I haven't tried a ton of brands, but my favorite is Amedei's Cru bars (single origin). Very subtle flavors and notes depending on origin (terroir) like you get in good tea, coffee, or wine. I also like Amano, which is another bean-to-bar chocolate maker. Their Ocumare bars are excellent.
I used to buy Lindt a lot, especially their milk and white chocolate bars before I became a vegan. Their 70% cocoa bars I eat once in a while, and they aren't bad but not as nuanced as some of the more expensive chocolates. Green & Black's is another I like for similar quality and price. Both have good availability and aren't super premium like Amedei. Plenty of supermarkets and grocery stores carry them. Nói Síríus (Icelandic chocolate) is what I get half the time I visit Whole Foods. Not too expensive for a nice, thick bar of dark chocolate to keep in my drawer at work. Probably would be good for baking, too.
I also make my own chocolate bars, though not entirely from scratch (Navitas cacao powder as the base). I really need to try roasting beans when I get the time.
I've been meaning to try Valrhona chocolate. I'm adding Valrhona Abinao and Pedregal bars to my list of chocolate to try (note to self: make a list of chocolate to try 😀).
Now, this is the kind of post I was hoping to see when I started this thread very early this morning. Thank you!!!
I have gotten Amano Ocumare in the past and I did like it. This was over 4 years ago. But I was not overwhelmed by Amedei or Amano. The delicate flavors, yes, I picked up on the fact that there was stuff going on in there that I did not perceive with less expensive chocolates, however I was generally unimpressed. One time over 30 years ago I came across a European chocolate, German, perhaps, maybe Swiss, that appeared at a distressed merchandise semi-super market near where I lived. I bought a number of bars and thought they were terrific. I went back hoping to get more but they had all disappeared!
🙂 A similar thing happened involving that store with some high end German bottled brews. They were delightful and opened my eyes and pallet to the greatness of European brewing.
One day back then I bought a large Hershey's bar at a local supermarket and I was so offended by it that I actually brought it back for a refund.
🙁
I haven't bought another Hershey bar, you may believe.
I will look for some of the chocolate and that cacao powder you mention, you are obviously something of an afficionado (I'd use that conosewer word, but would probably mispell it!
🙂 ). There are Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in the vicinity, close by, and my favorite market, a 1/4 mile away, has a pretty big selection of imported chocolates. I have yet to be impressed by organic chocolate. I've been gifted it several times. I was gifted that Dove Promises chocolate this summer for my birthday and I was delighted.
My cousin makes chocolates and she uses Valrhona. I've bought and eaten Valrhona chocolate, but was not impressed. I also bought some of their cocoa powder, again not impressed. I have around 4 kinds of high priced cocoa powder on hand but from now on I am going to stick with my long time favorite, Droste. I think it's just plain superior to every other I've tried.
In order:
1. See's Candies
2. Cadbury milk chocolate with roasted almonds
3. Dove promises (milk)
...
852. Hershey bar
I used to buy a box of See's nuts and chews at my birthday some years ago. I liked Cadbury milk chocolate as a kid, maybe I'll give it another try, but I think I bought one a few years ago and was disappointed. Maybe I was just having a bad day, it happens. Dove promises, yes!!!
My favorite is free chocolate. Chocolate that somebody else paid for.
"The fox provides for himself, God provides for the Lion." -- William Blake
There's something to that.
My mom and dad worked for a gourmet food distributor so I got to taste some of the finest food you had ever seen. Minus the gross crap like caviar. In fact, this company sold food to the Oscars.
I used to work temporaries and one brief assignment was at a very small warehouse and the guy's company imported fine foods. He gifted each of us with IIRC one good sized fine chocolate bar and I'll never forget what he told me. He said that the best chocolate, the well refined stuff, when broken, breaks cleanly and you can see the purity of it, the broken surface is like smooth glass. The inferior chocolate's broken surface is rough, however. I asked him to suggest a quality chocolate I might buy, and his reply was "Lindt..." He said it in such a way that I knew he could have named many more but he figured he'd just stop there.
