Studentská Pecat

A friend just returned from visiting her home country of Slovakia.  And because she is awesome, she returned with a special treat: chocolate!  I love trying new chocolates, and always find it fun to try out the generic chocolate from other countries.  Sure, I love my fancy-pants chocolate too, but I got a bit hooked on Cadbury when I was in Australia, and now love comparing everywhere's "base" chocolate to Hershey.  Pretty much everywhere has it better than us!

The chocolate she returned with is made by Studentská Pecat, which means "Student Stamp".  Since all of their literature is in Slovak, I can't read any of it, so the best I can tell you is that they are part of the of the Nestlé empire, which I've of course reviewed before.  And their chocolate is loaded up with stuff, like nuts and fruits.  So unlike most of my reviews, I really can't tell you cocoa percentages, or any other details, since they are mysteries to me too!

Studentská Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate.

She brought back one milk chocolate bar and one dark chocolate bar.  Both had fruit and nuts added, which is their signature thing.  The brand has been around since 1975, as people really enjoy the combo of peanuts, raisins, and jelly in their chocolate.  It was actually rather fun trying to guess what I was eating, I didn't try to figure it out until after I had tasted the bars.  Even once I'd tasted them, and looked at the pictures on the wrappers, I wasn't entirely sure what I'd eaten.

The milk was a decent milk chocolate, and it was loaded up with nuts (peanuts?) and I think some raisins.  It reminded me a bit of a Mr. Goodbar, as there was just sooo many chunks of peanut inside.

The dark also had the same plentiful chunks of peanuts, but then also a dried fruit that I thought might be currants.  The picture makes me think they might have actually been dried cherries.  They were a bit sweet and a bit tart and chewy.  The texture of this bar was really interesting, as you you had the chewy dried fruit, the crunchy nuts, and then ... something that sorta seemed like licorice pieces embedded in it.  Although the flavor wasn't quite anise-like.  It turns out that this was chunks of "jelly"?  Such a strange eating experience.

In each of these bars, there were far more nuts, fruit, and other filler than actual chocolate, so it was best to think of them as candy bars, not chocolate exactly.

I also tried a special limited edition holiday bar, with bits of jelly pear and peanuts.  I again liked the crunch from the nuts, was intrigued by the jelly bits, and thought the chocolate was creamy and better than American "default" chocolate brands.  I do enjoy these candy bars.