The 5 Star Bar is most definitely a candy bar. That's what's so great about it. It's a guilty pleasure candy bar for foodies. Gourmets. Food lovers. Gastronomes. Epicureans. Food snobs. Whatever. Last week when we went to the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory, Dan bought a whole box of the 5 Star Bar peanut variety. The peanut bars are chunky, full of whole peanuts that are mixed into a rich peanut butter rice crisp filling then all enrobed in milk chocolate. They're so good that I almost can't believe it. I can't stop eating them.

If you need a peanut butter fix, you can get them at most Whole Foods. They also have hazelnut, fruit & nut, and caramel.

People sometimes ask me what I would get if I was standing in a supermarket checkout line and wanted a candy bar. If they didn't have 5 Star Bars (which aren't found in the checkout area at regular supermarkets anyway), here's what I would choose, in order of priority starting with my favorite:

1. Kit Kat Big Kat: My number one favorite supermarket candy bar. It's a monster version of the regular Kit Kat, and the ratios of chocolate-to-wafer are a little skewed, so there's a lot more solid milk chocolate coating the wafer part.)


2. Reeses Big Cup: Kind of the same theme as my top pick... the Big Cup is a monster version of the classic Reeses peanut butter cup with the ratios switched up in favor of the peanut butter.


3. Cadbury's Fruit & Nut: Not everyone agrees with me on this one, I know. But I think raisins (and other dried fruit) in chocolate are delicious with a chewy, satisfying texture.


4. Peppermint Patties: A classic, really.


5. Peanut M&Ms: No explanation necessary here. M&Ms are totally addictive.

And finally, if I needed a real chocolate fix, I'd probably go for a Dove dark chocolate bar, which is a solid supermarket stand-in that tastes pretty good. A little sweet, but that's to be expected.

Above Lake Champlain 5 Star Bar Peanut Photograph from Lake Champlain website.

I just added a new category to my blog. It's called "Best Day Ever." I added it in honor of this past Sunday, which was the best day ever. It was such a great day because I spent most of it either (a) in a car with seat warmers (b) eating chocolate (c) drinking beer or (d) eating ice cream - all things that I greatly enjoy.

First Stop: The Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory in Burlington Vermont.

So here's the thing, The Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory isn't really open on Sundays. But the Factory store is, so that's where we went. Lake Champlain is a fabulous company. While I was there, I sampled truffles (both their classic truffles and a newer, smaller line that uses more exotic flavors called Small World truffles that I haven't had before) and stocked up on 5 Star Bars, which are some of the most amazing candy bars I've ever had. Though I couldn't take a tour of the factory like I hoped, I did get to peek through the window and see where all the action happens (that's me peeking in the pic at left).

Second Stop: Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington, Vermont

I got so drunk at the Magic Hat brewery that I forgot to take pictures. Just kidding. I only got a little bit drunk. But still, I forgot to take pictures so I'm including a nice picture of a Vermont tree instead. While I was at the brewery, I got to taste a bunch of beers that they only have in-house, and that you can't actually buy anywhere except for at the brewery itself. I'm feeling a little ambivalent about posting about them... because, as I said, it's really just a tease since you can't even get them anywhere. Here's my favorite of what I tried:

Magic Hat Thumbsucker: An incredible Imperial Stout that pours almost black with notes of dark chocolate and black cherry. This would make an awesome pairing with a classic dark chocolate truffle flavored with cognac - but is a little heavy for purposes other than tasting or pairing.

Third Stop: Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, Vermont

Our stop at Ben & Jerry's was short and sweet. First we walked up some stairs to watch a mooo-vie (some people chose to use the Vanillalator instead of the stairs...) where we learned that Ben & Jerry met in gym class in 7th grade and then took an ice cream making class that cost $5. Then we looked into a big room where they make ice cream and then we went to another room where we had a delicious sample of Ben & Jerry's most popular ice cream flavor, which is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. (Note that Cherry Garcia is a close second.)

A quick sidenote: While we were in the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory store, I made friends with the lovely girls who worked there, who made us a Vanilla Latte with real whole vanilla beans. We were such good friends that they clued me in on to how they make it. They use vanilla milk as their base - here's how to make vanilla milk at home:

Vanilla Milk
2 pints of whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean

Pour the milk into a heavy bottom saucepan. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the saucepan, then put in the vanilla bean's outer skin as well. Add the sugar, stir around a bit, and then scald to 150 degrees over med-low heat stirring constantly. (See note on scalding from this previous post.) Once that's all done, either use it right away or allow the milk to cool slightly, pour into a separate container, and keep in fridge until you want to use it. Remove the pieces of vanilla bean pod before using.

Vanilla milk doesn't have any specific uses - but it's quite delicious. I might use it for as a base for a particularly aromatic hot chocolate, froth it to top a cappuccino, add it to coffee or tea instead of regular milk, or just drink it, hot or cold.

Here's another tea-infused chocolate dessert recipe.

As I've mentioned before, when I'm not working with chocolate, I'm blessed to work with fabulous clients through my main endeavor at Zemack PR. And whenever those two worlds connect somehow, I get really excited. So I was totally surprised this morning to get a Google alert for (my client) Whittard of Chelsea that linked to an article about the Chocolate Idol contest at Boston's Langham Hotel... (Whittard of Chelsea is an English tea boutique that opened its first US shop in Boston this past spring.)

Here's a little background about the contest: Several weeks ago, I posted about a chocolate recipe contest being held by the Langham Hotel Chocolate Bar in Boston. The Chocolate Bar at the Langham is a huge lavish chocolate buffet featuring every chocolate dessert you've ever dreamed of that's open every Saturday through the fall and winter. This year, they wanted to do something fun and new, so they organized a chocolate recipe contest. Whoever wins the contest, which was called "Chocolate Idol," gets a season pass to go to the Chocolate Bar whenever they want, and their recipe will also be featured in the chocolate buffet for the rest of the season. The Boston Globe just ran a story about the creator of the winning recipe.

The winning recipe was created by Blanche Ip, a self-taught chocolate and sweets enthusiast who has been crowned Chocolate Idol for her Earl Grey Brownies recipe. In the Globe article about her, she explained that she's become a bit tea-obsessed over the past year, and Whittard of Chelsea's Earl Grey tea is her favorite kind of tea! And this comes at an interesting time, because Whittard has recently done a bunch of exploration in the world of tea-infused desserts with the South End Buttery - I just posted an Earl Grey Green Tea Truffle recipe from a Green Tea Desserts event that we organized at Whittard a couple weeks ago. Blanche's recipe is made up of a classic brownie topped with an Earl Grey ganache frosting. The recipe is posted on the Globe website or if you want someone to make it for you, you can try Blanche's brownies at the Chocolate Bar at the Langham any Saturday.

Blanche's Earl Grey Brownie recipe.
South End Buttery's Green Earl Grey truffle recipe.

Yesterday I had the following unopened bars sitting on my desk in my office:

• Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar
  
• A selection of 5 of Soma Chocolatier's Micro-batch Single Origin Bars
  
• Taza's Chocolate Mexicano (not really a bar, and this one's actually half eaten)
  
• Scharffen Berger's Bittersweet 70%
  

Based on my mood, I went for the Scharffen Berger bar, which ended up being a pretty fabulous choice. Scharffen Berger's 70% has a gorgeous shine and a beautiful deep brown color. And rather than squares of chocolate, Scharffen Berger cuts their bars into really big triangles, which feel good in your hand and are a delightful change from the norm. The bar is sweeter than many other 70% bars. Its flavors of fruit and spice come through right away, so it's a very nice bar if you're feeling impatient, which I was (and still am, kind of).

I've been thinking about mood-matching chocolate a lot lately. Here's a list of 5 excellent pure chocolates that cater to 5 very different moods:

• If you're feeling edgy or impatient: Scharffen Berger's 70% - a burst a sweetness and deep chocolate comes through asap for instant gratification.


• If you're feeling reflective: Valrhona's 70% Guanaja - this bar has a deep aroma that moves into a long, interesting flavor experience with an equally long finish (aftertaste), leaving you lots to think about.


• If you're feeling sexy: Valrhona's 66% Caraibe - this bar is ultra-velvety smooth, mildly fruity, and will coat your palette with sensual deliciousness.


• If you're feeling mellow: El Rey Dark 58.5% - this bar is well-balanced and an all-around crowd pleaser - there aren't many ups and downs in this bar's flavor profile, it's pretty much smooth-sailing from beginning to end.


• If you're feeling angry: El Rey Milk 41% - this sweet, buttery, caramel-y bar always makes me smile.

More from the Fluff Festival that I went to last week... As I mentioned in my previous Fluff post, a bunch of us met up and went to the Independent, a bar next door to where the Fluff Festival was. They had a bunch of especially Fluffy bar and menu choices. In case you were thinking of having your own Fluff party at home, here are a couple recipes that we tried at the Independent to get you started:

Fluff Royale: Pour a shot of Creme de Cassis into a wine glass, pour Champagne over it until it's about halfway full. It doesn't matter what kind of Champagne you use because it will be mostly overpowered by the cassis anyway. Then spoon a dollop of Fluff on top. The Fluff will react with the Champagne and get all fizzy and expand to the top of the glass (see pic above).

Apple Fluffernutter Sandwich: To make this gourmet Fluffwich, get two slices of fresh sourdough bread, spread a layer of peanut butter and a layer of cream cheese on one piece of bread, top with a layer of thinly sliced macintosh apples, and then spread a layer of fluff on the other piece of bread and put it all together. For added effect, you can toast the bread beforehand.

I really like sweets and try to incorporate things that are sweet into every facet of my life. I do a lot of events for my clients at my main gig, and sweets and chocolate often make their way into my client work in one way or another. So this past weekend, I was at an event that I organized for one of my clients, English tea boutique Whittard of Chelsea, that featured desserts made with Whittard's green teas. The recipes were developed especially for the event by the pastry chef at Boston's revered South End Buttery.

Lee Napoli, the Buttery's pastry chef, was kind enough to supply the event attendees with all of the recipes for the green tea dessert menu that she created. The Green Earl Grey truffles were really fabulous, and demonstrate a concept in truffle-making that can be replicated with many different kinds of flavors and interesting ingredients. Here's the recipe that she gave me for the truffles:

Green Earl Grey Truffles

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup Whittard Green Earl Grey tea leaves
• 1 pound chopped dark chocolate
• cocoa powder

Place tea leaves and heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Scald heavy cream and tea. Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap. Let the tea steep in the cream for 30 minutes. Strain out tea leaves and rescald cream. Pour hot mixture over chocolate and whisk until chocolate is fully melted and smooth. Chill chocolate mixture to set.

Scoop chocolate mixture with teaspoon or mini ice cream scoop. Roll each scoop in cocoa to finish.

A quick note on scalding: Scalding is when you heat a liquid - most often milk or cream - until it almost boils. Here's the best practice for scalding from my own experience: Use cream that's at room temperature or close to room temperature to minimize the potential for burning (big temperature differences will give you a higher chance of burning). Use low to medium low heat and stir pretty much constantly. The cream is scalded once small bubbles appear at the edges of the surface.

Steeping the tea in the cream is a flavor infusion method that can be used as the basis for lots of fun experimentation in truffle-making. The recipe above uses Earl Grey green tea, but you can infuse many different flavors into your truffle ganache by steeping the raw ingredients in the cream as it scalds. Here are a few of the ingredients that I've infused this way:

• black tea
  
• lavender
  
• apples (but this one's tricky, because the acidity of the apples can curdle the cream if the apples are too tart, or if the cream is heated too quickly.)
  
• cardamom pods
  
• coffee beans
  
• dried chili peppers and cinnamon bark
  
• vanilla beans
  

Recipe above provided by Lee Napoli of the South End Buttery.

This past Saturday, me and Dan met up with my friend Jeff and one of his friends at a Fluff festival, and then bumped into our friends Eric and Angie, who bumped into a friend of theirs, and then Jeff and his friend saw two of their friends, and we all ended up at the bar next door eating gourmet Fluffer Nutters (which I'll probably post about later).

Coincidentally, Jeff also brought me some chocolates that he got in Australia made by a company called Haighs.

So there I was in a bar with a pretty random group of people with a box of chocolates in my bag. Dan suggested that we open it up and try some. It was kind of sad though, because we came up with that great idea right after my friend Jeff left - my friend Jeff who actually gave me the chocolates. So he didn't get to have any, but a bunch of his friends did. We hung out in the back corner of the bar and tried 4 or 5 odd-tasting filled bon bon-type Australian chocolates.

The chocolates featured 3 native Australian flavors: Quandong, a desert fruit that was present as a dried fruit paste in one of the chocolates. It was sweet, kind of like a combination of dates and dried apricot. The wattle seed chocolate was sticky, kind of like toffee with a little bit of nuttiness maybe. It had a "w" on it for "wattle" (see pic above). And another chocolate we tried was called "Lemon Myrtle." Lemon myrtle is a bushy rainforest tree that produces flowers that have a lemon limey flavor. And the Lemon Myrtle chocolate tasted just like that - lemony, limey, and floral. And super sweet. All of the chocolates were sweet and chewy-sticky. Curious, but not quite my style. What was good was the company. It was fun to pass the box around and have people taste the different chocolates and talk about them.

When I go out, I meet a lot of people who want to talk to me about chocolate and who want to be invited to my next chocolate party (that I have at my house every so often.) From my own experience, chocolate is a pretty sweet way to connect with people. That's one of my favorite things about it. This post on my friend Toby's blog inspired me to not only talk to strangers, but to invite them to taste some chocolate and then see how many new friends I can make that way. Coincidentally, I also met Toby in a bar. Though I did not have any chocolate with me at the time.

Here are a three points about why you should have a mini chocolate tasting in a bar with strangers. Note that these are all based on my personal experiences:

• You might get bored and need a conversation starter.


• Someone might give you a really big box of chocolates that you don't really want to eat all by yourself.


• Chocolate makes many people really happy.