Easter-Eve chocolates!

Once every 4-6 weeks, I visit our local "Brazilian Supermarket and Bakery" here in Orlando (on International Drive). It's always a treat for me to go there, as I hear many sounds of my childhood, delicious smells of sweet & fried goodies and see tons of things available for purchase that I grew up loving to eat! It's very special to us to have these Brazilian stores over here. It makes our World somewhat smaller and that's a good thing.

Yesterday, to my surprise when I went to buy Brazilian Easter Eggs for the kids and family, I found the authentic German Milka chocolate for sale near the cash register.
I know we can easily find Milka chocolates here in the U.S. (Publix!- It's a KRAFT product!).

These, however, were the ones directly imported from Germany. The REAL deal! The wrapper has everything written in German, front and back, and for a minute, these yummy chocolate bars transported me to my teenage years when my sister and I often travelled to Germany to visit friends and family living there.

I love how the authentic Milka bars have "garantiert 100% Alpenmilch" written on them. This means, the bars are made with 100% milk from the Alps - from cows living on the Alps, that is. If you've ever tried a wide assortment of brands from different parts of the world, you will slowly notice how (usually) European chocolate is so silky- smooth without a fatty aftertaste, rich yet not heavy and sweet yet not too sweet. It doesn't crumble and has a beautiful, soft smell, ...not rich or "cheesy". I can imagine many can't relate to these descriptions, but I had some pretty awesome chocolate, and some pretty crumbly, stinky chocolate too that simply tasted like plain sugar.

Did you know Milka chocolates and its purple cow are quite an "institution" in Germany? So much so that many Pre-K children believe cows are actually purple! (I heard about a fun study conducted on this, but have no certain facts about it) Totally believable, though, I find this to be adorable! It's heart warming for me to show my children the purple Milka cow and see them smiling and enjoying Milka chocolate; something that has always been a special treat when I was growing up!

Easter Time, no matter how religious we are, brings my family together and we enjoy a LOT of chocolate, good food, laughter and hugs. My Easter post will come tomorrow, but I thought my awesome sweet-memory-invoking-yay-delicious Milka bars were the most appropriate introduction to our Easter Sunday in my Blog world!