As the Crazy Food Dude, I get a lot of random email. Most times it's garbage, but occasionally I get something good, like an offer for a free product. That's happened several times throughout the blog's history and it happened again recently when someone from Chocolate.org reached out to me and asked if I'd like to review a couple of the products available on their site (their site is a conduit for small manufacturers to distribute their products). Never one to turn down a freebie OR chocolate, I jumped at the offer and the first product I chose to review is this six pack of Mindful Delights Gluten Free Vegan Peanut Butter Cups. On the Chocolate.org site, a box of these goes for $12.50 and is produced by a small shop out of Chicago specializing in organic foods/sweets. In the box of six, each cup comes in at 1.0 ounces (the entire package weighs 6.0 ounces, so I did the quick math) and since these are handmade out of a private shop, there is not any nutritional information available. I'm guessing they probably aren't zero calories though. Too bad. For an added benefit, this is also all natural, gluten free, organic and vegan.
As you can see from an appearance perspective, these peanut butter cups are definitely taller, seemingly heavier and more dense than the Reese's variety. As for the rest of it, I'll let Mindful Delights artfully describe their handiwork "Organic veganluscious delicately firm chocolate shells filled with rich, creamy organic peanut butter blended to the prefect texture and consistency. One bite of this delectable flavor fusion and you will not know what hit you." There you have it. In one other note, the chocolate smell was particularly potent, but it was noticeable.
Biting into this, it tasted pretty much like any peanut butter cup I've had in my life, albeit slightly less sweet. Considering that this is vegan, gluten free, etc., I consider that to be a good thing because there are times when these ultra-healthy clones of foods don't quite taste right. That was not a problem here as the peanut butter was dense and nutty, just like I'd expect. The chocolate, while slightly flat, was still creamy and melted beautifully over the slightly grainy peanut butter. Again, just like a typical peanut butter cup.
Buy It or Fly By It? If you want a healthy peanut butter cup or dietary restrictions point you toward eating gluten free or whatever, this is definitely a good option and I'll give it a BUY IT rating. It hits on flavor and it hits on health, so for a treat, this is a solid choice.
 |
| BUY IT!! |
As someone who is, I can report that vegan/gluten-free DOES NOT equate to healthy. It actually always ends up being less so because of the creepy ingredients they have to add to compensate. I'm living in Chicago and didn't know these guys existed, so woot!
ReplyDelete