Lake Champlain Almond Butter Crunch is dipped in milk chocolate. This photo and first V Toffee photo by Melody Lan.
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KAREN HOCHMAN is editorial director of THE NIBBLE™.
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April 2006
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Lake Champlain Almond Butter Crunch & V Chocolates Toffee
Two Entrants In The Crunch Competition
CAPSULE REPORT: Buttery, crunchy, nutty...if only they were calorie-free! These two very different toffees—Lake Champlain’s chocolate-covered classic (also kosher), V Chocolates’ lighter, homemade-style available in six different nuts, give toffee-lovers two more excellent products to try in our pantheon of toffees. A piece with coffee, after-dinner or anytime, hits the spot.
At the most recent Fancy Food Show, if one was looking for a food trend, it wasn’t a flavor like wasabi or chipotle or pomegranate; it wasn’t a movement like low carb or raw food. It was toffee. It was as if a big memo went out. Long-time exhibitors, newcomers and everyone in-between was promoting the sweet: one could have spent much of the show on a gourmet toffee hunt.
If toffee is about to become the new chocolate, you heard it here first. If not, we’d at least like to present you with two ends of the spectrum that we found at the Fancy Food Show. Both are nicely gift-boxed and are sure to appeal to someone on your gift list.
- You’ll note that one of the products is called Almond Buttercrunch. For a discussion of the difference between the two terms, read our article, The ABC’s Of Toffee.
- Because toffee is made with a high percentage of butter, it should be eaten within two weeks of purchase or it can go stale; or it can be frozen and taken out as needed.
Lake Champlain Chocolate
Lake Champlain is a venerable producer of fine chocolate, offering the complete candy store, from filled chocolates to dipped apricots, peel and ginger to foil-covered solids and chocolate almonds for the candy dish.
The toffee is classic,
rich, buttery:
- Large pieces of almond are embedded in the toffee and fine pieces are dusted on top.
- The squares are coated in good milk chocolate—not particularly sweet, so it will appeal to the dark chocolate crowd.
- The 1-1/2" squares are a good size for nibbling.
This is a toffee one could get addicted to! Pile it into the candy bowl, serve a piece with after-dinner coffee.
V Chocolates
V, a relative newcomer to Candyland, is a very stylish company: every detail of  packaging and presentation has been thought through to be distinctively different. The handsome paper box lines are die-cut into points. When the box is open, they rise almost five inches above the rim, resembling a modern cathedral. If you don’t like the sculptural effect, the leaves are perforated so they can be detached at the rim.
Their toffee is very different too. The consistency is very light—which will attract people who like to crunch but fear for their pearly whites. It is also moist and the nuts flake when eating, which means a napkin may be called for—but that’s part of the charm.
- There are six different choices of nut: almond, cashew, hazelnut, macadamia, pecan and pistachio.
- The pieces are large—about 3 inches square.
- The nut pieces are also very large: both inside the toffee and on the top and bottoms. No fine dusting here, one could have mixed the garnishing pieces into chocolate chip cookies.
- Unlike Lake Champlain, which looks like it has been made by a large candy company, V looks like it comes from a small shop. You can almost see the toffee being made in the window.
- Three different sizes are available: the smallest makes a nice party favor or stocking stuffer.
With a surge of good toffees available, we’ll be reporting more on the genre. In the interim, you’ll do well to enjoy the very different types of toffee represented by Lake Champlain and V. Start your own Toffee Of The Month Club: it’s as good a reason as any to get together with friends and family you don’t see often enough. Feel free to share your own reviews with us at THE NIBBLE.™
LAKE CHAMPLAIN CHOCOLATE
Almond Butter Crunch
All-Natural
Certified kosher (dairy) by Star-D
Purchase online at
LakeChamplainChocolate.com.
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V CHOCOLATES
Toffee in Almond, Cashew, Hazelnut, Macadamia, Pecan and Pistachio.
Certified kosher (dairy) by Star-D
- Five-Ounce Box
$7.95
- One-Pound Box
$16.95
- Three-Pound Box
$43.50
Purchase online at
VChocolates.com |
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Shipping additional. Prices and availability are verified at publication but are subject to change.
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