Junk Food Nation, last night the Actor Sis told me something fascinating. And maybe some of you know this.  Maybe not.  But we were discussing the slew of crappy movies that were out, and how everything was being released in 3-D.  “It’s awful,” I said, “Some movies don’t even NEED to be in 3-D! Why do studios do this??”

And then she explained to me WHY a lot of studios are making 3-D movies when they don’t have to.  And the answer: CHINA.

China has what, 6 QUAZILLION people, right? And the Chinese are prone to leaching onto Western fads, like Movies.  I’m sure a million vampires were born when the Twilight movies were released in China.  Anyways, because the Chinese government wanted to limit Western influence in the theaters (i.e. they were worried about Chinese money going into US movies studios’ pockets) they had previously limited the number of US movies that could be released in China to 20. Twenty movie slots, and every single movie studio in the US fighting to have one of those yearly slots.  And it makes sense – get one movie in China and your movie earns an extra 100 million+ dollars.  You WANT one of those slots!

Sidenote: I can’t even imagine the Chinese government trying to decide whether to release Harold and Kumar 3 or Madagascar 3 in Chinese theaters. Whose job is it to make THAT decision??

Anyways, recently in February, the Chinese government amazingly upped the movie quota to 34 – adding 14 more potential movies that could be released in their country…with one caveat. Those 14 movies MUST be in either 3-D or IMAX format.

So what do you do if you’re a movie studio? YOU MAKE EVERYTHING IN 3-D or IMAX – you try to increase your chances of being selected by making you movie eligible for not 1 of 20, but 1 of 34 slots.  Quick! Someone remake Pride & Prejudice in IMAX! I wanna see Crash in 3-D…it’s like the racism is REALLY COMING AT YOU.

So that’s the story.  Did you know about this, Junk Food Nation? I certainly didn’t. But now you have a neat story to tell whenever anyone laments 3-D movies.  It’s all about those Chinese Benjamins, baby.

Today’s junk food features a slew of treats that was mailed to me recently by my friends at Chuao Chocolate. Admittedly, I hadn’t heard of them before except through my friend the Foodette – and then at the Fancy Food Show, I met a few people and less than one week later BAM! This came in the mail:

Well, this came inside a BOX that came in the mail.  Yeah, exactly – what the heck is inside this weird alien pod that Chuao Chocolate sent me? As soon as I peeled the tape open, would a face sucker jump out???

I carefully eased open the package, to discover:

Chuao Chocolate SPOILS!  Four different treats to review!  Two Chuao Chocolate ChocoPods – Potato Chip and Sweet & Salty. One Maple Bacon Chocolate Bar. One bar that’s not on shelves yet – their new Ravishing Rocky Road Bar.

Made in San Diego, California, since 2002, Chuao is the United States’ first Venezuelan chocolate company, and they make all kinds of wacky combos, like the ones they sent me.   You can pick up Chuao at Whole Foods, Wegmans, Ralphs, online – lots of different places! Let’s dig into these four choco-treats.

The Chuao Potato Chip ChocoPod tasted great – rich milk chocolate that had a hint of dark chocolate deep cocoa flavor.  It was crunchy, but not too crunchy – the little potato chip flakes insides provided just enough texture while not being SUPER crunchy like Rice Krispies can be.  There was no real potato chip taste but there were definite bursts of salt wherever the flakes were – it gave the chocolate moments of savoriness amongst the satisfying sweet.  Nice job.

The Chuao Sweet & Salty ChocoPod definitely tasted, IMO, more like milk chocolate than it’s Potato Chip brother. Sweeter and smoother chocolate, this candy had noticeable salt crystals embedded inside the chocolate.  As my teeth hit a crystal it burst with savoriness like the Potato Chip variety.  Not HUGE bursts, but just subtle little ones…tiny bumps in otherwise very smooth chocolate. Just a solid chocolate.  Thumbs up.

The Chuao Maple Bacon Chocolate Bar was by far my favorite of the bunch.  As soon as you opened the package, the whole thing just SMELLED sweet and porky.  Biting into it, there was of course the immediate taste of a great milk chocolate, and then my teeth started to hit the bacon bits.  At first, they tasted like maple sugar candies, sort of like toffee bits.  Sweet, caramel tasting.  Then the extreme smoky and porkiness started to come through – and started to shine!

There were moments of actual salty bacon flavor that mixed with the chocolate to produce an amazingly savory taste… the whole thing balanced really well between sweet and savory.  It was like each a Crunch bar – a bacon-y Crunch bar.  Salty, smoky, bacon-y, sweet, and altogether delicious.  REALLY high marks here.

The Chuao Ravishing Rocky Road Chocolate was good, but not my favorite of the pack.  For fans of Rocky Road, you’ll love this bar – nice sweet milk chocolate with hints of sea salt to give a nice deep chocolate flavor.  And then along the way you’ll crunch into some fresh almonds and some nice big ole marshmallows.  Chewed all together, you’ll be satisfied with the Rocky Road flavor you’ve come to know and love.  It was good, but nothing unexpected to me.  Just a solid addition to Chuao’s line.

I’d rank them: 1) Maple Bacon Bar, 2) Potato Chip ChocoPod, 3) TIE: Sweet & Salty ChocoPod and Rocky Road Bar.

Thanks again to Chuao for letting me sample their wares!  WOW indeed 🙂 </suckup>

PURCHASED AT: Mailed to me!

COST: Free

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me atjunkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang out.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy