The Great International Chocolate Exchange

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Many bloggers may not be aware that there is a not-all-that-secret-really exchange of commodities going on here in the Community Blogosphere.

Pssst…. Hey buddy!… Want some chocolate?

Between the Sometimes-Wintry-But-We-Don’t-Want-To-Talk-About-It wastes of Wisconsin, the Oh-Look-It’s-That-Building-From-That-Movie city of Toronto and the We-All-Walk-On-Our-Heads land of Oz, there has been a steady movement of sweet commodities.

It all started when M-J from Mary J Melange posted about her mother’s change of confectionery habit which lead to the following comment exchange:

Choc post 1

This was soon followed by:

Choc post 2

The goods were duly dispatched from New York City to Wisconsin and you can read about how they were received here.

Simultaneous to this experiment in international chocolate diplomacy, Joanne over at My Life Lived Full was taking her blog premise to new extremes by testing the hypothesis that millions of Australians couldn’t be wrong and that Vegemite was actually edible. You can read about her results here.

As it turned out, she agreed with the hypothesis and subsequently I had the following exciting news to share:

Choc post 3

Well, that’s no fun, is it? None of my Australian readers want to know what I think of Vegemite chocolate. A Canadian blogger trying Vegemite chocolate on the other hand….

This was delicate territory, however. Vegemite chocolate was a limited release commodity and sending it out of the country had to be handled with discretion. So a top secret communiqué was sent to Maggie at The Zombies Ate My Brains to enquire if she knew of Joanne’s address as they had previously met up for a Blogger Meet-up. The sensitive information was duly dispatched and the wheels turned. (That would be the wheels of the postie’s bike/scooter/van depending on your cultural mode of postal transport.)

After too many weeks (the wheels of postal diplomacy spin slowly), the package finally arrived. Read about how it was received and what Vegemite chocolate really tastes like here.

About the same time, I posted a piece lamenting my inability to purchase Milk Duds in New York City. This is my favourite American candy and not to be able to buy it when I’m actually in the country was ridiculous. However, in the comments, the following mysterious exchange took place:

Choc post 4

Something was up………..

Many weeks later (more slow wheels), just as I’d almost forgotten about it, a box arrived on my doorstep. Perfectly timed to arrive on a day I came home from work on crutches (I fell over), it brought chocolatey joy to my heart and my aching skin-shredded hand (it had an argument with the bitumen onto which I fell over).

Canadian goodies

TWO boxes of Milk Duds! I’ll be picking caramel out of my teeth for weeks!

The two chocolate bars, I was assured, are unique to Canada and the biscuits (cookies) are Joanne’s favourite.

I shared the chocolate bars with the four male members of the MOSY household (although my usually very accurate mathematical division may have been a bit off that day as one piece was mysteriously cut larger than the other four). I found them both quite strong in taste and the chocolate tasted different but I can’t quite say how. The Eldest Son thought the Crispy Crunch tasted like a Snickers (in flavour not in texture) while the Youngest Son was impressed with the coffee flavour of the Coffee Crisp as it wasn’t too strong.

The Mr Maple biscuits were taken to our monthly family dinner bringing a gasp of surprise and a smile of happiness to my Canadian soon-to-be-niece-in-law. As coffee was served at the end of the meal, I opened the packet and a strong, beautiful waft of maple syrup drifted over the table. I could happily sit around with my nose in the box all day but that would probably worry people. The biscuits were delicious with two crisp biscuits sandwiching a creamy maple-flavoured centre. They kind of look like little people when you stand them up. I guess that’s why they’re called Mr Maple.

Mr Maples

Thank you, Joanne (and Maggie as co-conspirator) for bringing much joy, laughter and sugar into my life.

I wonder where the Great International Chocolate Exchange will take us next?

What I love best about blogging is the conversation each post starts in the Comments section. This is just one fun outcome of those wacky and witty exchanges. 🙂

 

 

 

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61 thoughts on “The Great International Chocolate Exchange”

  2. Joanne is an awesome chocolate/sugar enabler, and so is Maggie for helping with this scheme.Have you suffered a sugar overdose yet? Or is that impossible given your love of most things sugar/chocolate in the first place?

    I’m intrigued by Mr. Maple…tastes like maple syrup, huh? That might go well with morning coffee and bacon.

    I am truly honored, Heather, that I am part of the International Chocolate Brigade (ICB) (do we need decoder rings?) and this post. If you ever get to the “wastes” of Wisconsin (it’s actually called “the frozen tundra”)(we are not Siberia), I will give you a tour of chocolate heaven in these parts, including the best place for a chocolate martini and mint Oreo custard. I would love to send you a box of Wilmar’s chocolates (local and award winning), but I fear they would not survive the journey. I’ll have to ask them about shipping.

    Great post. This tickled me to no end and now I am dreaming of dark chocolate goodness. 🙂

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  3. Wow. What a wonderful exchange! Isn’t it amazing how enriching this community is? After all….friends share chocolate…..but only true friends pay to ship to share chocolate!

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  5. I’ve been following this since Joanna did her post on Vegimite. Who knew that blogging could effect your diet and your teeth! I would offer to join in the chocolate exchange but I live in Hershey country and I’ve heard that most chocolate connoisseurs find it has a funny aftertaste. I would be more than willing to run some taste test of my own comparing chocolates from all over the world with our local favorites. Just putting that out there…😉

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  6. Haha… wonderful. What a generous bunch of bloggers you have found yourself mixed up with H. So you liked the maple biscuits? I can’t say that I like maple syrup anything, it is far too sweet and has such a sweet smell too. A very small amount on a stack of pancakes goes a looong way. Much prefer golden syrup myself. Reading this is making me crave some chocolate. Milk chocolate with sea-salt is a favourite at the moment, though I do like dark with ginger too. I may have to go to the supermarket tomorrow. For rabbit food you understand…

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    • I have, haven’t I? How lucky I am! 🙂
      I love maple syrup, even just the smell of it. And early this year I discovered the bacon and maple syrup combination. Oh my…. 😀
      I didn’t take to the sea salt chocolate which is weird because I love salted caramel. My Dad’s favourite confectionery was chocolate-coated ginger from Darrell Lea. 🙂

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      • Chocolate ginger is my Christmas treat! I adore it! You not a fan of ginger? Actually it is good that we all like something different. Going back to childhood days my favourite then was Dolly Mixtures – you get those in Oz? Or Parma Violets? Frys 5 cream bar? Sherbert Dabs?

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        • I love gingerbread and I love ginger in stir fries, etc but was never a fan of the glace kind. I remember Dolly Mixtures! Are Sherbet Dabs like a Whizz Fizz? Or we used to have this sherbet thing with a piece of licorice stuck in it. I loved those (whatever they were called). The only Frys brand thing I know is Turkish Delight. Not familiar with Parma Violets.

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          • Sherbert Dabs are the ones with the liquorice stick which never worked! Frys Turkish Delight is so NOT like real Turkish delight – too sweet and gooey. Parma Violets were small lilac coloured sweets in a tube-like wrap and smelled of sweet violets like the perfume old ladies wore. And there were Floral Gums too which also smelled and tasted perfumy! We have an old-fashioned sweetshop in Ludlow that sells a lot of these things still though some have changed their ingredients and are not the same. Bonbons for instance.

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  8. Lucky youse. Imagine what would happen to me if I ate them thinggies. 😐
    Just as well I’m not a sweet person – yes, go for it ! – because were I one, like this terrible trio (quartet, including M-J), I shouldn’t be able to fit through the door to the study. Or any door, come to fink of it.
    Sighh …
    This is blogging sans pareil, team – GOODONYOUSEALL !!!!! 😀

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  9. I’m delighted you liked the maple cookies!!! 🙂 They really are my favourite and I can’t have them in the house. They are irresistable to me.

    I’m sorry to say that the Milk Duds didn’t do anything for me. Ugh. Thankfully I didn’t lose any teeth or fillings in the test tasting 😉

    … and I’ve been told that maple and bacon are a lovely combination, but I haven’t dared go there.

    I do like the sound of an International Chocolate Brigade …especially if there is a special decoder ring.

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    • Just the smell from an open packet would be anyone’s undoing.
      You’ve “been told“?? You haven’t eaten bacon and maple syrup together? And you call yourself Canadian….

      I think Milk Duds for me is like that embarrassing tv show you love to watch but would never admit to watching. I know they’re rubbish but I still like them and don’t really know why. It’s my appalling guilty candy.

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      • We all have a guilty food .. mine would probably be Twizzlers. When I think about it, it’s like chewing on rubber hose, but I can’t have just one piece.

        Yes – in many ways I’m a *bad* Canadian.
        Here’s another one for you … chocolate covered bacon. uhhh – can’t bring myself to trying it. It sounds just wrong.

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        • I had to look those up. Could be worse. Could be Twinkies. Now there’s a thing you should be ashamed of eating.

          Er, chocolate-coated bacon? I don’t think so…. but if someone offered it to me, I’d try it. 🙂 One of our favourite cafes has a burger that includes salted caramel bacon. I’m yet to try it but it sounds kinda good actually.

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          • The problem with Twinkies … and any other product like it … is that it’s devoid of any flavour satisfier. After you eat one, it doesn’t feel like you’ve had anything .. so you need another, and another, and another, waiting to be ‘satisfied’.
            … not to mention the chemically after-taste. Ugh.

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  13. If there’s a chocolate exchange then I’m in!! It is always fun to send loads of tim tams and other Aussie treats to Scandinavia and have them return the favour. Great fun. And what a lovely surprise for you. I remember reading about the milk duds.

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  15. This was a very fun post to read…so hard to get thought it without drooling. I read this at work earlier, and then had to stop because, well, it got too distracting and chocolate is life.

    I’m not a fan of honeycomb or Crunchies. I’ve had quite a few and just find it too hard for my liking. Plus it sticks to my teeth and rubs against my gums. I haven’t seen the Vegemite chocolate around for a while now – they were really limited edition.

    One American chocolate that I love is 3 Musketeers. It was so hard getting my hands on them as a kid. There’s a shop near me that imports and sells them but they are so expensive.

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    • The Vegemite chocolate was gone in a flash. If I’d known it was going to be so fleeting, I’d have bought a whole box. Which is what some others did by looking on eBay. But I’m not paying $10 a block for it!

      Not familiar with 3 Musketeers. Next time I’m wandering past an international lolly/candy/sweets store here, I’ll see if I can get one. It sounds similar to a Milky Way.

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  17. Crazy, but leading to all sorts of delightful memories. In the RAF barracks that were our home for my first term at University (UEA, UK), the ONLY food of any sort on site was a machine with Kit Kats (costing a little silver sixpence). Finding a sixpence and indulging in this treat was my only way of surviving my first heartbreak.

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  18. I’m glad I found your blog, and your chocolate trading. As you can see from my blog title, I have more than a passing interest in the stuff…
    I’ve never tried vegemite, but I can go through a jar of Nutella in no time!

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  19. SO frustrating to read all this, now that I cannot eat any of it ever again. My favs: Milk Duds (yes!), Sugar Babies, Sugar Daddy/ies, (notice a caramel theme here?), Pixie Stix, the little sugar-water-in-wax-bottle thingies, Violet Crunch, Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut, Regal Crown Sour Raspberry candies, Flavigny Violet Pastilles, Regal Crown Sour Raspberry hard candies, and those hard lemon candies in England with the tremendously sour powder inside that took the skin right off the inside of your mouth. Gosh, they were good. And all hard and gel candies flavored like damson or boysenberry. It’s amazing I had only two cavities as a kid, isn’t it?

    I remember those maple cookies. For some reason, I got them in Ohio. They were quite yummy.

    As for maple syrup and bacon, I don’t understand how anyone could have grown up not eating this. Wasn’t a traditional breakfast, at least on weekends, eggs, bacon, and pancakes on the same plate? How could you not wind up getting syrup on your bacon? Delish! Now, I am not supposed to eat bacon made from turkey or pig.
    😥
    I would never ever cheat.
    😛

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Talk to me. I love a discussion. I might learn new stuff.