November 1, 2006

{ Chocolate Bar }

Even if their trademark colour is orange, I purpusely waited to post about Chocolate Bar AFTER Halloween, since I firmly believe this chocolate is too precious to be in danger to be given out to kids when the cheap hard candies have run out. As people over at the Chocolate Bar say, this is a candy store for grown ups -pure and simple. Hence, any veiled suggestion to get this before the 31st, woud have just been insincere. And I am sure after you will have tried these, you will agree with me: be greedy, it's ok this time. The Chocolate Bar is a chocolate infused treat shop in New York, which accidentally also has an online store. And thank God they do, because their selection is just plainly amazing! There are so many mouthwatering things, I do not even know where to start...

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What make this chocolate stand out from the usual is the great art and design spin they put into their products. Yes, they have regular hot chocolate powder for sale, together with truffle boxes and fondue sets, but which other chocolate shop carries a CBGB Chocolate Collection made to support CBGB (&OMFUG)? None, that's right. We all know how it went with CBGB (they left their premises yesterday), so if you are sad over loosing this mythical music instution, dive with nostalgia into this box of chocolate, guaranteed to be your best companion for any bittersweet memory session: "tattoed" truffles in a CBGB box with three badges and a safety pin from the CBGB collection will at least partially resurrect you.

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Punk isn't your favourite music but you still want to dive in nostalgia? Chocolate Bar makes super sweet Retro Bars: the intention is to bring back colossal flavors from era's bygone with seven fabulous flavors; Key Lime Pie, Peanut Butter Caramel, Coconut Cream Pie, Malted Milk, Caramel Apple, Raspberry Jam and Salted Pretzel. I am very intrigued by the Coconut Cream and Key Lime Pie, probably because to know they were inspired by the creativity of boardwalk candy stores, the gentility of your local soda shop and gooey refreshments found at the local State Fair make me crave for that long lost taste.

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And now let's come to proper art. Thing Chocolate Bar is very serious about. To the point they have worked to tranform the wrapper into a collectable work of art. And they did achieve some wonderful result for sure! Last year, with the help of Yoyamart, they asked 10 of the most appreciated names of contemporary street and graphic art to work on a flavour and what came out is the beautiful Artist Series, made of 10 delicious choco bars (which, I remind you, you still get to eat) and as many candy wrappings, signed by Gary Baseman (Chocolate with Almonds ), David Horvath (ChocoMinty ), Sun Min Kim (Crispy Rice ), Rolito (Dark Chocolate ), Nathan Jurevicius (Dark Caffetto ), Toy2R (Chocolate Milk ), Dalek (Milk Toffee Crunch ), Tim Biskup (Milk Hazelnut ), Friends with You (Dark Salty Pretzel ) and JD Boujnah (Milk Salty Pretzel ). In my opinion one of the most intelligent artist series to date: the bars are definitely affordable (3$ each), the chocolate is in itself worth the price and if you are a fan of these artists, you can get a piece of their work for almost nothing. The Rolito and Tim Biskup being my favourites.

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This year venture, instead, was all about stenciling: the Stencil Bars are 8 miniature tablets with labels designed by Brooklyn based stencil artist Stencil1, they are squared and they come packaged with a 4 x 6" stencil designed by Stencil1 for use on your walls, clothes, bags or books. Pretty sweet, uh? Especially if like me you do not like the cutting work needed to stenciling. Subjects spans from boombox to water tank, on to stilettoes and bikes. You can easily buy single bars or a box with the entire collection, get them delivered at home, eat all the chocolate, get the buzz from it and even be happy looking at the empty box and wrappings! A pretty damn rare thing to happen! Usually, when I get to that stage, I am pretty much about to cry...

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By Tacita in Food & Drink, Reviews