Dates are a staple food of the Middle East but somehow surprisingly few people in the United States are familiar with this tasty and healthy snack. Usually about 2x-3x the size of an olive, dates grow on stalks on the date palm and are considered a fruit, not a nut. They’re also a great source of both fiber and potassium, but hey, who’s going to worry about health when it’s taste we’re talking about?
Enter a chap called Fawaz Masri, who over 20 years ago got the brainstorm of stuffing dates with almonds and then dipping them in chocolate: Chocodate. This proved a great hit just about everywhere in the world, though I’m willing to bet that you’ve never heard of them if you’re based in the USA. There’s just something about dates and Americans, though they’re definitely missing out.
Lucky I know a good date when I see one, so when the company reached out and asked if we wanted to try a batch, the answer was a definitive yes. Turns out that Chocodates are manufactured in Dubai and imported by Ziyad Brothers Importing out of Chicago, Illinois.
Let’s start with the packaging:
As you can see, very modern, very attractive, and it certainly makes the product look delicious. The assorted is a combination of milk chocolate and white chocolate, while the dark Chocodates are, well, dark chocolate.
The problem we had, however, was that the product must melt and solidify in a cycle while in transit, because what we unwrapped had very little physical similarity to the package:
Kind of cool, maybe like an asteroid or something, but not a “smooth coating of Belgian chocolate”. I chopped a few up so you can see inside and it shows that all three, dark, milk and white chocolate Chocodates have the same issue:
Okay, whatever. How about the taste?
Turns out that Chocodates taste quite delicious, regardless of chocolate type and regardless of the transport issues with the chocolate itself. Not as sweet as a plump date fresh off the tree, but still a delightful combination of the almond, date and chocolate flavor.
Now, I have to admit, I’m not a fan of white chocolate. Heck, it’s not even really chocolate (it’s made from cocoa butter and milk). As a result, my favorite flavor was the milk chocolate, which just was a dense and ridiculously tasty flavor bomb.
To sum it all up, then, dates. Yum. Chocolate covered dates stuffed with almonds. Double yum. If you can find some Chocodate, grab ’em and give them a try for yourself. Oh, and your kids might just love ’em too, so make sure you get them to try a few.
Chocodate, in milk, white or dark chocolate and now coconut too. Pick some up to try at Amazon.com, $11.19 for an 8oz package.
Disclosure: The company sent us a bunch of these to try out in return for this writeup.