Product Review: Krisda’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

As I unveiled in my Krisda Mystery Box Video, the exciting new product they sent me is their semi-sweet chocolate chips.

This means you can now, “Enjoy premium chocolate without the sugar or artificial sweeteners“. Which I thought was super exciting and I immediately knew the recipe I wanted to test them with. 

The product contains chocolate without sugar or artificial sweeteners. They have been replaced with an all-natural sweetener comprised of dietary fibres; natural sugar alcohol erythritol and Stevia extract. 

I started testing with nibbling. I did not notice the Stevia (natural low calorie sweetener) taste at first. What I noticed is that the chips were quite bitter. They did not taste semi-sweet to me at all.

I compared them with the brand of semi-sweet that I normally buy and there was a huge difference. They were sweet. Krisda’s were not at all in comparison. As I ate more, the more I could detect the Stevia flavour. I am quite sensitive to it. I hoped that when I baked the cookies I would not be able to discern it when they came out of the oven.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I baked 1 cup of them into our favourite chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, which I have been making for a decade now. 

The cookies turned out perfectly as always (one of the reasons I ADORE that recipe) and I did not notice a huge difference in flavour, other than the chips were more bitter than usual. 

I would not use these to make ganache but for cookies? I guess it depends on how sensitive you are to sugar and how expensive the product is. I have not seen it in my store yet. 

Foodie Conclusion

Coming up with an artificial-sweetener-free chocolate that is also high in fibre is quite fascinating. In 1 tbsp of chocolate chips there are only 53 calories. In the brand I normally buy, there are 80 calories, which is quite the jump. The problem? Krisda’s taste more like baker’s chocolate. Dark chocolate. I do not find them very sweet at all. If they were as sweet as the semi-sweet I bake with, I would have been much more impressed but there was no comparison. For me, they did not deliver on the sweetness scale.

Most dark chocolate seems to be around 70 calories per tablespoon so you are saving in calories there and in baking, those tablespoons add up pretty quickly when you need a cup of chocolate chips. For those who really need to cut down on sugar and can not live without chocolate, give these a try. For you I would give these a four out of five wooden spoons. 

Personally? I am going to stick with regular chocolate chips and skip these entirely. It was a great idea but they are just too bitter for me and the Stevia taste is too strong. What a shame, I was so excited!