Chocolate

[wabmester]

I am 100% sold on the health benefits of chocolate. And even if it were bad for me, I'd probably still be a chocoholic.

So far, I've only found two brands I like at the grocery store. Droste Extra Dark (72% cocoa), and Valor Pure Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa).

I just took a chance on an online purchase of Lazzaroni dark chocolate, and it's miserable Hershey-level stuff.

Anybody have any good recommendations for readily available high-quality chocolate?

 

[Peaceful_Warrior]

Well I'm a treehugger, so I'd recommend buying fair-trade chocolate that doesn't use slave labor.

 

[bright eyed]

i love chocolate too!

however, i think the ones coming out marketed as a health product are silly and i won't buy them - i'd rather get one that tastes great and happens to be good for me, not the other way around!

not any expert though - but they did have a chocolate cafe in oakland when i lived there! oh, they have the best "chocolatte" - euro style!

for now i just get whatever they have a trader joe's - def better price and selection than mega market - at least organic, better fair trade!

 

[Caroline]

they did have a chocolate cafe in oakland when i lived there!

Do you mean that it was like a coffee shop (or one of the new ritzy tea shops) but that it served chocolate primarily? What an amazing idea.

Do you remember what it was called?

 

[Zoocat]

WAB, thanks for starting this thread on a matter of importance to us all!

Sees chocolates, started as a small business in Pasadena, CA, available by mail. I have been addicted since my great aunt started bringing Sees to family holiday dinners and sending me giant chocolate walnut cream eggs at Easter.
www.sees.com

 

[riskadverse]

I spent a few years in Switzerland, and although I can distinguish good chocolate from not so good, I have learned to appreciate almost all chocolate. Not carob mind you, but even white chocolate which isn't even chocolate. It's just about the same for red wine . . . and together . . . even better.

 

[Martha]

http://www.cocoamill.com/

Very nummy.

 

[Nords]

Anybody have any good recommendations for readily available high-quality chocolate?

Isn't that spelled "high-qualntity"?

 

[Sandy]

Chocolate - the food that should form the base of the food pyramid

 

[youbet]

Is it true that President William Jefferson Clinton was trying to get a bill passed to fund genetic engineering that would result in semem tasting like chocolate as a form of birth control? I understand it would have passed through Congress without the foul intervention of right wing conservatives!

 

[Nords]

Is it true that President William Jefferson Clinton was trying to get a bill passed to fund genetic engineering that would result in semem tasting like chocolate as a form of birth control?

The heck with the legislation-- who's doing the research?

 

[audreyh1]

Mmmmmm, Dark Chocolate!

I think those Chocolove bars are really good. It's a smooth Belgian style chocolate.

The Endangered Species bars are really good too. There have various animals on the package.

About every two months we have to "raid" Whole Foods to replenish our chocolate stash. We're pretty serious about our chocolate in this household!

Audrey

 

[figner]

My favorite stuff: Valrhona, some varieties available at Trader Joe's and other high end grocery stores (Whole Foods, Bristol Farms). I like the semibitter and dark kinds for snacking. A little goes a long way: nibble off a tiny bite and let it slowly melt on your tongue.

European brands (especially if made in Europe) tend to taste better than American brands, especially for the cheaper stuff. I can eat cheap Swiss/German chocolate, but not Hersheys, Nestle, etc. One thing to watch for in the ingredients label: corn syrup gives chocolate a distinctive aftertaste I don't like, and many american brands use corn syrup. Go for the straight sugar. Lindt is a good brand found in most grocery stores.

Scharffenberger is an american brand liked by many, though I'm not a huge fan except for their 40% cacao milk chocolate. But if you're in the Berkeley area, a tour of their small factory is great fun (with lots of free samples!)

 

[bright eyed]

Do you mean that it was like a coffee shop (or one of the new ritzy tea shops) but that it served chocolate primarily? What an amazing idea.

Do you remember what it was called?

no, a chocolate shop that serves coffee

it is called Bittersweet - on college (the oakland side, not berkeley side) near rockridge bart - i stop by whenever i visit!

they had some specialty chocolates from around the world and baked goods, coffees....

chocolate is the new wine - in terms of people getting very into the specific regions, types etc...

 

[JB]

Our local natural foods store has a good selection of chocolate that we've been sampling.

Mmmmmm, Dark Chocolate!
The Endangered Species bars are really good too. There have various animals on the package.

Picked up 2 bars of Endangered Species Supreme Dark today and it's very good. 72% cocoa.

 

[Non sequitur]

Baker's
Since 1780
100% cacao

 

[perinova]

At the "normal" grocery store I get Ghirardeli and -specially- Lindt 70%. Usually I wait for a sale.
Trader Joes also has good chocolate.

Pure cocoa (ie the powder) is one of the best thing you can put into your body
(look the vitamin kind of compounds compared to other food).

PS Some Ghirardeli at the cooking section are good enough to eat as is.

 

[saluki9]

My favorite chocolate for eating and baking

I don't even have a close second.

http://www.scharffenberger.com/

 

[wabmester]

Do you guys eat the 100% pure stuff straight? I haven't tried that yet, but I'd expect it to be too bitter.

I just googled this review of Hershey's Cacao Reserve:

taste test

Hmm, I might try the bar with nibs.

I've tried the Endangered Species, Chocolove, and Scharffenberger before. Good, but I'm sticking with the Droste and Valor. Try them if you haven't. Droste is smooth with no aftertaste, and the Valor has kind of an interesting smokey flavor.

 

[haha]

Do you guys eat the 100% pure stuff straight? I haven't tried that yet, but I'd expect it to be too bitter.

I do; and I love it. However, I am told that there genetically determined bitter tasters and non-bitter tasters. I am a non-I enjoy all sorts of bitter things without any sweetener.

Doesn't cost much to find out if it works for you. After about a year of buying a lot of this stuff at my small local grocery the checker looked at me and said, "You're just eating this and not baking at all aren't you?" Her look was as if I had been buying a lot of glue, and she finally figured out that I was a sniffer and not a model airplane builder.

Ha

 

[Non sequitur]

Do you guys eat the 100% pure stuff straight?

With a cup of hot black coffee and a handful of whole natural almomds. A real flavor sensation.

 

[Caroline]

it is called Bittersweet - on college (the oakland side, not berkeley side) near rockridge bart - i stop by whenever i visit!

Thank you kindly, Bright eyed -- I'll be sure to go there next time I'm down that way.

 

[thefed]

oops


......

 

[bright eyed]

Scharffenberger is an american brand liked by many, though I'm not a huge fan except for their 40% cacao milk chocolate. But if you're in the Berkeley area, a tour of their small factory is great fun (with lots of free samples!)

they also have a restaurant attached to the factory - it is pretty good. They try to be too high end in my opinion and should just go straight for the comfort - yummy factor - but it is good and of course you can get choco baked goods too!

 

[OKLibrarian]

I'm fond of Dagoba--seriously tasty stuff up to like 85% cacao, but they also do milk chocolates, lighter darks, and some bars with fruit and such in them (there's one with ground chiles that is DH's favorite). Plus they're fair trade and organic if that's something you care about in your candy purchases. If we're not feeling as PC that day, we go for Ghiradelli.