Do you ever see supermarket products that you really
don't want to buy, but you know you will?
A new product, perhaps, that is over-priced or unnecessary or a marketing gimmick...but one that is aimed so perfectly at your weaknesses that it niggles you each time you see it, until you ultimately give in?
I certainly do.
Cases in point:
The Leda vegan chocolate rum balls haunted me for months last year, calling my name as I passed them in the health food section of the supermarket. I finally gave in about 6 months ago. The sugar free drinking chocolate is a more recent find, crossing my path for the first time earlier in 2012. I didn't last long before succumbing.
In fairness to these products, there is nothing
wrong with them. I enjoy most of the Leda products and the rum balls proved to be no different, but at $6.95 for a pack of 8, they are an expensive treat. Plus, I am sure I could make my own if I tried. The sugar free drinking chocolate was also on the pricey side - about the same cost in fact - but it was the marketing that put me off. The packet refers to a 'guilt free' indulgence and that is a phrase guaranteed to make me
cringe!
But let's take each in turn.
The
Leda chocolate rum balls are free of wheat, dairy, egg and gluten, but are nonetheless decadent in the way you expect truffles to be. The mix includes tapioca and besan flours, cocoa, various sweeteners (including golden syrup), raisins, macadamia nuts, rum, and coconut. One rum ball provides over 100 calories so they are appropriately rich!
When I opened the packet, there was a deep chocolate-rum aroma. The smell was promising. The look was also promising. These are picture-perfect and would be easy to serve to guests...or at least, they would be if you could afford to do so.
The texture of the rum balls is also impressive. They are firm enough to hold together and can withstand being at warm room temperature, but the inside is soft enough to sink into.
The taste? Really quite divine. Rich, as I said. Chocolatey, but with a depth of flavour that differs from the few rum balls I have tasted previously. The golden syrup comes through. The coconut sets off the other flavours. The occasional hit of raisin is surprisingly pleasing. The rum is very subtle, but just detectable.
I did love these. I still don't think they require regular purchase, but I was, in the end, glad I tried them. In my mind, they are also similar to
Mel's rum balls. However, as most of my
own truffle ball creations seem to go the straightforward fruit and nut way, I haven't yet tried Mel's version and thus can't say whether my imagination is correct!
The rum balls appealed to me because they were vegan and looked delicious. The
Vitarium sugar free drinking chocolate appealed to me because it looked like a possible replacement for the artificially sweetened, dried milk containing, sachet hot chocolates that I
used to drink but don't any longer.
Since stopping my fairly regular consumption of them, I haven't actually had hot chocolate, sticking instead with tea or coffee, and the occasional chai latte. This looked like it could allow me to bring hot chocolate back.
The ingredients in this mix are simple - effectively just
natvia (a natural sweetener based on stevia and erythritol, the latter being a nectar that occurs in some fruits) and cocoa. The reason I didn't want to buy it is because I could just
combine stevia and cocoa, or even regular sugar and cocoa, at home. Such is the power of pre-mixed packaging, and my demented reasoning around 'I could take it to work!'.
Fortunately, as with the rum balls, this product also proved to be enjoyable.
The drinking chocolate powder was pleasingly chocolatey. I ate some off a spoon to test it plain, and the flavours were enjoyable on their own. I find that to be a necessary component of a good hot chocolate base, so the powder was off to a good start.
You do need to mix this with milk - it's not the sort of hot chocolate that works with water alone - and I found the recommended 2 tsp to 200ml milk to be a little weak in terms of chocolate flavour. I could taste my soy milk, and I don't like that. A little extra powder to milk worked fine though, and made for an easy hot chocolate drink.
I would prefer to just mix my own ingredients along with adding the milk, but given I made the purchase - well, it worked well. I liked it and the powder can of course be used for other means as well (I have tried it with yoghurt, which I didn't like - I missed the yoghurt's natural tartness - and on top of vanilla soy ice cream, which I did like). It could be used for iced chocolate too, or added to smoothies, or whatever took your fancy.
So all in all, two unnecessary purchases, but two quite good outcomes. I suspect that won't help me out next time I'm trying to resist buying something I don't require!
Your turn - please tell me I'm not alone in these sorts of whimsical buys!
What have you bought that you really didn't want to buy? Did you enjoy it in the end?
