Do you like dark chocolate?

I like my chocolate in the low 70’s. I’m not a fan of the high-percentage Lindts. Even their 70% is too harsh for me. The bitterness isn’t really the issue so much as the acidity in combination with the bitterness. A chocolate that has a higher acid content should be formulated at lower percentages. That acid/bitter combination feels like a chemical assault on my tongue.

The Swiss have always been fond of sweeter chocolates, but the rest of the world began favoring higher percentages about 25 years ago. Swiss makers like Lindt saw that to compete, they would have to start ramping up their percentages like everyone else. But I don’t think they’ve really understood how to do that gracefully.

They seem to have simply made the same chocolate that they’ve always made, but put in less sugar. That’s not the way to go. For high-percentage chocolates, you use less forceful, less acidic and more complex cocoas.

Eating chocolate shouldn’t be an exercise in tolerance.

@thorninmud – Interesting. I find Lindt to be inedible. It does strange things to my tongue. Overall, I feel as though I can only taste it when it hits certain parts of my tongue. And there is a sweetness of some kind – even at at 70% – that has more of a “feeling” than a taste. The mouth feel is also not right, somehow. It doesn’t feel right when I bite into it – almost as though it is the wrong temperature. Not fatty/creamy enough, but doesn’t have the gritty texture that some have.

I asked this question recently, which has some discussion about chocolate, as well as some “chocolate”.

Well, all of that doesn’t matter any more for me. My ENT doc has ordered me to stop eating chocolate.

If anything, I’d say that’s the way I’d eat chocolate. 85%. And cooled in the refrigerator so that it breaks crisply.

No. Milk chocolate FTW.

@bob_ – You have a typo in your comment. Please remove the ”.” after “No”.

I’ve never been a fan an of dark chocolate. Too bitter for my tastebuds. When I eat chocolate, which nowadays is rare, I eat milk chocolate, and frankly, I can’t recall eating any specialty brand that I liked more than good ol’ Hersheys. My mother made a wonderful fudge using Hershey’s cocoa (less of it than the recipe on the box stipulated). What I wouldn’t give for some of that right this minute!

I do like dark chocolate. I used to hate it, but I’m actually a fan now! I rarely eat chocolate these days, but when I do I could go for either milk or dark chocolate. They’re different, but both delicious! I don’t like any particular brand the most necessarily, but I do love Ghiradelli and Godiva! Hershey’s is totally delicious too, though.

I love chocolate, but I can’t stand bitter. I have never found coffee in any form palatable because of the bitterness. I don’t know what percentage of chocolate is the best as far as my taste goes. I’ll do a taste test some day and find out.

Dark chocolate has been my favorite for as long as I can remember. It all started the first time I got into a bag of semisweet chocolate chips. I like most anything in the 45% to 85% range, but 85% seems to be around my limit. I tried a 92% bar once, and it was too much for me. One of the best desserts I’ve ever had is Godiva dark chocolate cheesecake.

@Sunny2 I drink my coffee black with just a teeny bit of milk in it and that’s it. I have a huge sweet tooth that I rarely indulge, but it’s there!, but I guess I’ve acquired a taste for bitter things too!

@SavoirFaire Semisweet chocolate chips are so good! I always forget how delicious they are until I eat a couple every once in a blue moon. And then struggle to not eat the whole bag… they’re just so addictive!

I love dark chocolate, and milk chocolate and even white chocolate which isn’t even chocolate even though it contains the work “chocolate”.

I just like chocolate. My favourite is dark chocolate though.

Hate it. Never liked it, never will.

Not a big chocolate lover, but I do like me some Curly Wurly.

I thought I did. I often ate the Lindt Dark Chocolate. Then I tried some organic all-natural super dark chocolate (at a local earthy-crunchy joint).

Gaaaaahhhh. It was disgusting.

I love dark chocolate, but I prefer milk.

I like the Lindt 85%, but it’s more for savouring rather than eating in any significant amount.

I also get a kick out of the realisation that illegally trafficked children in the Ivory Coast picked the cacao to produce my delectable chocolate. The child-slavery element really brings out the rich chocolate flavour. The taste is suitably bitter.

I’m not a fan of milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has been my favorite for as long as I can remember, but I’m stuck with the poor man’s Hershey’s Special Dark.

I don’t like dark chocolate or white chocolate. I only like milk chocolate.