This Giveaway is Closed. The 4 Lucky Winners are:

1. Amber G.
2. Jannet Tseng
3. Rita M.
4. Vicki Andrew

When the lovely people at Ritter Sport offered the chance to review some of their products I jumped at the chance. Who wouldn’t? Chocolate is one of those great unifiers–there are very few people who don’t like it and so many ways to enjoy it that you could probably find one for every day of the year. While Ritter Sport doesn’t have quite that many flavors, they do have many and quite a few that make the most of less than usual combinations of ingredients, such as the Yogurt and Cornflake bars.

These distinctive bars are instantly recognizable due to their bright colored wrappers and unique square shape. The standard bar is 100 grams, or about 3.5 ounces–the size of 2-3 regular chocolate bars. The wrappers give nutrition information for a serving size of six squares but the bars are scored into 16 squares–not quite a number divisible by six which makes for harder portion calculations if you are trying to keep track of those things, but that’s about the only real complaint I have about the bars I reviewed.

Ritter Sport sent me five varieties to sample–Alpine Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, a la Mousse au Chocolat, Whole Almonds and what appears to be the newest addition to the lineup, Neapolitan Wafers. Having long been a consumer of the occasional Ritter Sport bar, I was familiar with their product lines and already had a favorite–Whole Hazelnuts. As such, I was quite happy to sample a couple of flavors new to me as well as some old standbys and compare them to each other.

Alpine Milk Chocolate

First up was the Alpine Milk Chocolate bar. I will confess to being a sucker for milk chocolate. I love a good piece of dark chocolate as much as the next person, but the creamy milk chocolate will always have my heart. This particular bar was wonderful, though I’ll admit to having no idea what makes it “Alpine” since there is both a Milk Chocolate and the Alpine Milk Chocolate in the Ritter Sport line. The milky and smooth chocolate wasn’t overly sweet and allowed the cocoa notes to come through along with a very slight nutty note that I attribute to the inclusion of hazelnut paste. The bar breaks into pieces with a pleasing snap rather than the almost spongy break of lesser chocolates loaded with fillers. Overall,this is an extremely satisfying milk chocolate that is well worth savoring as it melts on your tongue.

Dark Chcolate

Next I tried the Dark Chocolate bar. The Dark bar had a much stronger cocoa note and a waxier texture. It’s a much firmer chocolate than the milk varieties and has an even more satisfying snap as it breaks. It’s a deeply flavored dark with a pleasingly bitter note balancing out the sugar. It’s a bit sweeter than I like my dark chocolates, but it’s still quite good. Like the milk it has a smooth and cool melt on the tongue and the squares are a good size to allow to melt slowly in your mouth.

A La Mousse Au Chocolate

I went ahead and sampled the other dark bar next. Where the Dark Chocolate is a solid bar, a la Mousse au Chocolate is dark chocolate around a “mousse” filling. The filling is firmer in texture than you’d expect with a label of “mousse”, but it’s not unpleasant–more like a slightly aerated milk chocolate-textured center almost the same color as the dark chocolate surrounding it. The filling was sweeter than the shell, which took it to the realm of too sweet for my taste but I can see the appeal. The filling melts faster than the shell, which is a nice play on textures but not a whole lot of difference in taste between the two elements.

Whole Almonds

After the two dark varieties I was ready to return to the remaining milk bars. Whole Almonds was one I hadn’t ever tried, but being such a fan of the Whole Hazelnuts I was pretty sure I’d like it. I wasn’t disappointed. Ritter puts a lot of whole nut into their bars, but not so many that you feel you’re missing out on the chocolate. This bar is what someone who grew up eating Hersheys with Almonds would strive for. The creamy milk chocolate pairs well with the crunchiness of the almonds and makes for a very satisfying treat. You can always justify a snack from one of these bars as being almost good for you due to the lack of fillers and whole almonds within.

Neapolitan Wafer Bar

The Neapolitan Wafer bar was something entirely new to me in this range. Consisting of wafer cookies similar to sugar wafers but filled with a firm hazelnut filling, it’s reminiscent of a Kit Kat type wafer/chocolate bar, but much bigger in terms of flavor, size and cookie. It’s crunchy, melty with hazelnut filling and rounded out by the milk chocolate. Eating one of these just underlines the difference between the “mocklate” candies and real chocolate goodies. Too many of our familiar chocolate treats aren’t chocolate anymore–they’re labeled as “made with milk chocolate” or “chocolate flavored coating” because they’re so beefed up with fillers that they no longer meet the legal definitions of chocolate. Ritter Sport is still using their excellent milk and dark chocolate to make new confections that still retain their identity as real chocolate treats and I’m glad to see it. Having bars like this around expand reminds us of how good real chocolate can be, and I very much look forward to sampling whatever the Ritter Sport kitchens choose to create in the years to come.

Ritter Sport Chocolate Favorites

As for these bars, I think my favorite is the Whole Almond, followed by the Neapolitan Wafer just because it’s a little different. Both are substantial variations on classic candy bar types that take the genre a little further due to the quality of the ingredients involved. Ritter Sport was one of the first “good” chocolate bars my mom introduced me to back in the day and these would be a great choice to introduce anyone to easily available, high quality chocolates.

Have I made you hungry yet?

Enter to Win

Four (4) lucky winners will win a box of Ritter Sport mini bars (84 mini bars to a box).  This giveaway is open to the U.S. and will end on February 10, 2010.

Enter the giveaway by commenting on this post. Tell us why you love chocolate.

Please see our site’s Terms and Conditions for a complete list of our contest and giveaway rules.

In compliance with the new FTC Guildlines, please note that this is a sponsored post.  I was given Ritter Sport chocolate to test and review free of charge.  However, I was not paid for the review and the opinions are my own.

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