Review: Wild Ophelia Peppermint Bark

So Good Blog readers!  It’s Eric, your friendly neighborhood Junk Food Guy again, coming to you after a restful Thanksgiving, a quiet birthday, and a horribly frustrating fantasy football weekend.  Seriously why do I do this to myself each year?  Why do I set it up so that my Sunday nights are NOT restful, and instead involve me yelling at the TV “JUST PASS IT, ELI. JUST THROW THE BALL!  NOT TO HIM! TO NICKS AAAAARGHHHHHHHHH…..*”

But I digress.

Today’s junk food: Wild Ophelia Peppermint Bark!

Wild Ophelia Peppermint Bark is one of the newest flavors released by Vosges / Wild Ophelia.  Now, we’ve all had peppermint bark before.  I’ve reviewed a bunch of peppermint bark-y type things on my blog before.  The concept is generally pretty simple – chocolate and candy cane pieces, melded together. Sometimes it’s white chocolate.  Sometimes it’s coupled with chocolate cookie.  Or sometimes, like here in the case of this Wild Ophelia Peppermint Bark, it’s made with “natural peppermint oil from Cascade Pacific Essential Oils. This premium aromatic peppermint oil from near the Cascade Mountains in Washington State and Oregon yields the highest quality natural peppermint leaves in the world and provides a tangy and cooling flavor.” Well, I feel fancy.

Wild Ophelia Peppermint Bark is constructed using dark chocolate, peppermint oil, and lots of crushed up candy canes. I mean, look at this thing.  This is either a intentionally generous smattering of crushed candy cane, or someone messed up at the toppings machine and this chocolate bar was sprayed with excess candy.

As soon as I opened the packaging, HUGE peppermint smell came rolling out.  Made me excited to nom this thing!

Took a bite and WHOA.  Wild Ophelia Peppermint Bark, you…you surprised me.

Whereas other peppermint bark’s I’ve eaten tried to emphasize the sweetness of the chocolate and its mix with mint, trying to push a Thin Mint-like flavor, this bar went the other way. The dark chocolate provided a wonderful cocoa flavor, but with it being 70% dark, it was only slightly sweet.  Instead, it set the platform for the the mint flavor to be the real star of the show.

To be clear, it’s not like the mint flavor pervaded everything like I was eating toothpaste.  No, it’s more that the freshness of the peppermint oil was part of every single bite and never let up – as if I was eating the most refined Peppermint Patty or Andes chocolate ever.  But everything blended so well, there wasn’t the familiar peppermint-y iciness – no, this was more just a warm hug between the chocolate and the mint.  The candy cane candy bits just provided some crunchy texture, but the main mint flavor came from the chocolate itself.

Wow.  Way to go, Wild Ophelia.

PURCHASED AT: Well, sent to me, but available at Target, Walgreens, Whole Foods, Wegmans and HEB markets and online. 

COST: $3.99

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy and read more reviews at JunkFoodGuy.com. Let’s hang out.

Summary

Author Rating

Aggregate Rating

5 based on 1 votes

Brand Name

Wild Ophelia

Product Name

Peppermint Bark

Price

USD 3.99