Vegan Chocolates by Rose City Chocolatiers--A Review

Rose City has a selection of gourmet vegan chocolates to offer. Imported from Belgium, all natural and made by hand in batches, these candies have 100% cocoa butter in the chocolate and no animal products.

The sugar is from a sugar beet source. The trays come individually sealed and well-packaged. The boxes arrive with a hand-tied ribbon, making each a neat little gift upon presentation--even if you bought a box for yourself, as I did.

As a vegan, I find it nearly impossible to get a creamy candy. I miss chocolate covered cherries and mints. I miss the ease of picking up a candy bar in the store. I also miss the variety, the inexpensive bounty of goodies available to the other members of the public. Sometimes I want to shout, "Where is my <non-animal sourced> milk <alternative> chocolate!?"

When I give in to my chocolate urges once a year or so and can get myself to spend the money, I tend to buy from Rose City. The creams were why I ordered this time. At over a dollar per piece, I expect an exceptional experience.

The candies are beautiful. I always feel special cracking into a box of candies meant just for me. These have the gloss and detail of really fine chocolates. The chocolate itself is high quality. It is dark, but not at all bitter and melts in the mouth.

The creams are fantastic, packed with intense, flowing goodness. While I wish I could get candies which mimic the cheap old creams I had as a kid--more solid and substantial--these do ease the craving for the cream sensation.

The outer coating breaks free as you bite through and the cream comes spilling out. Makes it tough to eat one slowly, to savor it, but the overall experience is still a delight. And the sweet/tart bold flavors of mandarin and lemon go nicely with the rich, dark chocolate.

I’m not a fan of alcohol or coffee, but the Irish Coffee made me weak in the knees. Shaped like tiny barrels, these contain a large amount of Irish whiskey cream and premium coffee blended together.

The crisps are simply magic, in my mind. When you bite into one and look inside, you can’t see any of the crispy pieces giving the candy its crunchy texture, but they are there, breaking between your teeth in a very pleasant fashion and releasing more chocolatey goodness.

The chocolate covered cherries deserve special mention. They have the look and feel of real chocolate covered cherries. While the company does not mention using a different mixture on these pieces, the chocolate has a different feel when eaten--a flavor and texture much more like milk chocolate than anything I’ve ever had as a vegan.

I had few issues with my chocolates. They were delicious. Sadly for me, there were fewer of the creams in this particular selection, so I didn’t get any strawberry or vanilla choices in this batch. I did get a couple of fruit jellies, which aren’t listed among the vegan items on the company site but are listed on the insert that accompanied my box. I don’t eat jellies, but my partner enjoyed them.

What I was most disappointed in was the flavor of the marzipan pieces. It seemed like the batch didn’t get enough of the critical ingredients. The candies were bland and had a sugary-grainy texture. I have had the company’s marzipan before and they were not like this, so it was probably an isolated issue.

The peanut butter truffles were ok, but the molds did not fit together well and the compartments contained little of the peanut butter flavor. Still, that meant more luscious chocolate in the cute peanut shape.

Rose City sells its Vegan Chocolate Selection in 16, 32, 50 and 70 piece boxes. They also sell:

Vegan Cordial Cherries-cherries covered in dark chocolate and each wrapped in red foil.
Vegan Mints-with creamy centers.
Vegan Chocolate Covered Pretzels-can be ordered by the pound.

Vegan American Classics-includes nut clusters, crunches and barks, chocolate covered pretzels and graham crackers. The clusters are peanut, almond, raisin, cashew and the unique soybean version. The bark includes almond, cashew and peanut varieties. All come wrapped in premium vegan dark chocolate.

Vegan Collections-chocolate and nuts, vegan nut bark, vegan classics tower, vegan raisin clusters and vegan soy nut collections are available.

Customers can also order Vegan Gift Baskets or Chocolate of the Month for three, six or nine months.

Rose City Chocolatier

516 Main Street

Boonton, NJ 07005

(973) 402-1002

www.rosecitychocolates.com