In my family I am well known for ‘not laughing out loud’. I do, of course, but not at what people expect me to and the more people expect me to laugh out loud, the less I want to. My children pointed out that one of the few TV programmes I do laugh audibly at is Frasier, and it’s true.
Thus it was, after much deliberation (surely a programme that old would be available on one of the many streaming services I subscribe to) that I splashed out on the full boxed set, settled down and started from the beginning: back in the other lifetime that was autumn 1993. In episode 4, Frasier sits by a vending machine popping peanut M&Ms.
This caused an epic craving (peanut M&Ms are my weak spot): what could I have among my vault of craft bars that could mimic that mindless popping in the mouth action and the crunch? Like a Christmas miracle (it was around that time) I found some Hotel Chocolat Dark Almonds (£6, 130g). They seemed austere in all that dark chocolate but, glory, they were adorned in some sort of caramelised, salted coating (why this isn’t advertised in the title is a mystery) that elevated them to something magical and irresistible.
Incredibly, they lasted two days and it was then that I rediscovered another crave-triggering bar: Bare Bones’s latest addition to its stable: the 59% milk with coffee (£6.50, 70g) a most perfect mix of rich milk chocolate and Ethiopian coffee.
