This post is inspired by Duce's thread yesterday about how long hot dogs stay fresh inside of refrigerators. My main question is "how long does unrefrigerated chocolate last?," but I'll provide some more context below.
So, for Christmas 2012 my friend gave me a bunch of dark chocolate-covered espresso beans as a gift. By a bunch, I mean more than I could have reasonably eaten in a short amount of time. Fifteen months later, in March 2014, I still have a decent amount of that original stash left. They have remained refrigerated the entire time.
Are those chocolate coffee beans still okay? I'm leaning towards "no," because 15 months, but they don't look or smell bad. There might be some further, irrational hesitation on my part since they were a gift from a friend who is now on the complete opposite end of America.