Review: Wild Ophelia Hunger Games Chocolate District 12 and District 4 & A Brief Note on Young Adult Writing…
Happy Hunger Games, everyone! After spending yesterday battling a horrible migraine headache, I’m back with this new Hunger Games Chocolate. As you’ll remember, I first spotted this Wild Ophelia Hunger Games Chocolate when I was at the Summer Fancy Food Show:
Back at the Summer Fancy Food Show…
I was sad that I didn’t get to look at each flavor closely to figure out what District matched up to which flavors. Thankfully, with the newest installment of the Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire, out last night, I figured this would be a perfect time to hit up Wild Ophelia and ask them to send me some of the goods! And they did.
BTW, a note on Young Adult books that have been turned into movies: What the hell, man?? How are we ALL not writing books about dystopian futures that feature a strong willed female in her mid teens that rises up and fights for the overall good against an oppressive society? Wait, am I talking about the Hunger Games, or am I talking about the upcoming Divergent Series? And does it even matter. These days, it seems like the big payout is NOT in the book writing / book selling, but in the licensing of media rights to have the stories turned into motion pictures. Did you know that the author of the Divergent series, Veronica Roth, is 25 years old? 25 YEARS OLD!!! She wrote the book while she was in college and sold the rights before she graduated. Um, DAMN.
When will someone comes along and buy the movie rights to Junkfoodguy.com? About a plucky young attorney who enjoys eating Cheetos and Oreos and who rises up and fights for…er…limited edition snacks in the Target checkout aisle. Hmmm. I think Jennifer Lawrence could handle that role, too.
Anyways, back to the chocolate:
Hunger Games Chocolate: The Money Shot
Wild Ophelia sent me two of their Hunger Games Chocolate Bars, but the whole set can be viewed here. Here is the breakdown of flavors by District:
DISTRICT 12 – Mining: mined salt + 41% cacao milk chocolate
DISTRICT 11 – Agriculture: harvest cherry + 70% cacao dark chocolate
DISTRICT 10 – Livestock:beef jerky + smoked mesquite + 41% cacao milk chocolate
DISTRICT 9 – Grain: milled oats + vanilla hemp seeds + 70% cacao dark chocolate
DISTRICT 8 – Textiles: caramelized crispy rice +70% cacao dark chocolate
DISTRICT 7 – Lumber: smoked chipotle chili + 41% cacao milk chocolate
DISTRICT 6 – Transportation: crunchy runner peanuts in peanut butter + 41% cacao milk chocolate
DISTRICT 5 – Power: crispy crunchy caramel corn +70% cacao dark chocolate
DISTRICT 4 – Fishing: sea salt + coconut + 70% cacao dark chocolate
DISTRICT 3 – Technology: arabica coffee + crystal salt + 70% cacao dark chocolate
DISTRICT 2 – Masonry: caramel + pecan + 41% cacao milk chocolate
DISTRICT 1 – Luxury: rare harvest cashews + 41% cacao milk chocolate
Impressive…
Hunger Games Chocolate: I gots 4 and 12
The Wild Ophelia Hunger Games Chocolate I received was District 4 and 12. So, if I remember correctly, that’s Katniss’ district and….Finnick Odair’s district? How do I know so much about this, also? It’s not like I …ah….read the books all in one sitting or anything….yeah.
Sidenote: Wait, whaddya mean I can’t like the Hunger Games trilogy because it was intended for teenage girls and I’m a man in his 30’s??? SUCKS TO YOUR ASSMAR.
Hunger Games Chocolate
District 12! The mining district. Mined salt and milk chocolate makes sense for this flavor. Although I thought they barely had any food in District 12. I’m half expecting the unwrapping of this bar to reveal just a big bar of salt. Period.
Hunger Games Chocolate
Chocolate and Pink Himalayan salt? Sounds lovely to me.
BTW, Wasn’t District 1 the Capitol? How is their ingredient of luxury “rare cashews”? Don’t you feel like the District 1 bar should be “Milk Chocolate + White Tiger Blood”?
Hunger Games Chocolate
Hunger Games Chocolate
The District 12 bar had a standard Wild Ophelia look, and was pretty tasty. Just some high quality milk chocolate, complete with a good amount of sea salt mixed in to give the overall flavor a nice sweet spiked with salty flavor. Not too much to describe here – just a well executed sea salt chocolate bar.
Hunger Games Chocolate
District 4? The Fishing District? Where everyone basically walks around with nets are clothes? This one is apparently Sea Salt, Coconut, and Dark Chocolate. I kind of wanted this to be some sort of fish jerky covered in chocolate, like the District 10 bar! Sigh.
Hunger Games Chocolate
Wait…salt comes from the salt marshes along the coast? So the Capitol is getting salt from more than one place??? WHAT THE HECK, MAN.
Hunger Games Chocolate
Hunger Games Chocolate
I liked this District 4 bar. The sea salt worked really well with the dark chocolate, and there was a good flavor of coconut that really rounded out the chocolate bar flavor. The sweetness of the coconut was amped up in contrast to the dark chocolate, while at the same time the salt helped make the coconut taste sweeter on its own. Did I feel actual coconut flakes? Eh, not really…they were tiny. But the flavor of dark chocolate, salt, and coconut were very well executed in this bar too.
So there you go! If anyone has tried any of the other flavors, please tell me in the comments below what they were like. OR, just tell me in the comments below if you plan on seeing the movie. Because…ah…I have no plans to see it. /HidesTicketStubs
PURCHASED AT: Send to me but apparently available at Walgreens and online here.
COST: varies, but each bar is listed as $5.
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Let’s hang out.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 13 Comments
They look/sound tasty but…$5?!? That’s a bit much. I mean, I could get a pint of Ben& Jerry’s for less, it’ll last longer and be just as good or better…
@Sarah: Yeah….I mean, Wild Ophelia is selling the whole 12 pack for like $65…so….you could always do that. 😉
yeah but the hunger games is life and ben and jerrys is not
If you get to be played by Jennifer Lawrence I want at least Philip Seymour Hoffman if not Woody Harrelson.
I thought the Capitol was not in any district (because why should they send tributes when they won the war?). But if there was a chocolate bar for the Capitol it would definitely need white rose extract.
@Kahnfucius: No, you’re right. Was the Capitol IN District 1?
I picked up 7 at Walgreens for a buck each mmmm district 12 was good I didn’t like 4 and 5 bleh I really wanna try district 1 :3
@Char: So which Districts, in total, have you tried at this point?
Much belated comment if you’re still curious. My roommates and I bought 4 bars. 3, 5, 10, and 12. 10 (the beef jerky one) was the one we were most suspicious of, but ended up being by far the best of those. The jerky was so finely shredded that there was no texture issue or chunks of meatiness, just a salty savoriness that complemented the rich milk chocolate very well. Of all of them, it seemed to pull off the best salt/sweet ratio.
3 (coffee and salt) was very crunchy with salt and coffee bits, and while it sounded fantastic, the salt didn’t really seem to do the bitterness of the coffee and dark chocolate any favors. I think it was the one I liked the least.
5 was stretching the theme of “power” with caramel corn, and it was.. okay. There wasn’t really enough crumbs of caramel corn for it to be much more than slightly crunchy slightly caramel chocolate. Not really interesting.
They were all nice chocolate, but District 10 was the only one that I would go out of my way to get again.
@Xan: Thanks so much for the review! I have been curious about the other flavors….glad to hear the jerky one wasn’t awful 😛
The bars are on discount at safeway stores in Oregon I paid 2.50 each.
@Vickie: A STEAL. Of course, the movie is out on DVD now too, soo…..they oughta package these candy bars with the discs.
District 6: Transportation was kind of nasty. Its crunchy runner peanuts in peanut butter and milk chocolate. I’m normally all for chocolate and peanut butter/nuts to be mashed together in something yummy, but it was just off tasting.
@Lindsay: All in all, I’m glad these flavors are gone now. They didn’t catch on like I thought they would