Nothing Better Than the Norm
About 7 or so years ago, we discovered Norman Love Chocolates located in Ft. Myers. We had seen Norman Love on a bunch of Food Network shows and knew the jist about him. However, it took a while before he actually opened, and thus we went to, his chocolate shop in Ft. Myers. Back then, my Foodie’ness had really just begun and I do not remember trying anything. Since then, Norm has also opened up a shop in Naples. A few weeks back, we stopped in so Mommy could try their famous Cafe & Cocoa. While we were there, I opted to try something out too. Well, I am proud to say that I am a Foodie and can report, this is Nothing Better Than the Norm.
On this visit, I tried a Peanut Butter Crispy Truffle Pop. Wrapped and decorated, this sucker cost $3.50. After arriving back to the car, I opened this up and took a bite. The outside of the pop was covered in a layer of milk chocolate. I found the consistency of the chocolate to be great – smooth & milky. Yet, the overall flavor of the chocolate was nothing amazing. Don’t get me wrong…it was good…it just wasn’t any better than the Norm.
The inside of the pop was a mixture of peanut butter and crispies. While the crispies were similar to those found inside a Nestle Crunch, the flavor of them was pretty non-existent. The only part they really played was to add a different consistency. There did seem to be a lot of them however, they were quite small in size. They did indeed provide a bit of crisp but, the crisp was really not all too apparent. I could tell it was there but, not in an overly intrusive way.
I was really looking forward to the peanut butter inside of this sucker. I will say it was good but, not nearly as rich & creamy as I would have liked. This did have the flavors of real peanut butter – a total plus in my book. Nothing is worse than that fake peanut butter-flavor-sugar-blah that candy sometimes uses. This peanut butter was legit. There was a good amount of it however, I think there should have been more. And, it would have been nice if the peanut butter had a little bit of a melty consistency to it. I think this would have allowed for the peanut butter and the chocolate to truly mix and become one. I found them to really be two different components, sharing the same space.
Of course I ate all of this truffle pop but, was left feeling underwhelmed. I was expecting this chocolate to be just simply amazing. Yes, it was good, but it just wasn’t amazing. I have since tried some of their truffles and have found them to be exactly the same – underwhelming to the max. On the truffles, its hard to even tell what flavor they are. At $3.50 a pop, this is really not a good deal. I can say that I somewhat enjoyed it and the peanut butter was indeed tasty. Perhaps if the chocolate was a bit better, and the peanut butter was a bit more creamy, I would be able to say this was really good. But, as it stands, this is Nothing Better Than the Norm.