Mini squares

The folks at Ghirardelli, not content to sell you large chocolate bars in 22 different flavors and little individually wrapped Squares in 19 flavors (not to mention a boatload of chips, baking bars, cocoa, brownie mixes and more), now bring you Minis, which are little individually wrapped items that are just as square as Squares, but about half their size.

At the moment there appear to be only five flavors of Minis — three milk chocolate (sea salt & almonds, toffee crisp and caramel) and two dark chocolate (plain and cookie bits). This variety-deficient moment certainly won't last.

Mr. Tidbit had planned to list all the flavors of Ghirardelli bars and Squares, but he decided against doing so, as he thought it might be tedious.

Then he changed his mind. So here, from the website, are the flavors of Ghirardelli bars:

Milk chocolate: plain, sea salt & almonds, toasted coconut, caramel, almond crunch, mint cookie and toffee crunch.

Dark chocolate: caramel, sea salt caramel, truffle, raspberry, Toffee Interlude, Cabernet Matinee, Sea Salt Soiree, Hazelnut Heaven, Save Me San Francisco Cabernet (Mr. Tidbit has no idea), Save Me San Francisco (72 percent cacao) (Mr. Tidbit still has no idea), new Cherry Tango, new Mango Sunset, and three kinds of plain Intense Dark: Evening Dream (60 percent cacao) Twilight Delight (72 percent cacao), and Midnight Reverie (86 percent cacao).

Think the website's list of Ghirardelli Squares varieties (some of which are called Singles) would simply be 19 of those 22? Wrong–o.

Milk chocolate: plain, hazelnut, caramel, sea salt, toffee crunch, and three new ones: mocha, almond crunch and cinnamon crunch.

Dark chocolate: caramel sea salt, caramel, raspberry, mint, truffle, pumpkin spice, new cherry tango, the three plain Intense Darks (Evening Dream, Twilight Delight and Midnight Reverie), and plain dark 60 percent cacao. (Mr. Tidbit doesn't know how, but he trusts that the 60 percent cacao Intense Dark Evening Dream Squares are more intensely dark than the 60 percent cacao Squares that are so utterly nameless.)

And Oreos

Of course there's a new limited-edition Oreo flavor: Pumpkin Spice (on Golden Oreo cookies). It's perfectly fine, but Mr. Tidbit has to say that, compared with Oreo's recent caramel apple, watermelon and banana split offerings, he finds it disappointingly predictable. What's next — sea salt caramel?

Al Sicherman