Having expanded to 82 locations across the United States since its opening in 1947, Kilwin’s sprinkles its compact candy stores throughout malls and shopping areas, specializing in finer craft chocolate confections, creamy ice cream, caramel candies, and thick fudge. Rather than inundating the shopper with sheer variety of confections, Kilwin’s prefers the refined menu of chocolates to-go, cuts of fudge and ice cream to savor while you’re wandering through the different shopping areas. It’s hard not to find something you’ll want to try, fortunately generous free samples make a visit here very worth your while.
The biggest variety of goodies here are the chocolate, and there are a few different types of them. Velvety chocolate truffles in nine varieties. Tuttles filled with caramel and various nuts. And my favorite thing: chocolate dipped pretzels. They dip cookies in chocolate, they dip crisped rice treats in chocolate, and they make chocolate clusters and chocolate creams. The chocolate has a very strong, sweet flavor, it’s some of the most directly sweet chocolate I’ve tasted. This is good if you know someone with a serious sweet tooth, at the same time, it can overwhelm other tastes; chocolate pretzels especially benefit from the sweet/salty combination, but these come up short in that.
When you give Kilwin’s a try, you certainly won’t want to forget to try the fudge. Once again, there is a smaller selection of fudges, but each given more care in preparation. I like that some of them are covered in nuts, which changes up the texture a little. Other than that I really enjoyed the sea salt caramel fudge, but it also suffered from a mix of too-sweet chocolate. Needs more caramel and salt. This fall, though, they had a fantastic Pumpkin and walnut fudge, delicious.
The people are great, and the environment is really nice for the shop, in spite of the compact nature of the store. When I visited I found free samples were abundant for the newcomer, so you will be able to try before you buy. There is even a sizeable collection of sugar-free items and alternatives to some of the favorites. It’s really fun to see seasonal variations of the different chocolate treats, too. All told, there’s a lot of cool stuff to try. Prices are high normal for chocolates, though Kilwin’s I’ve visited have been near the more sophisticates areas.
All told, this is the kind of chocolate chain that really appeals to the sweet tooth. It’s overwhelmingly, over-the-top sweet chocolate over any and all kinds of confections. If nothing else, you won’t regret stopping in and trying some free samples.
Recommendations
- Of the chocolates, ice cream and fudge, chocolates seem to be the most popular item, though I would also suggest the fudge.
- There are sugar-free alternatives to many of the chocolates.
- You’ll want to check out the website every now and then, because they have some cool seasonal and limited-time items now and then.
Another Food Critic 