Food in UK, Part 5: Chocolate

Now let's talk about chocolate. Again with the lockdown, we weren't allowed to visit any sweet shops or local chocolatiers, even though we have more than a dozen high rated shops within a few miles of here. This is certainly a let down. 

Once again it's back to the grocery store to explore local flavors. First, we note that some of those delicious meat flavored crisps are also available in chocolate - no kidding!

Cornish Pasty flavored chocolate bars

Now don't be discouraged by this trend, because there's plenty of really good chocolate bars available for bargain prices, compared to the USA. Green & Black brand has always been one of our go-to favorites. All the familiar ones are here and many great limited edition ones we don't see on the shelves in the USA such as this heavenly one.

Green & Black "Velvet Edition" chocolate bars

Cadbury's is another important chocolate brand from England. It has an important history much like Hershey's in the USA, it also has a theme park. Still, such places are closed here. Yet, grocery stores are a great place for the mass-produced confection brands such as Dairy Milk, Bournville, Flake and who could forget the Cream Eggs, available year round here. 

Chocolate also comes in other products such as biscuits (cookies).  Some interesting varieties can be found with familiar US brand names. How about these? I never saw these in the USA. 

Mars caramel filled chocolate biscuits (cookies)

The Italian brand Ferrero is also very popular among the Brits. They are makers of the brands such as Nutella, Kinder and of course Ferrero Rocher.  The Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread is always popular. There are many products and recipes made with Nutella or some imitation inside. Over here we even found some delicious crispy biscuits from them.

Nutella-filled wafer biscuit (cookie?)

Now as long as we're talking about chocolate, I have to mention Stracciatella flavored Kvarg! I discovered this in the dairy case next to the yogurts. The Stracciatella is a special recipe of Italian gelato with shavings of chocolate. Kvarg is Swedish for Quark, which is a type of fermented dairy product similar to yogurt, but with more protein and  very smooth velvety texture. Nestle has licensed the number 1 brand from Sweden (Lindahl's) and made it available in the grocery stores here. It's delightful as a desert after dinner or as a breakfast treat topped with my favorite granola. 

Lindahl's Kvarg with chocolate shavings

-David