Brookside Dark Chocolate Crunchy Clusters - Product Review

We don't snack a lot. Even the majority of our holiday baking went to work with Harry - we love to make it, we just have one or two nibbles then we're done. But, every once in awhile I'll get this wanting - it might be a simple salt craving that a cracker will satisfy, or a single piece from the candy basket Elliot always checks to make sure isn't empty. (He's SO smart!) (OK, not gonna lie - I'm totally the passive-aggressive Gramma making sure there's something he doesn't eat very often in a low enough space he can see it.)

As a member of CrowdTap, I was given the opportunity to sample the new Brookside Dark Chocolate Crunchy Clusters in exchange for my unbiased review. I was familiar with the Brookside Brand and had sampled many of their chocolate and fruit blends during Costco trips. Competitive grazing - greatest date night invention ever!

I knew that the quality of Brookside was amazing. Their dark chocolate creations have the perfect blend of bitter and sweet that I want in a dark chocolate. I only had one concern in advance of receiving my complimentary sample pack. With my teeth, I prefer to not eat anything super crunchy - I broke a tooth on a corn nut a million years ago.

I gently bit into my first nugget of Brookside Dark Chocolate Crunchy Clusters, ready to stop if I had any concerns. This is the first "crunchy" snack I've tried in years that I didn't worry about breaking a tooth. The "crunchies" are more like crisp cereal bites - think along the lines of the crunch you get with a Krispy/Crunch bar (comparisons for both my Canadian and American relatives - but don't confuse it with a Krispy Krunch bar, because this is nothing like that).

Concerns alleviated, I sampled a few clusters with gusto! When you open the bag, you get a beautiful aroma of fruit with just a hint of chocolate in the air. The dark chocolate and fruit flavors, as with all of Brookside's products, are perfectly balanced. There is a nice balance of textures with smooth chocolate, chewy dried  fruit, and crispy multigrain nuggets.

Originally, when participating in pre-campaign questionnaires, I thought the Brookside Dark Chocolate Crunchy Clusters would be a great addition to a cup of yogurt. Maybe I would eat them alongside some popcorn. My first taste made me think of a wine tasting we went to at a vineyard in Indiana. The final tasting was a sweet wine and they made sure we had a little nibble of chocolate to go with the wine. THAT taste became my perfect pairing.

Shawn brought us a bottle of Marion Mead from Superstition Meadery. This is a nicely balanced mead and the dark chocolate and fruit flavors of the clusters were the perfect nibble with a small glass of mead.

I'm a fan. I haven't seen the Crunchy Clusters in the store yet, but I'll be keeping an eye out for them. The zip-seal package means I can nibble on a few pieces when the urge strikes, but they won't go stale