Wacko’s Ciocko Krunch: Italian Chocolate Balls

On a recent trip to Rome, my friend and colleague Dani kindly brought me back some Italian sweet treats. I asked her to pick something up for me from a local supermarket in Rome to ensure the products were traditionally Italian and not something produced for tourists. I spent a good couple of weeks travelling round Italy on a backpacking trip around Europe and while the majority of my time was filled with consuming delicious food and drink, I didn’t get to try much Italian chocolate. Instead, I indulged in daily scoops of gelato and warm breakfast pastries accompanied by some of the best espressos.  So, as I cast my mind back to the pleasures of Italian food, it’s only right I try some of the more likely treats found in an Italian’s supermarket trolley.

First up is ‘Wacko’s Ciocko Krunch’ which is a 30g bag of odd looking chocolate balls produced by long withstanding food producer in Milan, San Carlo. Equally as bizarre is the brightly coloured packaging with a fierce looking cartoon character on the front which I think is named Wacko. A description of the contents reads “croccanti palline ricoperte al cioccolato” which, thanks to Google Translate, tells me that inside are crunchy chocolate covered balls.

On first appearance the balls looked like they had gone off as they had a white coating like you often find on chocolate that is out-of-date or that had melted and reset. However, this wasn’t the case and I can only guess that the light colouring was in fact white chocolate or milk which gave the chocolate coating a very creamy taste. Only a light layer of chocolate covered the ball which was very crispy and not like anything I had come across before. It was neither wafer, biscuit, nor like the centre of a Malteser. Whatever it was, it wasn’t overly tasty and left me with tooth ache for the rest of the evening .  Ciocko Krunch appears to be a fun treat for kids but I certainly wouldn’t like my children to eat these for fear of their teeth dropping out!

I’m afraid to say my first taste of Italian sweets wasn’t as enjoyable as I expected. I’ll give my other Italian sweet treat a try in a couple of days and let you know how it is but when I next visit Italy, I’ll stick to my gelato and prasties! Spiacente Italia! (which means “sorry Italy!”)

Vivere la vita, Amando torta,

H x