World Market Favorites

Back when I decided to stop doing monthly favorites posts, I did mention that I might still do some kind of favorites from time to time. So today I have a short list of products that are specifically from World Market. You can get some of them from other stores, yes, but I like shopping at World Market and I like stocking up on points (they do have a good rewards program, which helps further motivate me to buy as much as I can from them versus from elsewhere). And while some people might think of World Market more as a decor store, they have a decent selection of grocery products--and not just the novelty items.

Foco Coconut Water - World Market sells a box of twelve of these for about eighteen dollars. Three plain, three with lychee juice, three with pineapple juice, and three with mango puree. The only other ingredient they add (to the flavored ones only) is Vitamin C--and the juice is not from concentrate. I don't always like coconut water much, but I do like these, even the plain ones. They have a rich, sweet taste. The lychee one is probably my favorite; it tastes almost like strawberry.

Zhena's Teas - I've brought these up on here quite a bit in the past. They're organic and fair trade and loose teas, which are the three main things I ask for in a tea. And they come in these nice little glass containers that you can reuse when buying in bulk. There are quite a few flavors, from plain black and green teas to flavored teas and herbal/floral teas, but lately World Market has mainly only been carrying the flavored and herbal types. Probably these are the leftover stock that aren't selling as quickly. Still, most of them are good. They're about ten dollars each.

Vermont Maple Syrup - Though it is Grade A, this might not be the absolute best maple syrup I've ever had (though of course it all beats the faux maple syrups that dominate the market). It's still nice, though, and again, it's nice to buy a ten dollar item at World Market instead of elsewhere in order to get points.

Los Cantores Tortilla Chips - These are a new product. I saw tortilla chips and focused my attention in excitement. Then I saw that they're non-GMO and decided they were worth trying. The lime flavor called my attention, and I am very impressed. They genuinely taste like someone just squirted plain chips with lime juice, sprinkled on some salt, and handed them over for me to eat. I don't think I've ever come across such a genuine lime flavor in a packaged product. The chips are on the thicker side, but not too thick. At four dollars for a bag, they're more Whole Foods non-GMO prices than Trader Joe's organic prices, but then again Trader Joe's tortilla chips are starting to taste a little cheap to me. If the plain chips from Los Cantores also win me over, this may turn out to be my usual brand of tortilla chips (said chips are, after all, a staple in my house).

Cucina & Amore Pasta - I have had this brand of pasta before and if I'm not mistaken World Market has carried their products for a while--just not in this particular size/style. At two dollars for a bag of organic pasta, it's at an average price. And it's good pasta. So another nice staple to buy here.

Mrs. Meyer's Dish Soap - The thing about this one is that, as far as I know, World Market has just recently started carrying the lavender scent. The lavender is my preference, but I used to have to either get it elsewhere or get a different scent. Mrs. Meyer's is a great brand if you're looking for a simple, more natural dish soap (and it's certainly more gentle on hands than other brands). I also highly recommend their laundry soap, by the way.

TCHO and Alter Eco Chocolates - Let's finish on a sweet note. I've been reviewing a lot of chocolate bars from TCHO and Alter Eco lately. You can also get Alter Eco from Whole Foods, but I don't think I know if anywhere else (where I live, that is) to find TCHO. They each have a nice line of chocolate bars to please different moods and cravings, and they're both organic and fair trade. Lately I've felt like World Market's selection has been getting weaker. They sell plenty of British candy bars and plenty of Ghirardelli and Lindt and now they have their own label with a wide selection--but chocolate like what I've been getting from TCHO and Alter Eco is more what I want. So if they see that that's what we're buying, perhaps they'll continue to carry more of it.

World Market: Dried Strawberry Bits with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Salty chocolate is one of the trends I'm starting to get tired of. But I do love salt and I do love chocolate, so I decided I might as well try one of the bars from World Market's "Exotic Collection of Sea Salted Chocolate." Goodness, "exotic." I should get out my Jules Verne volume for a background then, eh?

This bar is possibly slightly overpriced for its 85 gram size that is in the shape of 100 gram bars. But it's in a pretty card box instead of the simple wrapping of World Market's standard range, so it's pretending it's fancy. And, yes, the ingredients list isn't full of fillers--the worst item might be the strawberry flavor that accompanies the freeze-dried strawberries, and even that could be natural and not artificial flavor. So this isn't going to work out to be a downright terrible quality bar of chocolate. The question is just whether or not it's going to be very nice. 

The box folds out to an envelope, from which I wanted to slide out the bar. Instead, however, I had to pull on the glue marks once more to lift away the other cardboard flap and free the chocolate. World Market has used their standard mark and eight piece shape. The look is rather reminiscent of Ghirardelli, come to think of it. But Ghirardelli keeps to a simple standard that tends to work--while World Market tries to provide copies of quality chocolate with different flavor pairings that don't always come over flawlessly. 

The Dark Chocolate Dried Strawberrry Bits with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt bar does, in fact, appear very dark in color. It's a dark brown, almost black. But this being World Market, I wouldn't expect it to be any higher of a cocoa percentage than 75%. And, indeed, for all its dark color, it's a fairly sweet dark chocolate. I almost wonder if it's below 70%. Perhaps not. After eating a full square (which is around three pieces for me), I lose interest in the chocolate part of this bar. It's too lukewarm, sweet of a dark chocolate, with no texture of layered flavor. 

The chocolate aside, what's interesting about the added flavors is that the salt is pink Himalayan. Himalayan salt has been in fashion lately; I've been using it (but I started using the Himalayan salt lamps some time ago; they're so pretty). And I'm thinking that it's particularly well-suited to chocolate. When you first taste straight Himalayan salt, it doesn't taste very salty; then you get used to it and don't notice anymore. And since I've been getting tired of chocolates shoved full of salt, maybe this lighter flavor is a better idea. This isn't to say that World Market is the first company to use pink salt; I don't think it's the first time I've even had it in chocolate. But it's certainly a less common route. This also isn't the first time I've had salt and strawberry together in chocolate, but the other time was so long ago that it might as well be. 

Somehow I can't taste the strawberry much. I can see the little strawberry pieces, but I can't taste them all the time. The salt isn't horribly salty, so I'm not sure I can say that it's just a matter of the salt overshadowing the strawberry. I think it's more a case of the sweetness of the strawberry siding with the sweetness of the chocolate. If you look for the strawberry flavor, you can find it. But if you're not thinking of it, the salt comes to mind first. In fact, it's a rather interesting exploration of sweet and salty--or sweet and sour, if you will. It's pleasant. I only wish that the chocolate backdrop were a tad more developed; it would make the experience as a whole rather richer.