Junk Food Nation, FINALLY.  The MLB Divisional Series are here.  After three straight one game playoffs (wow, Tampa, I really underestimated you), our playoffs are set!  On the NL side, the Pittsburgh Pirates will face the STL Cards, and the Dodgers take on the Braves. On the AL side, Tampa Bay will take on Boston, and the Tigers face the A’s.  For a baseball fan, these are some damn good series.  Time to prognosticate!  These are Best-Of-5 series:

PIRATES @ CARDINALS: Ah, man, these are actually the two teams I was hoping would meet in the NL Championship.  The key stats in this series: The Cardinals can hit, and the Pirates can pitch.  The Cardinals had a +187 run differential, best in the NL!  But outside of Wainwright, in a five game series…who else do they have? And trust me, I had Wacha and Kelly and Lynn on my fantasy team…but quality starts isn’t the same as wins.  Meanwhile on the Pirates’ end, they had the 3^rd best ERA in the majors and the 2^nd best opponents’ batting average against.  I KNOW.  Burnett, Liriano, Cole?  Who? Argh it’s tough, because I REALLY like the Pirates. I can see them splitting 1-1 in STL, and splitting 1-1 in Pittsburgh, with the final game in STL…and STL winning it.  STL over PITT in 5.

DODGERS @ BRAVES: At first glance, you might think “Well, the Dodgers have a billion dollar payroll, and Greinke, Kershaw, Ryu will blow them away” until you realize that while the Dodgers had the 2^nd best ERA in the majors, the Braves had the FIRST!  WHAT?! Still I’m calling this a draw, even though I do think the Dodgers top 3 are better than the Braves top 3.  The key here will be the bats, and while the Braves hit for WAY more power and Evan Gattis scares me…the Dodgers just get on base at an astonishing clip.  Couple that with their devastating pitching, and it’s hard NOT to pick the Dodgers.  LA over ATL in 3 (sweepy).

TAMPA BAY @ BOSTON: ARGGGGHHHHH. Talk about a series where I wish both teams could lose 😉 But I’m not going to spend too much time on this, because I’m just going to maintain my Tampa Bay underestimation – Boston leads the league in almost every major batting category and is close to the top in most of the pitching ones too.  And let me tell you, this is all TO MY CHAGRIN.  But, since Tampa is managed well, I’m going to say this goes the full five.  BOS over TB in 5.

DETROIT @ OAKLAND: It goes like this – Oakland’s pitching is slightly better, in the peripherals, than Detroit, but Detroit’s offense is a step better than Oakland’s.  Oakland’s low team batting average is a concern, but so does Miguel Cabrera’s hip.  Plus, which Justin Verlander are we going to get?  What will Bartolo Colon be eating between innings?  And what about Oakland’s 10^th man – won’t O.co Coliseum be SHAKING tomorrow night, enough to unravel Scherzer?  Maybe…this is a tough one.  My gut says Detroit, but it’s not a landslide for sure.  The A’s are tough tough tough.  I think the Tigers split in Oakland, and take two at home.  DET over OAK in 4…but each game is a 1-runner.

Today’s junk food: Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar!

Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar: The Money Shot

For those who don’t have a Wegmans near them, I’ll summarize – it’s basically a high end grocery store, with an excellent 1/3 of the store prepared food section.  It has a wine shop, it has a cheese chop, it has a bakery, it has a dessert chef.  It basically has everything you’d want from a grocery store at lower costs than a Whole Foods, Balduccis, etc.  Plus, the best part of it is their self-branded line of products is EXCELLENT, along the lines of a Trader Joes.  It’s everything rolled into one!  And as an Upstate NY kid, I grew up with Wegmans.  Love.

I’ve been eating Wegmans tomato sauce, canned veggies, breads, chips, yogurts, EVERYTHING for years.  NEar DC, a brand new Wegmans just opened – and Doctor Sis clued me into this – they had their own CHOCOLATE LINE NOW???  WHAT?

Think about this.  You’re used to seeing Stop n’ Shop canned peas…but when have you ever seen Stop n’ Shop high end chocolate? Truffles?  NEVER!  So when I went and saw this Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar, I knew this needed to be reviewed.

Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar: Serving size, 1/2 bar?? I LOVE YOU

Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar has a short ingredient list, which is very nice, and disclaims that one serving is half the candy bar itself.  Thank God.  I hate when candy says serving size is, like, one of the square pieces inside.  YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT’S BS!  I will cram this chocolate bar into my mouth, and you better shush.

Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar: Stenciled with the Wegs logo

As soon as I opened this Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar, I could smell the chocolate.  Like, really smell it – lovely chocolate smell came wafting out.  Ok, I had to put my nose closer to the bar, whatever.  Smelled good!  Nothing special though…

Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar: TOFFEE BITS!

I bit and OMG.  This Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt Toffee Bar was pretty excellent. First, that its called Dark Chocolate was misleading at first to me.  Yes, this is not milk chocolate, but this chocolate is also NOT the type of REALLY dark and REALLY bitter chocolate which is trendy right now.  No, at 61% cacao, this tasted more like a nice deep hot chocolate flavor, decently sweet with LOTS of chocolate flavor.

The sea salt toffee was basically little bits of salty sweet crunch through out.  Imagine a Nestle Crunch bar, but instead of crispy rice, there are just bits of salty sweet toffee.  Each little burst of toffee added a little savory which helped make the chocolate even sweeter.  Plus, the toffee itself gave off nice notes of caramel-like flavor here and there.

I’m not really a big chocolate guy, but this candy bar was well constructed in its simplicity and well executed in its flavor.  Not bad for a grocery store brand.  BUY. BUY THEM ALL.

PURCHASED AT: WEGMANS

COST: $1.99 on sale

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Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy