What is your favorite chocolate?

Here. The best Belgian chocolate ever.
http://www.ommegang.com/

Any kind I can get for a buck at a grocery store in France :D
I know it makes me a heathen, but I don’t care for dark chocolate much. I like milk or white chocolate with nuts, preferably hazelnuts or almonds.

Curly Wurly.

Manufacturer doesn’t matter. I like dark chocolate – not milk chocolate.

Hehee, I hope @thorninmud is writing a recipe for us :)

Divine 70%

It’s a fair trade chocolate made with Ghanaian cocoa, processed in Germany.

This chocolate has made me reassess what I thought I knew about cocoas. I’ve always shunned chocolates made with mostly forastero cocoas as too forceful and lacking in dimension. But Divine manages to take forastero and produce a chocolate that doesn’t knock you senseless, and has some nuance to it.

Most chocolate makers achieve balance by drawing on cocoas from many regions and varieties. It’s extremely difficult to make something with balance and complexity if you’re only working with a single source. But that seems to be what these guys have done. It speaks very highly of the quality of this bean and the skill with which it’s processed.

For me, cocoa percentages in the 70s usually hit the spot. But that depends on the cocoa used, too. I’ve had 70% chocolates made with beans that were way too powerful to use at that percentage. And I’ve had chocolates in the 80s that used trinitario or criollo cocoas mild enough to be tolerable at that level.

It also depends how much of that percentage is cocoa butter and how much is cocoa solids. This information is never provided. You can have two 75% chocolates, one with lots of cocoa butter and one with lots of solids, and they will be very different. The first will be milder, melt more abruptly, and clear more quickly from the mouth; the second will be stronger, melt gradually, and cling tenaciously to the mouth. You can’t really tell what you’re getting by looking at the number.

^^ Great. I have had this bar in my hands a few times, but never bought it. I’ll have to try it. Generally, 72% has been my favorite – up until my latest 88% bar addiction. I generally have a favorite for some time, then move on to a different bar altogether.

Yeah, I’m fickle, too. When I was teaching my chocolate class, I always started the class by going out and buying a huge variety of bars, most in the 70s, some of them from very obscure makers. We’d then taste them all side-by-side in an hour long session. That’s very instructive. There’s no better way to learn nuance.

There were many surprises. There was one Russian chocolate, whose name I can’t even remember and that I’ve never found again, that was excellent. Sure wasn’t expecting that. And plenty of the more hyped chocolates suffer badly when tasted in parallel like that.

Some of my past crushes:

Chocovic Ocumare

Cluizel

Chocolaterie de l’Opera

Valrhona Caraibe

A large amount of my income went towards Chocovic Ocumare bars for a two-year period. Then suddenly, I couldn’t stand it. I’ll have to try it again. Sometimes when I take time off, I can appreciate them again. Thanks for the suggestions.

dork chocolate for me

@CWOTUS Dork chocolate?

I never thought about it, but I love the bar that you posted. I’ve only had it once or twice, I rarely see it, and I definitely thought it was some of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

Dark dark dark dark

I prefer milk chocolate usually. I have had some good ones, but names escape me.

“When I was teaching my chocolate class”, can this man get any more perfect! That’s a class I’d like to take.

I also like dark chocolate (and especially if it’s teamed with orange) but at this point I don’t have a specific favourite. I haven’t gone on a chocolate hunt, but I don’t recall seeing the brands @thorninmud and @Adirondackwannabe mentioned. I will go to specific ‘chocolate’ shops on occasions in a search for better quality but most larger stores tend to carry the usual and mass produced chocolate brands.

@Bellatrix It’s fairly small craft brewery outside of Cooperstown that has ties to Belgium. It also has a nice cafe.

@Bellatrix – re: where to find these chocolates – Whole Foods has a pretty good selection. Trader Joe’s used to sell Chocovic, but they don’t carry it any longer at my local store(s).

Thanks @Adirondackwannabe and @tom_g, I’m in Australia so we don’t have those stores. I should set myself a task to seek out fabulous chocolate. After all, it’s good for us.

@Bellatrix If you want to PM me a shipping address I’ll get you some next time I’m over there. It makes the mass produced stuff taste like dog food.
Chocolate, you too. I don’t have your address from before.

Lindt Excellence Black Currant Bar

A friend of mine brought me a candy bar from Germany but it wasn’t as good as a Hershey with Almonds bar in my opinion.

Dove and/or Godiva – milk

I agree with @elbanditoroso, manufacturer is irrelevant to me as long as it’s dark chocolate, and as long as it’s real chocolate.

@hearkat, that sounds fantastic. I’m drooling.

Where is @theobromoshumper anyway? This post was made for him.

@bookish1 – it is! They also make one with Intese Orange, which is my second favorite – @Bellatrix

Oh I do love that one @hearkat! There is a great chocolate making place in WA where they make the most delicious coffee chocolate. It’s a little far to go to buy chocolate though.

Lindt Lindor milk chocolate balls and Moritz Icy Squares.

*Intense Orange
I should not attempt to type before my morning coffee… when will I learn?

I understand @hearkat. I wrote a post at about 4 am yesterday and when I looked back at it, it was full of typos. So, yours is perfectly okay. I got what you meant!

Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Pound Plus from Belgium. I don’t care for dark chocolate, it’s too sweet and too bitter.

Also Hershey’s Symphony milk chocolate bar with almonds and bits of toffee is really good.

And one of my childhood favorites is Nestlé‘s Chunky milk chocolate bar with peanuts and raisins.

@thorninmud – I am currently enjoying a Divine 70% I bought at Whole Foods last night. I love the consistency – it’s very creamy. The flavor is subtle, but I like it. I need some more time to savor this….

This is my favorite, Cote D’or. It’s Belgian. I know most chocolate connoisseurs love the dark chocolates, and some even sneer at the milk chocolates, but I love this brand’s flavor. It is somewhat unique though I have no idea what makes it so. It is probably a lot of cocoa butter. The original brand was made from cocoa from Ghana hence the elephant logo. Now it is owned by Kraft foods. I hope the quality doesn’t go down. :(

@Earthgirl: Yep, that is precisely what I used to buy in the grocery store in Paris for a buck ;) They have so many varieties it’s almost obscene… Orange zest, pistachio….

@bookish1 It just melts so obscenely deliciously on your tongue! It’s very rich.

Theo Orange 70% and Divine Raspberry 70%

Toblerone.

Ok, @thorninmud, I’m now completely addicted to Divine 70%. Whole Foods had a sale recently, and way too many of these bars found their way into my house. I’m almost out.

Heh

This is my new favorite. Dark chocolate with carmelized honey bits.