Frankie Instead of Food

I am so thrilled that one of my favorite bloggers, Erica Bartle of the excellent magazine review site, Girl With A Satchel (GWAS), not only sent me a free copy of Australia's lovely Frankie magazine, she also let me contribute a guest review of it. She's just super nice like that. You can read my post by heading over to GWAS and finding the July 22, 2009 post, "Mags: Frankie (Guest Review)."

Go Candy, Go!

It is a myth that chocolate is not vegan. Chocolate comes from the seed of the cacao tree so its entirely plant-based. Since choosing to be vegan, I've not given up using yummy Ghirardelli semisweet chips when making baked goods or eating various dark chocolate bars that I easily find at my local Stop and Shop and elsewhere.

I have, however, not had the candy store milk chocolate bars full of sugar, fat, and deliciousness because they contain dairy and other animal ingredients. Well, I don't have to forgo the sweet candy bar fix anymore because Go Max Go Foods has come to the rescue and released four vegan candy bars that are as delicious as their nonvegan forbears. Jokerz is like that chocolate bar that starts with the letter "S" and is proven to satisfy. Twilight is much like the bar named after our fine galaxy. Buccaneer is as exciting to taste as the three rascally fellows its named in honor of. And Mahalo is as joyful as indulging in some chocolate, coconut, almond goodness on a Hawaiian beach.

After inquiring with the company about when their candy bars might be available in Philly and suggesting a couple of places that might be great to inquire with (Essene and The Rocket Cat Cafe), they were kind enough to send me all four flavors. For free. In return for their generosity, I promised to post about the candy bars here. I am so happy to report that Jokerz totally tasted like its nonvegan fraternal twin. My one regret is that I only indulged in half of the bar because I promised to share them all with Brian. This whole marriage and sharing thing will be hard when it comes to chocolate this sweet, chewy, nutty and delicious.

I confess, however, to eating Mahalo all on my lonesome. Brian said he wasn't crazy about that nonvegan candy bar anyway so I told myself I was doing him a favor. My grandmother used to hoard that joy of almond bar during Lent and then would eat them all up come Easter. In her later years, she complained that the candy didn't seem as juicy and delicious as it once was. Maybe it was her aging tastebuds or maybe the candy's recipe did change. All I know is that I wish my grandmother were still here to try Mahalo because its juicy coconut bits and chunks of almond made me swoon. She loved Hawaii and she would have loved this candy.

Go Max Go candy bars are available in many stores in the US and they soon will be even more widely available. Thanks so much to them for hooking me up with some delicious candy--I still have Twilight and Buccaneer waiting to be devoured by Brian and me--and for making a lot of vegans with a sweet-tooth very happy.

Picture and the products mentioned in this post courtesy of Go Max Go Foods.