The Joke Is On Me

Ever since I read about Askinosie's white chocolate nibble bar, I've been trying to figure out how to rationalize buying some. First I read about it on David Lebovitz's blog, and then I came across it on the pages of Mix Magazine (talking about the white chocolate and pistachio bar). And I kept noticing the packages at stores (okay, at chocolate stores. We have a few here in Portland).

The problem is that buying expensive chocolate bars is something I'm sadly trying to avoid right now. Creative rationalization was in order.

First off, I could write about it. That would be responsible. Secondly, I decided to buy it at my neighborhood good food store: Foster and Dobbs. I figure it's especially important to support the stores you like right now. And lastly, it occurred to me that white chocolate might solve the problem I had with secret chocolate. White chocolate crumbs should blend in nicely with stationery and white desk drawers.

This is special chocolate. Askinosie presses its own cocoa butter (most buy it from bigger sources). There are no added flavorings, such as vanilla, and no emulsifiers, such as lecithin. They make the white chocolate from the bean (instead of with cocoa butter bought elsewhere), and there is goat's milk powder in it. The nibble bar also has roasted cocoa nibs. To me it had more going on than white chocolate often seems to--and there was something slightly malty about it, maybe from the goat's milk?

I brought it home to my family, confessing I'd bought a $10 chocolate bar to my husband. Turns out he didn't need any rationalization--he heard chocolate and was on board. And I've got to say, I love my family. Simon and Franny each had a square, ate it appreciatively and with interest. I often find that something more complex is really more satisfying, and less is needed.

And the third rationalization? This white chocolate wasn't blending in with anything else white: