February 19th: Turin Jack Daniel's Whiskey Truffles

Kcal ??? Fat ??? Fat(sats) ??? Carbs ???

My local newsagent really does stock some weird (but wonderful) products sometimes, and these Turin Jack Daniel's truffles fall directly into that category. Despite being 'Hecho en Mexico' (product of Mexico), these somehow managed to wind up in a little village shop in West Sussex, England ... all a little puzzling if you ask me. For the relatively small sum of £2 I purchased a pack of these truffles, which came billed as 'chocolates with genuine Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey'. Although not the biggest whiskey connoisseur myself, I enlisted the help of a certain family member who also passed their judgment.

My £2 bought a 60.0g pack that was formed of five individual truffles. The outer-packaging carried the Jack Daniel's theme well, which I guess was pretty lucky considering my brand recognition of 'Turin' was actually zero. The chocolates themselves were also presented nicely with each individually wrapped in a two layered Jack Daniel's themed wrapper. When out their wrappers the chocolates gave off quite a fragrant, alcoholic smell which was highly distinguishable in and amongst the cocoa scents. One minor criticism was that the outer picture did prove to be somewhat misleading, as the fillings were more a transparent syrup rather than the lighter coloured creme like centres pictured on the front of pack.

I have tasted a few liqueur products recently that really have delivered alcoholic flavour bursts that I have deemed OTT, luckily this wasn't the case here, and the fillings delivered a pleasant contribution. The chocolate was nothing really to shout about. Described as 'dark chocolate' on the back of pack, it seemed more of a chocolate stuck inbetween wanting to be milk chocolate and dark chocolate. It didn't really have the milky, creaminess of milk chocolate, though was far too sugar based and sweet to be deemed a dark chocolate. The cocoa flavours were well substantiated, though the product would definitely have benefited from being more decisive in its focus. As aforementioned both myself and my fellow taste tester were impressed by the whiskey centres. They were thick in their texture, which seemed to make the taste of the truffles linger that bit longer in the mouth - always a good thing. In regards to flavours, the malty flavours of the whiskey were forthcoming, yet not overpowering, and did not fail to deliver a substantial contribution to the overall taste. Furthermore the syrupy style implementation took the edge off the whiskey, which made them alot friendlier in their taste than I was expecting. Although these were gone in one sitting they were a satisfying collection of truffles.

Overall I was surprised by the quality of these truffles and must admit I really rather enjoyed them. As I previously mentioned I am not the biggest whiskey fan, though even I could appreciate the eccentric flavours that were brought to these truffles by the Jack Daniel's. The sweetened effect of the syrup style implementation definitely made these a more agreeable, friendly product, though this did not put off my experienced whisky taste testing accomplice, who also commented that the full flavours of the whiskey could still be detected. The product could possibly benefit from leveraging the quality of its chocolate, however I would still recommend these to any Jack Daniel's fans. These are some truffles to watch out for ... I am just wondering what ever next my local shop will crop up with.

8.2 out of 10