Review: Cholives

Garnishing a dessert drink with chocolate is the natural thing to do… but how exactly do you accomplish that? Drop a chunk of Hershey bar into the drink? Serve with a Twix swizzle stick?

Enter a solution: Cholives.

Much to my disappointment, Cholives are not chocolate-covered olives. They are simply medium-hard shelled dark chocolates (55% cocoa) surrounding a soft ganache center. Shaped like olives, they are concave on the bottom, which allows you to stick a skewer through the shell and into the ganache, so the whole thing sticks onto the end of a pick. The result looks a lot like an olive on a skewer like you’d drop into a martini.

They taste pretty good (the company also makes “Chruffles,” which are pretty much standard truffles), they don’t melt or break down in a cocktail, and they look impressive as a garnish goes. The amount of work required to skewer a Cholive is minimal, too, so you can have one ready in a flash.

Depending on how many you buy, you’ll pay between 50 cents and a dollar per piece, which is on the high side. That said, I expect you won’t use too many, so for special occasions, it might be fun to have a jar or tin sitting around, just in case.

A- / $45 for 90 Cholives / thecholive.com

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