Much as I love chocolate.....

[MotherBear]

Will have to try before I give judgement on this one. :-/

Hamilton firm doing wonders with chocolate
Monday February 12, 2007
By Helen Twose


Mark Donovan in the company's Te Rapa factory. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Chocolate chips are proving a winner for a Hamilton-based company -- but it's not the biscuits familiar to generations of New Zealanders.

Thick cut potato chips enrobed in rich milk chocolate are at the forefront of Donovan's Chocolates push into Asian markets.

Mark Donovan of Donovan's Chocolates said a client requested the chocolate potato chip two years ago after seeing something similar in Asia.

"She came back to us and said 'look, can you make this for me' and we were sort of blase about it. Now it's our single biggest export product to Australia," said Donovan.

More here .

[Welshgirl]

We live just down the road from the Donovans Chocolates factory and I bought some of the chocolate chips to take back to Wales last year - they went down a storm! I went in recently to get some more but their machine had broken down and they didn't have any available :( Tried again a few days later but still no luck.... They are worth the wait though, very scrummy ;)

Oh, and just thought I'd mention, Donovans hot chocolate is THE best in the world, no question, absolutely dreamy ;D

[MotherBear]

Oh, and just thought I'd mention, Donovans hot chocolate is THE best in the world, no question, absolutely dreamy ?;D

Oh dear, did I really want to hear that, being a recovering chocoholic? Please don't remind me about Donovans while I'm there, Welshgirl. I might just fall off the wagon.

Interesting to hear about the potato chips though. They do sound rather but I might just give them a go, purely in the interests of research, of course. Could you please alert Donovans that I'll be on my way soon and to get a move on with fixing their machine. :D

[Welshgirl]

Will do MB ?:)

They also do tours of the factory (although you're not allowed into the processing/packing area for obvious reasons), where you can decorate your own chocolate at the end of the tour - shall I book you in for one of those too? ?;) ?;D

Right, I'm off to drop daughter to school and get myself a hot chocolate ?[smiley=023.gif]

[Debd]

MMMMMMmmmmmm hot chocolate! Sounds yummy! Must get to Hamilton one day........................ soon!

[MotherBear]

Here ya go! The ultimate chocolate experience.

Bathe in chocolate this Valentine's Day
Reuters | Tuesday, 13 February 2007


BE MY VALENTINE: A Japanese bath house is offering a Valentine's Day special, chocloate baths.

TOKYO: A Japanese spa is offering the perfect aphrodisiac for Valentine's Day – chocolate baths.

Those who just can't get enough of the sweet stuff can immerse themselves in water mixed with cacao and fragrant bath powders. Twice a day, staff pour creamy chocolate over the bathers, who smear it over the bodies or lick it off.

"This bath is my Valentines Day gift for him this year," said Mayumi Uekusa, who travelled more than two hours with her boyfriend to the Yunessun spa in Hakone, north of Tokyo, to soak in a mixture of warm water, cacao and aromatic bath powders.

"Life ain't as sweet as this bath, darling," quipped her boyfriend Yuichi Omata. Japanese women have long been the ones to give their guys gifts on Valentine's Day.

While couples shared romance in the bath, families with grandmothers and babies in tow also spread chocolate over their faces and bodies. Everybody wore a bathing suit.

More here .

[selchie]

I suppose if the choco-chips aren't salted, that they would be tasty. I'd try them, and not just on a dare.

[MotherBear]

Will have to try before I give judgement on this one. * :-/ *

Hamilton firm doing wonders with chocolate
Monday February 12, 2007
By Helen Twose *

Chocolate chips are proving a winner for a Hamilton-based company -- but it's not the biscuits familiar to generations of New Zealanders.

Thick cut potato chips enrobed in rich milk chocolate are at the forefront of Donovan's Chocolates push into Asian markets.

OK, so I went, I saw and I've munched.



Verdict is that they feel and taste rather like chocolate biscuits. *I sampled ours straight from the fridge as they'd melt otherwise and they were very crunchy with a texture just like a chocolate bikkie. *Pretty good IMO. * Couldn't taste the salt that they say is sprinkled on the chips ('crisps' to us Brits).

I also bought some of their chocolate 'seconds' at $5 per bag. *They looked a bit messy but tasted scrummy. *My kind of chocolate. *Thank goodness I bought them just before we left NZ so I couldn't be tempted to go back for more. *

[selchie]

Thanks for braving the chocolate crisps and reporting on them. Perhaps we can use you to investigate all kinds of new things, like infiltrating the Chastity camp?

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by selchie

Perhaps we can use you to investigate all kinds of new things, like infiltrating the Chastity camp?

Cheers, Selchie. Bit late for me I'm afraid. Don't think I can hide the fact that I've given birth to 2 hulking sons. Got the stretch marks to prove it.

Back to chocolate topics, here's a few choccie facts to digest in between your Easter eggs.

Easter eggstravagance goes to waist
5:00AM Sunday April 08, 2007
By Rebecca Lewis

By the time Easter weekend is over, Kiwis will have devoured more than 40 million chocolate eggs - but be warned, all that chocolate could leave a sickly after-taste.

While Easter is traditionally a time of goodwill and celebration, for many parents, dealing with choc-filled hyperactive kids full to the brim with additives and vegetable fat can be a right handful.

But experts say it needn't be that way.

"All children should feel, quite rightly, that they can have one or two eggs this holiday, but it's important they don't go overboard," said Consulting Dieticians director Sarah Ley.

While some Easter eggs contain almost as much packaging as confectionery, others, such as the 1kg Pig Out egg, containing around 300g of fat, have dieticians crying foul.

"Any egg that weighs that much should not be given to a child," said Ley. "It's different if a whole family is sharing it over a period of time, but something like this doesn't fit into a moderate diet. This is not moderation."

More here .