Best affordable chocolate brand?

[Elizabeth_11]

Hello everyone, I'm quite sure this topic has been addressed somewhere, but I couldn't seem to find the "best chocolate thread" when I searched. I need to find out which brand of chocolate is the best, but also affordable. I'm throwing a bridal shower in a couple of weeks and am making homemade truffles as favors. I am on a budget though, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a brand that won't cost me an arm and a leg. With the amount of money I've already spent on the shower, I was even considering using Guittard (in my opinion, really excellent) chocolate chips for the centers, and only buying the higher quality for the coating chocolate. Would this be just--wrong??? I know E. Guittard is the good stuff, but I actually find their store bought chocolate chips to be great.

I intend on making 4 different kinds of truffles, the kind being soft ganache centers coated in melted chocolate--not the firmer ones rolled in cocoa or nuts (who knows, I could change my mind though). My intended variations include: plain dark chocolate, dark chocolate-rum, milk chocolate-hazelnut (frangelico) and white chocolate raspberry. So I will need all 3 kinds of chocolate. In addition, does anyone have any ideas with the white chocolate raspberry one? The bride really wants this flavor combo, so I was thinking about trying fresh raspberry puree with just a bit of cream as opposed to, say, chambord or another liqueur for the ganache filling. I've also tried raspberry extract before and wasn't thrilled with the outcome, so I don't want to use that. Would this work? Anyone have a recipe for white chocolate-raspberry truffles? Thank you everyone!

-Elizabeth

Edited February 26, 2003 by Elizabeth_11 (log)

[R Washburn]

Valrhona can be had for<$5/lb., Callebaut for <$4/lb. I don't know any cheap sources for Scharfenberger.

To my tastes Scharfenberger>Valrhona>Callebaut, but all three companies make good stuff. I just ordered 3kg of Varhona milk chocolate for my candy making endevours.

Valrhona makes a bunch of "single estate" chocolates, but I don't know much about them.

[Elizabeth_11]

Excellent, thank you so much for your speedy reply!

[nightscotsman]

The regualar Guittard is quite good, though not a really super premium brand like the E Guittard line. However, please do not use chocolate chips for your truffle fillings. Chips are formulated differently from couvature chocolate and the ganache wont set up properly.

R Washburn: mind if I ask where you are getting Valrhona for less than $5 a pound? I've looked all over on-line and haven't found it that low. I would love to find a cheaper source.

[JAZ]

I believe that the Trader Joe's bulk chocolate is actually Callebaut. I've used it for truffles and had very good results.

[nightscotsman]

I believe that the Trader Joe's bulk chocolate is actually Callebaut. I've used it for truffles and had very good results.

The only bulk chocolate I've seen at Joe's was Ghirardelli. Maybe they carry a different brand at the one you go to?

[JAZ]

I believe that the Trader Joe's bulk chocolate is actually Callebaut. I've used it for truffles and had very good results.

The only bulk chocolate I've seen at Joe's was Ghirardelli. Maybe they carry a different brand at the one you go to?

This was a couple of years ago, actually. It wasn't labelled as Callebaut, but I was told that's what it was. Maybe it was a limited time deal.

[tsquare]

I believe that the Trader Joe's bulk chocolate is actually Callebaut. I've used it for truffles and had very good results.

The only bulk chocolate I've seen at Joe's was Ghirardelli. Maybe they carry a different brand at the one you go to?

They have house brand Pound Plus bars - in Milk, Semi, Bitter and 70% (?), plus some with almonds and stuff. Generally around $3-4 a bar. Pretty good for baking - cookies and brownies at least - and munching. (Yeah, here is Seattle...over the freezer case in the U-district, last I looked.)

[Explorer]

I like Scharffen Berger, Valrhona and Lindt.

For price comparison, try Bizrate.com; they have an extensive chocolate selection. Even if what you are looking may not be exactly there, you may discover new suppliers.

[hensonville]

I just made two linzer torten using Trader Joe's 70% chocolate. Everything else was the same as always. The chocolate almost ruined my torten. If it hadn't been for the rasberry jam. they simply would have been bad. So I recommend not using this.

[JAZ]

I just made two linzer torten using Trader Joe's 70% chocolate. Everything else was the same as always. The chocolate almost ruined my torten. If it hadn't been for the rasberry jam. they simply would have been bad. So I recommend not using this.

That's one of the drawbacks (in general) that I've found at TJ's -- some old and otherwise inconsistent products.

[tan319]

If I were you and you would really like to make excellent chocolates, I would look up professional wholesalers of pastry supplys in your area. Bypass the choc. in whole foods and wild oats and such.

Get a product list and buy a block or even better, the 'pistoles' , which are small discs of choc. Less waste and easier to use.

You can get, say, 'Cocoa Noel', which is pretty good and cheap (about $29.00 for 11 lb. a box of pistoles) in a variety of strengths (cocoa %).

If you can really get Valrohna for $5.00 a lb. by all means buy it.

I have to add though, the only Valrhona I really love and which I think is woth the money ( $67.00 for about 7 lb.) is the grand cru, 'Manjari'.

The 'Noir Gastronomique' I thought was kind of flat.

Anyone else out there have any thoughts on this?

[Mottmott]

I recently bought guanaja feves for a little less than $50. The feves are dangerous because you can just dip in a nibble a few.

[Lesley C]

Les Louis by DGF is an excellent chocolate for the price.

I like the taste and it's easy to temper.

When I worked at Thuries in France, we used DGF everything -- even though everyone was under the impression we used Valrhona. This was in the days before he was making his own chocolate.

[Michael Laiskonis]

If you go the professional supply route, or can simply buy a box or block from a shop or restaurant, I'd also suggest Cacao Barry. For dark, try the Guayaquil 64%, and for milk, the Lactée Supérieure which I think is a 38%. Both typically wholesale from $3.50 to $4.00 a pound. Decent quality to value ratio, and tempers well. The Papousie milk from the Barry Origine line is good; the Sainte Domingue 70% is average. I have yet to try the other Origine products, but am interested in the Cuba, even if only for the novelty of it...

I'm a huge fan of the E. Guittard high end milk, which gives Valrhona's Jivara and Guanaja serious competition. Though many are loyal to Manjari, I like the Caraïbe 66% more. If you can locate it, I find Felchlin's Maracaibo Creole 49% really interesting. Made from Venezuelan beans, with added milk solids, but very little added sugar- it gives the mouthfeel of milk with more cacao complexity in the flavor.

I have a question for longtime users of these brands: Barry-Callebaut-Carma... with the consolidation of these lines over the years, has any one noticed significant ups or downs in quality? In terms of manufacturing, and apart from the national origin of the original companies (France, Belgium, Switzerland), are they still run as completely separate entities?

[Michael Laiskonis]

...the only Valrhona I really love and which I think is worth the money ( $67.00 for about 7 lb.) is the grand cru, 'Manjari'.

Ouch. Is that your wholesale price? Tan, you're paying too much! You shouldn't be paying any more than $7 a pound for this. I get the 3kg block for under $45. Please, shop around!!

Elizabeth, you are in Chicago, right? Look into European Imports (773.227.0600) and see if you can buy direct. They sell Barry, Callebaut, Sharffenberger, Valrhona...

[tan319]

I'll recheck my price's, Michael.

I was using 'Manjari' for a Chocolate marquise, I thought the "dryness" was like red wine.

Have you seen any price increase's overall due to Ivory coast turmoil?

PS: I've been trying to find the 'Cuba' Origine also!

I'm a Cuba freak!

Edited February 27, 2003 by tan319 (log)

[Steve Klc]

Elizabeth--remind us if you know how to temper chocolate and how you're planning to make the truffles. Are you planning to pipe out little balls of ganache, coat your hands with some tempered chocolate and then roll them? Are you planning to "dip" them?

"I am on a budget though, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a brand that won't cost me an arm and a leg. With the amount of money I've already spent on the shower, I was even considering using Guittard (in my opinion, really excellent) chocolate chips for the centers, and only buying the higher quality for the coating chocolate. Would this be just--wrong???"

Maybe not "wrong" but maybe shortsighted on a few levels. Regular Guittard chips might be good for chocolate chip cookies. Define for us "arm and a leg" in terms of dollar amount. I think using the best quality chocolate you can afford for the center/filling is as important as the shell. However, if you wanted to know where some might cut due to cost--most cut cost with the coating--using some basic affordable temperable couverture to coat their chocolates and truffles--and then using some of the better chocolates--the Manjari, the Cuba (which I don't really like btw) for their various ganaches. The thought being you're only going to have a thin shell anyway. Personally, I think if you're going to go through the trouble of this exercise, you should be prepared to spend $3 to $4 a pound for your chocolate, which would roughly be the wholesale price for an #11 box.

I now rank the Cacao Noel way above CB Favorites mi Amere these days for cost and performance as a basic couverture--we've now tempered maybe 60 pounds of the Noel after having worked with CB for about 10 years. Michael--to answer your question about current CB vs. pre-merger CB--I feel the white and the CB Favorites mi amere 58% are just slightly "thicker"--not as loose and fluid--as they once were. That might be a conscious re-formulation rather than production inconsistencies. But I don't use any CB anymore--there are too many better, more interesting alternatives at better prices.

I've never used the DGF that Lesley recommends but I believe for a few years Payard did and I always thought that was due to price--that DGF could be had for a better price than the CB and was the entry-level acceptable French chocolate. I don't think anyone ever wrote home really nice things about the flavor of this chocolate, though. It was serviceable and got the job done performance-wise. And I don't know anyone currently using DGF.

I haven't found better milk chocolates than the Cluizel 45% and the El Rey--but I'm always open to options. I've never tried the Guittard but will.

E. Guittard pistoles can be had for less than $4 a pound. As I've written elsewhere, right now that's the chocolate I'm most enthusiastic with--I use the 61%, the 72% and their special (more expensive) 65% bars, especially the L'Harmonie and the Ecuador. You can do some very special things with these products, the flavor, interest and performance rival the Cluizel and Valrhona high end, but at very fair prices. Especially in things where the chocolate itself really comes through--i.e. the chocolate is not heated too much.

Edited February 27, 2003 by Steve Klc (log)

[saycheese]

www.chocolatesource.com also has Valrhona chocolate and cocoa in bulk. As an aside, visiting the Valrhona shop/factory in Tain l'Hermitage is a lot of fun -- lots of free samples, and truffles, which I have never seen for sale in the US.

[R Washburn]

bripastryguy is blacklisting this site, because they failed to honor a price on their website, but they do have what is to me some good chocolate prices. i think the Valrhona Jivara is a very good price ($4.85/lb.) if you don't mind buying 3kg. Now that I am making chocolates, it isn't a problem!

Assouline and Ting

I did a price check on my order today, before I finalized it. The only discrepency was the 3kg of Valrhona cocoa went up 15 cents (and it is now adjusted on the site). Obviously, they think it is okay to be lax about updating their prices. Here is what I ordered:

VALCOC Cocoa powder- Valrhona 6.6lb. $35.15

COCOAB Cocoa Butter-Pure 2.2lb. $18.50

VALJIV1 Valrhona Jivara 40 per cent Cocoa-6.6lb. $32.01

FedEX ground shipping to New York City: $12.00

Look around though for other wholesalers, this is just the only one I have dealt with.

Robert

I just received my order, even though I wasn't expecting it till monday. I guess I am going to be making chocolates tonight.

Edited February 27, 2003 by R Washburn (log)

[Elizabeth_11]

Wow, so many replies, so many brands! Thank you everyone! I think I'm going to print this page out to remember it all, lol. Well for starters, I am aware of the property difference b/w the chips and the blocks, but I have actually tested the guittard chips out for the fillings and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Nice texture, no problems setting up properly, very rich and smooth. The dipping, however, was not successful--way too thick and just..ehh..not good results. This is why I was thinking about just getting a superb chocolate for the coating which would melt and coat easily and smoothly. I have thought about piping, but in my "trial run" I simply used a melon-baller and shaped the (still very maleable) ganache into somewhat round balls and stuck them in the fridge to firm them up, and this was rather successful. I tried to dip these into the melted guittard, but as I mentioned before, it was way too thick. I finished up by letting them dry on a silpat and they ended up resembling fannie mays--which is fine :) (Still worked, still was super tasty though--just not as aesthetically pleasing as I'd like them to be). Is this not the best way to do it????

I do know how to temper chocolate, although my experience in doing this is limited. As for cost, it's really difficult to say in exact dollars-just as little as possible. I know that doesn't help at all, and most likely I will cave and end up using high quality for the centers as well as the shells. Some of the prices you all have quoted are not "oh my god" expensive, so I'll probably just go the distance with it.

Also, what about white chocolate? I know to look for high cocoa butter content, but any brand known for its white chocolate? Is adding raspberry puree a good idea? I know that I'll end up testing this all out myself, but I'd like to avoid wasting the chocolate as much as possible, therefore some sort of roadmap of how to go about this would be wonderful. Again, thank you all for taking the time to aswer me--what would I do without this site?

-E-

[tan319]

...the only Valrhona I really love and which I think is worth the money ( $67.00 for about 7 lb.) is the grand cru, 'Manjari'.

Ouch. Is that your wholesale price? Tan, you're paying too much! You shouldn't be paying any more than $7 a pound for this. I get the 3kg block for under $45. Please, shop around!!

Michael, I spoke to my supplier today about Valrhona and he had a couple of things to say.

For one thing, I'm in the southwest USA and they have to pay more shipping costs.They also buy from a source, not direct. They would have to buy a pallet which is a helluva lot 'o' chocolate.

They also said that due to the war going on in the Ivory coast and other situations, Valrhona (and others too, I believe) are going to be raising their prices by about 20% soon. Has anyone else been hearing this?

It was nice seeing that Steve had nice things to say about Cocoa Noel. as this is the main chocolate I'm using at the moment. The 64%. It's cost effective, to me, and has a nice taste. I used to use CB a lot, with Valrhona Manjari being the one for my really deep chocolate desserts. I went with El Rey 72% for the insane chocoholic stuff.

Maybe I will look into the E. Guittard chocs.

I do miss some nuances with the CN 64%.

[Lesley C]

I think you people are dismissing DGF too quickly.

The Les Louis couverture has a deep, somewhat fruity flavour. And Steve, TONS of French chefs use it and a lot of MOFs work at the DGF school (at least they used to). It's certainly a lot better than any of the Barry low-end stuff (I will not touch favourites mi-amer) and even some Valrhona like Caraibes.

[JFLinLA]

I'm a fan of Guittard Super Cookie Chips -- when you want chips for cookies, etc. Trader Joe's used to carry them but decided to discontinue doing so. They would come in some time in late October and be around through the holidays usually into February and I would stock up. I'm so mad at them I haven't set foot in a TJs store since I found out in early November. I finally got the information from Guittard since the folks at the various stores I was at were clueless. I know you can get them at CaliforniaCandy.com but, of course, they are much more expensive than at TJs, even before the shipping. So, I have two requests:

First, I invite any of you to join my personal campaign to get TJs to change their mind. Mention it when you are in the store or, better yet, fill out one of those cards (I don't think all the verbal comments actually get relayed). Even better, pick up a card in the store with the address of corporate HQ and let them know how you feel. Sorry, I don't have the info handy on that or I'd post it here.

Secondly, anyone have another source to get the Guittard Super Cookie Chips? I'm in Southern California.

Thanks.

Jody

[jeniac42]

How does one (being, shall we say, not employed as a chef) go about finding somewhere to buy these high-end chocolates? I'm not opposed to mailorder but if I could find something local (Columbus, OH) I'd be happy. I know where I can get Callebaut and Scharffen Berger, but have never laid eyes on Valrhona, etc. (Would you believe they had a story in the local paper a few weeks back with a chocolate tasting, but no sources? Grrr.)

I'm not exactly God's gift to baking (don't have the patience) but I do like to play around every now and again.