acid, natural & artificial flavor, confectioners glaze, sugar, cocoa processed with alkali. Please note: Obviously, the cherries are separate from the other fruits, but I wasn't sure how to sort out the other ingredients, so I included the entire list.
The calories and nutritional information for my chocolate cherries are also mixed up with the other Chocolates N' Fruit on my package label. According to the label, a serving size is about 9 pieces, and that serving size should cost you 190 calories, 90 of which are from fat. The problem I'm detecting here is that the chocolate covered blueberries are tiny compared to the cherries; clearly, the 9 of cherries are going to have more calories than 9 of the blueberries. Most likely, though, someone eating more than one or two of these isn't on a strict diet; maybe the calorie count doesn't matter that much in the end.
There are a couple of warnings on the package label. One is that the candies "may contain pits;" I have never found one, but I suppose it is possible. It also notes that the product may contain peanuts of trace amounts of allergens not listed in the ingredients. Most of us don't need to worry about that, but for those with peanut allergies, this is really important information. I should also add that, while I've never actually found one of these with a pit in it, I did once eat one that was made from a cherry that wasn't quite right. I've eaten hundreds of these, though, so that's pretty rare.
As I mentioned earlier, Harry and David carry items similar to the chocolate covered cherries, including chocolate and candy covered strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. Some of these appear in combinations packages in the catalog, but some of them I have only seen in one of the stores.
Harry and David Royal Cherry Chocolates are tasty and addictive; I certainly recommend them to anyone who enjoys the flavors of chocolate and cherry together.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
serc
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: Sara Robinson-Coolidge
Location: Northfield, MN
Reviews written: 860
Trusted by: 317 members
About Me:
SAHM to one 11-year-old boy and one 6-year-old girl, feminist, bibliophile, and aging college student
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