Brookside Dark Chocolate

If you like dark chocolate or chocolate covered berries, try the 2lb bag of Brookside Dark Chocolate Acai Blueberry sold at most Costco stores. Actually, since this brand is Brookside and not Kirkland, you can probably find it at quite a few places. Costco is notorious for sweet and/or salty snacks that come in big bags. I’ll admit that I am a sucker for some of these Costco treats, but I am very leery of any product that bills itself as a, ‘healthy snack’. I don’t agree with much of what is considered healthy in today’s world – it usually means it is devoid of saturated fats. I could care less about saturated fats – it’s the fake fats and oils and artificial sweeteners that I care about. Brookside Dark Chocolate Acai and blueberry isn’t entirely bad.

Is Chocolate Healthy?

No where on the bag of Brookside Chocolate covered acai blueberries is the word, healthy, actually mentioned. What is specifically noted on the top of the bag is, “Natural Source of Flavanol Antioxidants.” Supposedly, chocolate has some of these so-called, ‘healthy anti-oxidants and Brookside’s ingredients do list ‘dark chocolate or (Real Cocoa mixed with sugar) as the number one ingredient. So, I suppose if you consider chocolate healthy, then Brookside at least has that much going for them. On to the next question:

Are Blueberries Healthy?

According to the Blueberry Nutrition Council, blueberries are also packed with anti-oxidants and just one 14MG serving will give you 25% of your daily recommended requirement of vitamin-c. Additionally, they say blueberries are high in fiber. So, we’ve got good healthy chocolate and good, healthy blueberries, right? Not so fast. Might want to look at the rest of the ingredients and decide if there is too much sugar, and/or other fake-o ingredients you might not like, such as canola oil.

Ingredients

Not bad, but should we really be judging a snack by whether or not it is considered, ‘healthy’?

Verdict on Brookside Dark Chocolate

Chocolate covered blueberries are really quite delicious. The dark chocolate tastes fresh and melts in your mouth, leaving your mouth with a semi-sweet/sour blueberry which is rather refreshing. I found myself craving the next bite of chocolate every time I devoured the previous blueberry. The texture of the chocolate covered acai blueberries is very appealing. It really is a pretty darn addictive treat. Too addictive – I discovered, perhaps, another problem which is probably unique to only a few of us, but true with most all chocolates.
I think I’ve proven that at least for me, chocolate does indeed cause headaches. Over the course of a few days, having a couple of handfuls of these chocolate treats, I had experienced one headache after another the very next morning. The headaches were rather intense and lasted all day long. When I thought about what habit I was engaging in that could be causing these headaches, the only thing I could think of was chocolate. I’ve experienced headaches in the past from chocolate pudding and other forms of chocolate. Sadly, I’ve stopped enjoying the delicious brookside snack. I’d gladly sacrifice chocolate to remain headache free as I have been since giving up the Brookside Dark Chocolate Covered Blueberries.

What do you think of Brookside Dark Chocolate and Berries?