I will admit that both of these were gifts, but I am a big fan of chocolate covered coffee beans and often buy them as snacks for myself. I love the smoothness of the chocolate with the crunch and flavor of a coffee bean - sort of a deconstructed mocha. But how do the more than twice as expensive Dean & Deluca beans stack up to their Trader Joes counterpart?

Dean & Deluca's confection had excellent chocolate surrounding a large bean. The flavors blended amazingly well and the whole thing had a distinctly caramely tone to it, though the coffee bean flavor was evident. Excellent ratio - a bit more than 1:1: - of chocolate to bean.

The Trader Joe's chocolate covered espresso beans seemed to have triple the amount of chocolate as the Dean & Deluca version did. Coupled with the fact that the Trader Joe's espresso bean was so incredibly tiny, this was not a great pairing. The chocolate was excellent, smooth and rich, but the wonderfully snappy crunch of the bean was nearly lost in all the chocolate in nearly every piece.

Between these two, I have to say that I preferred the overall flavor profile and chocolate to bean ratio of the Dean & Deluca candy, even though the chocolate itself was excellent in both. If I wanted convenience or simply a mouthful of chocolate, I wouldn’t turn down Trader Joe's beans, though I would be almost as likely to simply purchase one of their excellent chocolate bars. For any amount of money, I think the best chocolate covered espresso beans are from Greenwell Farms, in Hawaii. They have fabulous chocolate, no waxy outer coating - which both Trader Joe's and Dean & Deluca use to make their candies shine -  and huge, perfect peaberry beans. When these large beans are paired with rich chocolate, they have the perfect chocolate to bean ratio and make a chocolate covered coffee bean far superior to either Dean & Deluca or Trader Joe's.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]