Candy Adriatico, February Box

 When I got the opportunity to review this new subscription box from the Adriatic Sea area - called Candy Adriatico -  I was super excited. Thank you, lovely Nadi for the complimentary shipment. It arrived in such a nice, personalized box I could tell a lot of thought was put into it.

Inside there was further customization, with a personal note & a sweet postcard from Piran. It's an attractive city, I'd like to visit someday - 4th most romantic in Europe, apparently! Everything came in a large quantity - we could've easily gotten just a few of those Truly gummies, for instance, but it's an entire bag.

I noticed that most of the snack packaging was red, and I'm not sure if that was because of Valentine's Day or that's just the way snacks are packaged in the Adriatic region! Kind of like how purple & blue seems to be the color of sweets in England. Either way, it was cheery & very on-theme for Valentine's Day.

The first thing I dug into was the Dorina bar, milk chocolate with puffed rice. I loved it, and luckily there was lots of it to love. It's a moderately sweet & milky chocolate, like Milka or other European continental chocolates. 

The rice was plentiful & maybe lightly sweetened - reminded me of cereals like this one, which personal favorites of mine. I really liked the texture of this bar, the amount of puffed rice inside was more than you may first expect and made for something different from your usual Cadbury bar.

The Jadro wafers were next up, and I was pretty into these from the start. When I was younger I used to love World Market, a shop in the USA that sells some candy & snacks from around the world. Big shock I'd like a place like that, huh? Anyway, they sold Loacker wafer cubes, and I loved them. I assumed these wafers were from Italy as well, but these were actually from Croatia!

 These were just as nice as the Loacker wafers from back then. Crispy yet delicate. Inside the wafers is chocolate cream & I believe vanilla cream? The chocolate filling has a strong taste, unlike some cheaper (read...American) wafer cookies. The white filling also had a legitimate taste of vanilla - rather than the standard 'sugar cream'. It may have been white chocolate, but whatever it was it had a rich & buttery flavor.

Speaking of Loacker - this next bar is actually made by them! I didn't realize until after I had already eaten it, haha. This one is Choco & Milk Cereals.

 It reminded me of the Kinder Country bar, with the thick milky cream that has a slightly nutty taste. The little bits of cereal just add crispness & the chocolate coating is high quality European stuff. 

This one went down very quickly, I'd happily choose it for an afternoon snack anytime.

Next I enjoyed the roll cake. This really reminded me of Little Debbie's Swiss Rolls, but better. The chocolate covering is properly chocolate, not a weird choco-confection like a lot of snack cakes use. The filling was creamy & light, didn't coat my mouth in a weird way.

 The cake itself was natural & sweet. If you're an expat American craving Little Debbie's, I'd happily recommend you find a way to get these - good news, there is a way, and I'll tell you at the end. :)

The Zanzibar chocolate was gianduja with a whole hazelnut in, and it was just as tasty as it sounds. Which is to say super tasty. I love hazelnut & chocolate combinations like all red-blooded human beings, and this is just a quick little hit of that perfect combo.

 Nice to include a whole nut as well - gives it a more premium feel. The hole in my bar is where the nut was...haha. Sorry.

There were a couple of fruitier candies included - including some strawberry Starburst type sweets that I didn't try...but I received reports from my snacking companion that they were nice & sweet. That's why he doesn't have his own blog I suppose, haha. 

I did have quite a few of these Truly gummies & they're quite nice. I appreciate the natural way they've been made, with fruit juice & no artificial colors. To be honest, I kind of like the stronger taste that comes with artificial flavors, but I also understand it's unhealthy!

 I really love the texture of these, they're like firm gumdrops covered in a fine sugar. The orange is particularly good with a strong fruity tang.

So all together, a lovely package with tons of chocolate I would've never otherwise tried. That's what makes this box so interesting to me - it's chocolate & candy from a region that I (and perhaps others, too) don't know much about. That's not to even mention the sweet the owner who is very communicative & obviously passionate about her region of the world and the delicious snacks therein. If you're interested in this specific box (including the reminiscent-but-tastier cake rolls) I happen to have some insider info that there will soon be an option on the site to order sweets from previous boxes...However, it'd be just as fun to get some new snacks! Take a look at the Candy Adriatico website for more info & discover the snacks of the Adriatic sea!..and I don't mean fish & kelp.