Before you get tired of healthy foods, the indulgences begin again on January 26, with three weeks of Valentine gift recommendations. Or maybe they begin right now, as we show how chocolate can be wholesome, vegan, organic, raw, primitive…and delectable. We polished off every last morsel.

When we first set eyes on Uli Mana, its packaging did not look like manna from chocolate heaven. But then we tasted the organic chocolate truffles, brownies, chocolate spread and more. Raw cacao was never more divine. And with nary a drop of refined sugar: It’s all sweetened with lower-glycemic agave syrup. There’s no cream, no butter, and more antioxidants than in regular chocolate. How could our New Year’s diet disapprove?

It also has what environmentalists might consider a flaw. Given the green movement and the desire of many people not to throw more plastic into landfills, the hard plastic cups that enclose the coffee or other beverage ingredient (here called T discs—other systems have different configurations and different names—for example, the Keurig system’s are K cups) make them distinctly ungreen. If that is your concern, you can go to an instantly degradable paper pod system as is used in the Senseo system. (There is a green offset: If you drink your coffee at home, you don’t waste a paper or [gasp] styrofoam cup, plastic lid, stirring stick, etc. with takeout.)

But if you’re not an avid recycler, one small plastic cup is the least of your landfill contributions, and we highly recommend the Tassimo for convenience, speed and delivery of a great-tasting cup of coffee…plus good hot chocolate and passable tea, the latter two major improvements on the original version.

Read the full review of the Bosch Tassimo System on TheNibble.com.

This month, THE NIBBLE reviews gluten-free Cupola Cookies and Cupola Clouds cheese bites. An index to all of our gluten-free foods can be found in our Diet Nibbles Section.

Granita is light, low-calorie and crunchier than sorbet. You don’t use an ice cream maker; instead, the ice crystals form in a pan in the freezer and are broken up every few hours.

This recipe uses Texas Rio Star Grapefruit, grown in the Rio Grande Valley in southernmost Texas.

They are more red in color than Ruby Red grapefruit, so have a more lovely color. If you can’t obtain them, you can substitute other red or pink grapefruit, but they may not have the same sweetness.
 
 
RECIPE: GRAPEFRUIT GRANITA

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

[1] It’s easy to make granita with fruit (or coffee), sugar and an ice cube tray (photo courtesy TexaSweet Citrus).

2. LET the mixture cool down and pour it into a flat pan with high sides. Place in freezer. Once ice crystals start to form…

3. USE a fork to stir vigorously, breaking up the crystals. Return to the freezer. Do this every half hour for about four hours.

4. Once the granita is totally frozen, fluff it with a fork and give it another half hour in the freezer to solidify. Serve with a mint leaf garnish.