Chocolate Inspirations

August 22, 2012

It just occurred to me that part of the reason I’m kind of okay and even a little enthusiastic about all of the popular diets in the world right now (vegan, gluten-free, etc) is that if you follow most any of them, you can still eat peanut butter! Nice to know I could survive as a vegan, if some evil meanface doctor told me I had to.

Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet, but I like to dabble in all of the newfangled diets anyway and recently got to taste treats from a company that makes products that are both vegan and gluten-free. We often run off to the country-like suburbs of Chicago to visit family, so it was really cool to find out about Chocolate Inspirations, which is a chocolate company located practically in our family’s back yard.

My father-in-law eats gluten-free so he was particularly excited to partake in devouring these candies. I never realized until eating around him how many unsuspecting products have gluten in them. Even certain types of vanilla extract have it! So, knowing that these treats fell in the safe zone was really nice for him. Seeing how much he enjoyed them was double nice.

The company describes their brand and products in a very enticing way:

"We are a family owned specialty chocolate company based in Roselle, IL. We have a phenominal product called Peanut Butter Pillows. Think Butterfingers! We consider these a crossover product, meaning they are made with vegan ingredients, but they are great for non-vegans as well. Our Peanut Butter Pillows are light and flakey and come with or without chocolate. They are also Gluten Free."

How awesome of a name is ‘Peanut Butter Pillow’? It makes me want to curl up in a ball, eat peanut butter candies and fall gently into peanut butter-induced sleep. Ahh.

Being an experienced Butterfinger eater, I can tell you that the Chocolate Inspiration treats have a few advantages above them, namely that they are more health conscious and don’t stick to your teeth as viciously as Butterfingers. Major plus! They have a satisfying crunch and great peanut butter flavor. They’re wonderful on their own and I suspect would taste awesome crumbled over or an ice cream sundae. Like a peanut buttery version of toffee bits. Mmm!

I think the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows were the favorite among our family, but we also really enjoyed the unique flavor of the Vegan Cashew Brown Sugar Vanilla Pillows. I later browsed their site and also discovered Cinnamon Toast Toffee! If you zoom in, you can see that it’s coated generously in sugar crystals. Woo! Oh and did we mention they make Peanut Butter Caramel Corn as well?

FYI, if it’s hot where you live right now, you can stash the “naked” peanut butter pillows in your purse or bag without worrying about them melting in the summer heat. As a chronic CPB snacker, not being able to carry chocolate around on the go is probably the saddest thing about summer for me, so finding a way around it while getting to enjoy something tasty is awesome.

Check out all of Chocolate Inspirations’ unique treats here. Stash some in your bag and your tummy!