Sugar Savvy

Glaced Ginger
This week The Chocolate Box will be taking a bite out of See’s Candy’s glaced ginger. For a very full explanation of why I chose See’s Candy, and why I get to be the one to taste a different piece or two every week, please see the Author’s Note at the first See’s Piece by Piece report. See’s Candy is available in 16 states and by mail order. It offers about 100 confections that you can buy by the piece. For more information, please check out See’s website.

Tasting Report
Piece Number: Glaced ginger is listed as piece number 21 on the website and on pages 30 and 31 of the catalog, or as I like to refer to it, the seasonal See’s bible.

Description: This piece keeps its secrets to itself. It looks like a somewhat squarish chocolate lump. No curb appeal, but it does come two to a pleated brown paper cup, which is quite a redeeming feature.

Why Glaced Ginger: I had several reasons for selecting this dark horse of a candy. First, I had never tried it before and thought it would make a good contrast to my beloved Bordeaux, which I wrote about last week. Second, I had just spent three full days of eating at the Fancy Food Show. Ginger is known to be kind to the stomach and the glaced (or candied) ginger confection was not creamy or rich, which seemed like a very good idea. Third, the Lunar, or Chinese, New Year starts this Sunday. Holidays are a great excuse to eat candy and chocolate so a ginger chocolate candy seemed like a timely selection.

Taste: It was an adventure biting through the dark chocolate shell into the firm spiciness of the glaced ginger. First, the dark chocolate covering shattered in my mouth. But before I could even taste the chocolate, the warmth and mild spiciness of the candied ginger spread across my tongue like a gentle firecracker, slowly receding as the chocolate shards began to melt against my palate and add a mellowing note. Then I realized I had to chew. The glaced ginger was not just a jelled filling; it was a whole chunk of candied ginger and required actual mastication. On my next bite, I was careful to chew the ginger while the chocolate notes were strong so that I could get a good mix of flavors. The ginger itself was soft and not at all stringy. The candying process left the ginger sweeter and softer but had not robbed it of its complexity.

I have to admit, I like ginger and don’t find its spiciness hot, especially when it has been glaced, but there are those of you out there whose taste buds would disagree. So if your ginger heat tolerance is low, eat this candy with a nice cup of jasmine tea nearby to extinguish any fires.

See’s Trivia: According the book See’s Famous Old Time Candies, A Sweet Story, by Margaret Moos Pick (which the company’s public relations firm provided to Sugar Savvy), the 1976 opening of the first See’s shop in Hong Kong was marked by a Chinese Lion Dance and firecrackers. The company also has shops in Japan.

Ingredients: Dark chocolate coating (see coating ingredients in the first report), ginger and sugar

Well Fed Rating: Compared to other See’s candies, I would give glaced ginger a 7.5 to 8 out of 10.
Pro: Complexity of taste.
Con: Not what a lot of people are looking for in their boxes of chocolate.