For me, every visit to a gourmet market involves an extended stop on the chocolate aisle. Maybe I feel a tremendous responsibility to keep you informed of all the great chocolates available on the market today. Maybe I’m just a chocoholic. Yeah, it might be the latter. John Kelly Chocolates caught my eye on a recent shopping trip. The gold foil wrapping on the truffle fudge bars was just a hint of the decadent taste we were about to enjoy. We chose their peanut butter and chipotle ancho chile flavors to try.
The silky chocolate coating on the handmade bars was beautiful. We noticed the two bars had different designs, which is part of the John Kelly signature. Each flavor has a distinct symbol swirled onto the top of the candy. We sliced each bar to reveal a truffle fudge center coated generously with semi-sweet chocolate. Both flavors were amazing. Allen leaned toward the peanut butter (of course). A thick layer of peanut butter fudge rested on dark chocolate fudge for a very classy upgrade of the ever-popular peanut butter and chocolate combination. Because I love sweet and savory duos, the chipotle ancho chile was my first choice. The dense fudge was a good match for the complex pepper flavors. The wrapper indicated the peppers are “mild”, but some people might find them just a little too spicy. Allen was one of those, so he happily agreed to finish off the peanut butter truffle fudge bar. The 2-ounce bars we purchased are promoted as individual servings, but honestly, these chocolates are so rich they could easily be treats for two.
Of course, I was wondering how John Kelly got his start in the chocolate business. I was surprised to learn there is no John Kelly; instead John Kelson and Kelly Green combined forces to create a luxury chocolate line, and combined their first names to identify their company. According to a Foodcrafters video interview, they began with a friend’s usually smooth fudge recipe, elevating it almost to ganache status. They have developed a very nice variety of additional flavors including cappuccino with walnuts, chocolate with walnuts, chocolate, dark chocolate with walnuts, dark chocolate, raspberry, white chocolate vanilla with walnuts, chocolate and caramel with Hawaiian alaea sea salt, dark chocolate with French grey sea salt, peanut butter with Himalayan pink salt, and walnut caramel clusters with Mediterranean sea salt. Could you look through that list and honestly say you couldn’t find at least one you would love? I don’t see one I wouldn’t love!
In addition to the 2-ounce bars, John Kelly Chocolates offers 8-ounce bars and 1-ounce “bites”. Their products come in gorgeous packaging, which would impress your most discriminating business client or friend. The candy is widely available in upscale retailers and gourmet markets, and you can also order directly from John Kelly Chocolates.
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