Hasta La Ideas

Chuao packs their new chocolate bar with crispy potato chip bits

Combining milk chocolate with all-natural, kettle-cooked potato chips, Chuao Chocolatier‘s latest highbrow-meets-lowbrow goodie is the slightly crunchy Potato Chips in Chocolate bar. This latest concoction is an easy way to get that sweet-and-savory fix without immersing yourself in a messy cooking project.

Handmade in San Diego, CA, the bars are made by first crushing the lightly-salted chips by hand into bite-sized pieces. The chips are then mixed into Chuao’s custom blend of 41% milk chocolate (from Venezuelan and other Latin American beans) and then hand-scooped into molds.

While the texture resembles other wafer-filled crispy chocolate bars, the potato chips provide a surprising punch of salty flavor and crunch that crispy rice can’t deliver. Though we tend to veer for the darker end of the chocolate spectrum, we like Chuao’s not-too-rich milky blend.

Potato Chips in Chocolate is currently available at Chuao Cafés and on the Chuao website, three for $18 or 12 for $65. You’ll start seeing it at some chains, including Whole Foods and Ralph’s, in fall 2011.

Also on Cool Hunting: Chuao Chocopods

“Cow to cone” ice cream from America’s heartland

Family owned and operated, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream’s‘s bold seasonal and signature flavors are a neo-cottage industry success story. The American-style, artisinally-blended ice cream truly lives up to the name. Made from a combination of homegrown ingredients and whole cream from the freely grazing cows at nearby Snowville Creamery, every batch is “pasture to table, cow to cone” fresh.

While picking favorites among flavors like a milk chocolate flecked with single-origin Askinosie chocolate or a spicy coconut and peanut concoction takes some tough palates, after some serious taste-testing we narrowed in on a few.

“Salty Caramel” quickly disappeared after the container’s seal was broken. The creamy consistency delivers rich vanilla notes and a smooth caramel finish, described by some CH tasters as phenomenal.

Another overall winner, Jeni modeled “Buckeye State” after Ohio’s classic chocolate-and-peanut butter treat. Rich but not overpowering, the peanut butter tones blend seamlessly with strong dark chocolate to create a perfect balance of salty and sweet.

“Influenza” sorbet earned a nod for a wild taste and its unusual flu-fighting mission. With intense flavors—including cayenne pepper, Marker’s Mark bourbon, honey, lemon, and orange juice—this nurturing mix has everything you need to make you better whether you’re sick or not.

To get your hands on a freshly-prepared pint, use Jeni’s store locator to find these delicious flavors and more in supermarkets across the U.S., or swing by one of their four (soon to be seven!) Ohio locations. If you happen to live far from a supplier, Jeni’s ships door-to-door nationwide as well.

Brooklyn-based chefs revive hard candy with secret ingredients and throwback packaging

Like millions of good ideas, Brooklyn Hard Candy was dreamed up over several drinks one night. But unlike most booze-fueled enterprises, this one has more than enough cred to back it up. The joint product of Le Cordon Bleu grads Danny Mowles (also the executive chef at NYC’s The Roger Smith Hotel) and Nathan Panum, the pair set out to create something distinctly Brooklyn and unmistakably “hard.”

“We saw everything moving towards local,” Mowles explained when I recently spent the afternoon with him in Brooklyn. “We knew we wanted to do something sweet, but everyone was doing chocolate. After that it was just finding the right type of sweet that we could make our own.”

Standout flavors include Wild Strawberry and Green Apple (I liked Tangerine and Blueberry too), but all seven have their own secret flavor ingredient, lending a subtly delicious aftertaste.

The cooking process follows standard candy-making procedure (cooking the sugar to a “hard crack” before adding citric acid and flavor), but the candy’s shape is the result of a custom-made cutting machine. Sourcing all of their Ingredients from the U.S., Mowles comments, “One of the things we’re most proud of is being a handcrafted American company.”

To attract customers, balancing the look of the packaging with their values was just as important to the candymakers as making tasty treats. “People keep asking if we can do organic candy, and that kind of takes the fun out of it—it’s candy—but what we have tried to do is keep the packaging as green as possible.” Made of recycled glass, cork and paper, the bottle is reminiscent of the type used in old-fashioned apothecaries.

With demand wildly exceeding expectation, the duo is trying to find free time between their busy day jobs to produce enough candy for both retailers and a growing online fan base. Launched December 2010, the company still operates out of multiple locations. “We get time from big kitchens at night, come in there in the off hours, prepare as many vats as we can and see how it goes.” An initial run in Brooklyn’s Bedford Cheese Shop helped the charming bottles sell across the area, and moves to larger markets are in the works, as well as a new product—look out for a lollipop line in time for summer.

In the meantime the candies start at $7 per bottle and are available at Greene Grape, Brooklyn Larder and Blue Apron Fine Foods, or through Brooklyn Hard Candy’s online store.

Drool-worthy truffles, cookies and more, all made from all-natural ingredients

Chicago-based Chocolate Gourmet, the perfect after dinner treat or midday snack, will tickle your tastebuds for an unbelievably mouth-watering experience. We fell in love with their all-natural Chubby Wubby cookie sandwiches a few months ago, and are pleased to announce their newest editions, the “Fair and Square” Blondie and the “Loco” Tequila Truffle (pictured above).

Chocolate Gourmet’s extensive assortment of desserts also include cookies, truffles, squares and rugelach. The “ugly truffles” have clever names such as Homley Hazelnut, Messed Up Mocha, Morning After Merlow, Not in Mint Condition and Hairy Coconut. The cookies are also cleverly named, with Maternal Macadamia Nut, Over Protective Pecan and Precocious Peanut Butter as some of our favorites.

Whether you want to bite into one particular flavor or try all they have to offer, the company is flexible by offering different purchasing packages. Visit the Chocolate Gourmet site to purchase. Cookie gift boxes start at $22, truffle boxes start at $27 and bundles start at $60.

Melt more than hearts with this delicious marriage of single-origin chocolate and 18-year scotch

For those who love chocolate and booze together but have grown beyond liqueur-filled mini chocolates, Compartes Chocolatier recently introduced a limited-edition box of scotch whisky-infused dark truffles. With our favorite The Macallan 18-year single-malt scotch enriching the deep flavor of the single-origin ganache, we’re fans. As the truffle melts in your mouth, the subtle taste of whisky comes through—sounds like a perfect Valentine’s day gift. So either pick up a 10-piece box for yourself or for a loved one for $30 from the Compartes online shop.