3 August 2012

White Chocolate Blueberries / Sweetheart Biscuits (China) [By @Cinabar]



My dad has been on a recent business trip to China, and very kindly picked up a couple of things for Foodstuff Finds for me. Thanks dad. ;-)



White Chocolate Blueberries

First up we have this very posh looking box of white chocolate coated blueberries. The packaging is very luxurious, has a fab purple design and is certainly meant for the gift market. Inside the box, the choccies are wrapped in a silver foil seal in pairs. This keeps them fresh, and makes a nice portion of two of one each if you are sharing.
I was rather impressed by the white chocolate coating, as there is loads of it! There is more chocolate than blueberry which is my kind of proportions! The blueberry was dried, but still had a good flavour, and the sharpness of the fruit was a nice contrast with the lashings of super creamy sweet white chocolate!
Although these are aimed at the luxury gift market, I have to confess to popping some in my lunch box for work and using them to cheer up my afternoon. They are perfectly packaged for this and it works rather well. Plus I get a fab chocolaty treat and to convince myself that I'm having one of my five a day! :-D




Sweetheart Biscuits

Next up we have these biscuity treats from China. The box again is rather posh, but there is a bit of a strange story on the back. To summarise it, a husband and wife had money problems, so the wife sold herself to pay the debts (it actually says that). The husband made these biscuits to sell to buy her back (errr?) and that’s why they are called Sweetheart biscuits. Not too much of a romantic fairy tale, and I can't help thinking something is lost in the translation there! I’ll try not to let that put me off these biscuits!
They are a very soft bisciut, and to be honest reminded me more of an Eccles cake than anything else. The filling is a milder taste, it is filled with something called winter melon, but tastes rather like a gooey mix of coconut paste and toffee flavours. A good combination to say the least!
The biscuits were rather tasty, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. They were sweet, soft and made a lovely afternoon treat with a cup of coffee. Whether or not they are tasty enough to buy back your wife after she sold herself into slavery, is anyone’s guess!
By Cinabar

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetheart_cake

cinabar said...

Thanks for the link... so the translation was right then - perhaps the story just doesn't quite work cross culture.

Anonymous said...

Having grown up in the Far East (and spending the last 9 years in the UK), my first reaction upon seeing Eccles cakes were, "they're rather like Wife (Sweetheart) cakes!

Indeed the story doesn't work cross culture, women's rights were on the whole, somewhat stronger in the West

http://community.travelchinaguide.com/forum2.asp?i=50539

A variant on the tale was how the couple faced poverty and a rich merchant took the opportunity to force the wife to be his concubine, and the devoted husband worked hard to raise the money to buy her back...