My unending search for good marzipan

I have a bit of marzipan obsession. Not the weird marzipan that gets shaped into fruits, I’m talking about super awesome European marzipan that is coated in chocolate. Ok, I’m not actually sure I’ve ever tried the fruit-shaped marzipan, to be honest. I’m just intimidated by eating fruit that isn’t fruit! In any case, for most of the marzipan-obsessed period of my life, I’ve eaten these things:

Mozart chocolates, also called mozartkugel. They’re quite tasty! Marzipan plus chocolate is an excellent combination. I would get them from the Lindt chocolate store, in a shopping mall about 20 minutes away from where I lived, quite convenient. Then the store shut down. At this point I could go to the gourmet chocolate shop in Carytown, For The Love of Chocolate, and pay a bit too much for these balls, or head out to Charlottesville or DC to one of the Lindt stores there.

Then I move to Denver, where there is not a single Lindt store to be found. It’s quite tragic, really. However, I found an excellent gourmet food and kitchen store in Boulder called Peppercorn, which indeed carried Mozart chocolates, along with an intriguing array of other chocolates. So, along with the usual Mozart chocolates, I picked up one of these babies:

That is an Anthon Berg marzipan bar, now officially known to me as a really good reason to visit Denmark someday. This specific bar is marzipan soaked in cognac, covered in dark chocolate. It is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. So, I recently found myself in Boulder, and knew I had to have another one. So I stopped by Peppercorn, but none were to be found. No Mozart chocolates either, for that matter. I asked a saleslady what the deal was, and it seems that there are certain things they only carry during the Christmas season. Alas, so unless I discover an alternate source, I’ll have to wait several more months to get my fix. So, rather then wallowing in marzipanless misery, I picked up two things that seemed like they might make good substitutes.

The top bar was a Mozart bar, so I had high hopes for it. However, it ended up being like the bastard lovechild of a Mozart chocolate and a 500 Grand bar. The inside was marzipan, but the outside was coated in crispy milk chocolate. It’s bizarre, in that I felt like the crispy chocolate was somehow cheapening the marzipan experience. And I really like 500 Grand bars too, but I’d rather not find marzipan in them. Mind you, I ate the entire bar and enjoyed it, but it had an unfortunate dissonance to it.

I was clueless as to what the bottom chocolate was, except that it was sitting by the Mozart bar. Turned out to be a chocolate covered cherry. Which was good, but wasn’t hitting the spot that needed hitting, unfortunately. Alas, I might just have to try making my own marzipan chocolates one of these days!

Incidentally, I’m going out of town for about two weeks soon, which may or may not involve posts during that time!