First off, the tin is gorgeous. You would be hard-pressed to find a more artful tin of cocoa for gift giving. I wouldn't feel bad to gift one tin of this wrapped in a beautiful paper as a birthday or holiday present - unwrapped it could be given as a hostess gift without worries of looking 'cheap'. Careful thought was taken on the container this cocoa would be housed in. A fine gift for a man, too, as it's not 'foo-foo' looking.
Upon opening the tin, there is a silver packet of cocoa, sealed tightly. Expiration date is 2 years from now (as IF it will last that long). On the first cut of the packet, the aroma of chocolate filled my senses. Deep, rich, pleasant chocolaty promises of tastes yet to come. I will be keeping the cocoa inside the silver packet as opposed to pouring it into the tin directly.
Now, on to the best part ... the taste of the cocoa. I licked the cocoa off the silver packet top that I cut off and wow, what an impact. The first taste to hit was definitely chocolate - and not overly sweet chocolate I might add; was a bit bitter at full strength but expectations of my first mug of cocoa were pressing at this point. I put 8 oz milk, 1 oz half and half, and 1 oz heavy cream into my Back to Basics Cocoa/Latte maker, then added 3 heaping teaspoons of Bellagio Sipping Chocolate, a splash of vanilla, and a spoon of sweetened condensed milk, then turned the machine on. Within minutes a rich, well blended, decadent cocoa was soon at hand. Poured it into a 16 oz mug, (nuked it for 20 seconds since the cocoa/latte maker doesn't make it as hot as I like it) and topped with fresh whipped cream. Realizing that it wasn't 'plain' cocoa at this point, the resulting flavor was still utterly delicious. The cocoa taste was still the star and rang through even with the add-ins, the flavor of chocolate was pronounced: strong and bold, yet smooth with a slight 'fruitiness' was to be discovered.
Now for the final merits: YUM!
| 1.0 servings per container | |
| Serving size | 3 Tbsp (29g) |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 100 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
