Celebrating Easter Bargains

As a holiday, Easter does nothing for me. (Duh.) It's a great time of year for finding chocolate on sale, though, which gladdens the heart of this chocolate-loving cheapskate. I'm a fan of dark (not milk) chocolate so I don't care for most of the made-for-Easter stuff (cute as some of it is), but happily, non-seasonal chocolate is on sale too.

Apparently I'm way behind the curve on news from the confectionery world; I hadn't realized that Willy Wonka (a Nestlé brand) has been making chocolate for grownups for over a year now. (Darn, I missed the "Golden Ticket" promotion!) And I didn't notice it until the cashier pointed it out, but Wonka has a unique spin on something as mundane as the Universal Product Code (UPC, or "bar code") on the package:

(Sorry the picture's not better; it's hard to get a good shot of a shiny foil bag.) Cute, huh? And it scanned just like a "normal" UPC, which for comparison, would look like this:

How boring.

The chocolate itself (Wonka Exceptionals Domed Dark Chocolate Pieces, described on the package as "velvety dark chocolate with milk chocolate medallions") isn't bad. I'd missed the part about the "milk chocolate medallions," but a dime-sized "button" of milk chocolate on top of a bite-sized piece of dark chocolate doesn't affect the taste noticeably for me. I think I still prefer Dove's dark chocolate "Promises" to meet my bite-size chocolate needs, but extensive side-by-side taste testing will be required for a final decision.