Hickory Farms chocolate

[Deirdre]

I was looking at a Hickory Farms mail order catalogue and they have a page or 2 of sugar free chocolates, made with maltitol. They looked really good - assortments and one was all chocolate mint. Can't recall the prices, not cheap though. Nice gift idea for us low carbers that can handle maltitol!

[IslandGirl]

Hmmmmm, isn't it pretty standard to have a Hickory Farms vendor stand in the local malls at this time of year??? The pre-Christmas selling season is upon us.

I'll check the Mayfair Mall (saw an HF stand there) here in Victoria, see if they carry the SF chocos, maybe get some details.

[Deirdre]

I checked the Hickory Farms stand at our local mall and they didn't have any. It's just a small stand in a small mall though, so maybe someplace bigger might have them.
I haven't checked back at Laura Secord's yet either, they are supposed to be getting boxes of SF chocolate too.

[Norma June]

In Barrie, ON there is a store called the General Store. It has lots of crafts, woodworking stuff and all kinds of unusual gift ideas. I noticed they also carry sugar free candy.

Next time I go in I'll check to see who the manufacturer is; I know they are based just outside of Toronto but I forget the name of the company.

I had bought my diabetic DH some for Easter and plumb forgot to mention it to the group. I'll check on the company and let y'all know.

ciao,
NJ
(Norma June - Barrie, ON)

[IslandGirl]

Well, the Hickory Farms 'stand' shows up every Christmas and the week after.

There're 3 kinds of SF (maltitol) candies, boxed, in the catalog, average 24.99 reg price/454g (5.5 cents/gram) before shipping & taxes. 1 kind ("truffles") at the stand, 19.99/454g (4.4 cents/gram) and right there for pickup. Probably an incentive price for the Christmas shopping because they're the same ones as in the catalog.

I suspect that if they sold more of the SF, they'd probably carry more. Maybe Victoria's high percentage of older and therefore presumably diabetic folk accounts for the presence of the SF truffles?

Purdy's also carries a short line ("truffles") of SF (maltitol), boxed, regularly. At Christmas, SF Milk Chocolate bars 35g/$3.25 (expensive at 9.3 cents/gram) and SF Milk Choc Santa-on-a-stick (didn't get the price, but not cheap). :( No SF Dark Choc. Compare to Ross/Deelight choc bars at $1.50/35 grams (usually), or about 4.3 cents/gram.

This chocolate habit is expensive altogether, isn't it? I've been making chocolate dipping stuff (one of my experiments) out of pure cocoa butter ($15/454g) and dark euro cocoa (@ $7/500g), retail prices, so I guess it's expensive no matter how you cut it.

[Deirdre]

Well, the Hickory Farms stand here sold out of the sugar free chocolate and jams well before my husband's designated shopping day of Christmas eve! Actually this year he went the day before. The Laura Secord stand here never did get the SF chocolate in, I'll have to check a store next time I'm near one to see if they have any left and if it's marked down.

They still have boxes of assorted SF chocolates at the IDA drug store here, but they're really expensive. I wonder how much maltitol costs? Must be like gold! Ha ha!

[kkhlavinka]

If you want chocolate bar that tastes like the real thing, go to Lowcarbchocolates.com. They range from 2 to almost 4 carbs but they are incredible. I ordered several and they came yesterday. Have tried the white chocolate only so far but it was fabulous. Warning, though--I went out of ketosis the next morning but I am not sure it was due to this bar since I also ate some nasty Adkins stuff.

[IslandGirl]

Greetings, Kim.

Just so you know, the LowCarbChocolates website is selling the Ross chocolates (made here in BC) and (the last time I checked) at high American prices of US$1.79 ea.

[colinjn]

The "Sugar Free" truffles from Purdy's Chocolates www.purdys.com have become one of my cupboard staples. They average around 4g/chocolate, but you seldom need more than one to get rid of any serious chocolate/sweets craving. They are high in flavour and have a true fine chocolate melt in your mouth feel. I buy a box of 34 for $15 cdn so I have variety.

I occasionally make the mistake of buying Rocky Mountain sugar free chocolates (always after wandering around in the village at Whistler and smelling all the candy cooking) and end up throwing it out. It is waxy and tasteless.

I haven't seen Ross chocolates around locally in Vancouver. Do they sell locally?

[Glenda]

HI there. I can buy Ross chocolate bars in our local Shoppers Drug Mart in the diabetic section. I have tried them on occasion and they are really quite good.

Glenda

[IslandGirl]

Colin, you will find many posts about the Ross Chocolates, in threads of their own, over the last year. The search feature is GREAT for this.

I've personally seen them in PharmaSave and Shoppers' and that was quite a while ago. Probably more places, locally, by now.