Day 10: What in the world is on my pretzels??

Why is Almond Bark called Almond Bark?

Motivation: For Christmas, my husband thought it would be fun to make coated pretzels.  I knew this meant I needed to buy almond bark, so I did.  They had chocolate or vanilla flavored.  It tasted kind of like white chocolate... but why is it called almond bark? 

This is the exact kind that I bought at Walmart... notice the wording.

Answer:

I went ahead and googled my exact question.  Apparently it is quite common because it was suggested to me before I even got done typing it.  

Of course, good ol' wikipedia was my first option.  According to it, "Almond bark (also known as vanilla flavored candy coating) is a chocolate-like confection made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter and with coloring and flavors added. It can be bought in packages, blocks, or round discs where candy and baking supplies are sold. The confection is commonly used to cover or dip fruits, nuts, cookies, or crackers, in place of real chocolate."  Oooooookay... so now I know what it is... but none of that said anything about almonds or bark. It even told me see also white chocolate.

Then I got this answer from Cha Cha: It is called almond bark because it is white chocolate and slivered almonds spread flat that resembles knobbly tree bark.

Um, it does?  That's odd, cause the almond bark I used just looked like blocks of chocolate.  

I continued to check link after link.  They mostly gave me the same definitions I got from wikipedia.  Likewise a couple said the things about slivered almonds.  Someone even asked if almond bark had almonds in it.  The user answers ranged from yes and only if you add them in.  Oy.

Rumination: If you say so, people.  I did not see any slivered almonds in my almond bark. I melted it, so wouldn't you think if there were slivered almonds, they would have been in chunks in my melted goo?  I just went into the kitchen and looked at the package... guess what- nowhere in the ingredients does it say "almonds."  So I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the original almond bark was made with slivers of almonds... but why they don't just sell this now in packages and call it "melting chocolate," I have no stinkin' idea.