As you can obviously tell from the point of this blog, I am by no means a “high maintenance” guy.  I often shop at Goodwill stores, have no problems accepting clothes and gifts from stores like Wal-Mart, and just generally have an appreciation for the “cheaper” things in life.

That being said, there are some things that generally aren’t well represented in the inexpensive world of dollar stores, and chocolate is one of them.  I can tolerate many things, but cheap chocolates are among the worst of the worst.  They often have a terrible smell, and the same texture as plastic, with roughly the same taste.  As such, I’m hesitant to try any chocolates from a company I’ve never heard of.

Forcing my fears back, I sucked it up and decided to try Landmark Confections‘ Duet White and Dark Chocolate bar, which can be found at Dollar Tree stores.  The bar weighs in at 3.5 oz., and costs only a dollar; to me, this is a believable size-to-price ratio that could lead to a decent hunk of chocolate.  It’s not like you’re getting a pound for a buck.  The package design, while not mind-blowing, is certainly better than some cheapy chocolate bars I’ve had in the past, and definitely helped with my decision to buy it.

The bar itself is divided up into fifteen small-ish squares, with three squares the perfect size for snacking (at least, in my opinion).  Whether you’re smelling the dark chocolate or the white chocolate side, it pretty much smells like the former regardless, which I guess is to be expected, as dark chocolate has a rather strong smell.

Now, here’s where I negate any credibility I ever had in this review:  I don’t really care for dark chocolate all that much.  I find it to be unpleasant and bitter, which are the exact opposite reactions I’m looking for when I get a craving for chocolate.  On the other hand, I happen to love white chocolate, so I just bought it kind of hoping that both tastes would go well together.  So if you are a huge fan of dark chocolate, you can probably add a point or two to the final score to adjust for your taste preference, or you can just toss this review out the window entirely.

I was surprised by the texture.  Some cheapy chocolates I’ve had never really even melted in your mouth, which is obviously a big turn off when dealing with something like this, which should be smooth and creamy.  The chocolate in this bar melts in your mouth pretty convincingly.  I highly doubt that you will confuse this for the silky smooth confection of a Dove bar, but I would liken the consistency to a Hershey bar, more or less.

On to the taste:  At first, I found the taste of the dark chocolate to be rather overwhelming, but after a few little squares, I started to notice the white chocolate quite a bit more.  The white chocolate is basically a standard example of white chocolate…there’s nothing outstanding about it, but then again, what do you expect for a dollar?  The aftertaste, however, is generally strongly of the dark chocolate, with the occasional bite leaving the pleasant residual taste of white chocolate.

Overall: 6/10.  Again, please add a point or two depending on how much you like dark chocolate, as I’m not a fan of it at all.  Instead, I was hoping the mix of dark and white chocolates would create some kind of delicious harmony that was previously missing from my life.  It didn’t.  Instead, it just plays out like a standard ’national brand’ dark chocolate bar meeting a standard ‘national brand’ white chocolate bar, with neither flavor really managing to be anything special.  The aftertaste is primarily dark chocolate.  Definitely edible, so it can satisfy a sweet tooth, and the dollar price tag is also enticing.  But even for a buck, there are so many chocolate options out there that I’m sure you can do better.

NOTE: Could not find any pictures of these items online, and my wife deleted the pics I had taken to make more room in the camera for more pictures of our dog (as if the million we have aren’t enough).  So I apologize for the rather bland format this time around.