I am not a fan of most chocolates. I am picky about chocolate. I snub my nose at Mars and Snickers and just about any other chocolate candy you will find at the impulse buy section of a drugstore. I won’t even put a single Hersey’s Chocolate Kiss in my mouth. But I am a real sucker for Guylian’s Perles de Ocean. I think Pierre Marcolini is a chocolate artist and genius and could eat an entire box of his chocolates in one sitting. And I probably would if they weren’t so expensive. So I was kinda bummed that America didn’t have great commerical chocolates as Europe does. Until I was introduced to The Cocoa Room.

My old boss gave me a box of Chicago based The Cocoa Room’s Eclectic Mix Dragee (retail price $6-7* for 4 oz.) for Christmas of 2005. They are pretty, shiny, color coated chocolate coated sunflower seeds, almonds and peanuts (much prettier and shinier and delicious than M&M’s). They come in a clear and frosted plastic box tied with a ribbon. They just look appetizing. Not like a plain ol’ regular chocolate bar, which looks like, well you’ve seen “Caddyshack”.

I cannot tell you how fun it is to eat these things. The textures are amazing. The taste is sweet without hurting your teeth and not chalky like macro chocolatiers. The sunflower seed ones taste like chocolate covered Rice Krispies. The peanuts are coated in something delicious I cannot identify - I think it’s some sort of peanut brittle material. And dark chocolate covers (I should use the word “enrobed” because that seems to be a term people use to describe luxurious chocolate things) the almonds.

They have flavors like green tea, lavender blueberry, cayenne pepper, white ginger and pumpkin spice that I cannot wait to try. As well as chocolate covered fruit - apricot, blueberry and cherry.

www.thecocoaroom.com or available at various stores like Crate & Barrel

*That’s the price of a pack of cigarettes. I quit smoking a couple of months ago and now like to justify my spending on various things by reasoning, “Well, I’m not spending it on cigarettes!”