Chocolate: White or milk, bitter or better...

[cheeseandchocolate]

I've recently hit upon my favorite: Cluizel 85%. Last night I did a little taste comparison between Cluizel and Recchiuti 85%, and the flavor difference was remarkable...the Cluizel was much "darker" tasting, for lack of a better description, more bitter, more toasty. Ahhhh.

I'm not so sure about El Rey. I bought a couple bars of the Gran Saman 70%, and it was too sweet, almost milk chocolate-y. Not a fan.

[lala]

Vahlrona 71%  nirvana

I'm currently trying to perfect a brownie recipe, using lots of unsweetened chocolate. Original recipe had walnuts. I've replaced them with Valhrona 60% chunks...a little too sweet. Next try will have Val 71, and toasted hazelnuts. mmm...

You should look at Alice Medrich's book Bittersweet. Her recipes include variations for the different types of chocolate out there. I tried her recipe for brownies using the variation for 70% (I added pecans, but any nut will do) and it disappeared very quickly.

Thanks for the tip - Alice does know what she's doing. I'm actually basing my experiements on what purports to be a recipe for the best brownies I've had, from a major deli. I'm enjoying the experimentation (I'm an ex-pastry cook geek, who's always loved playing with the chemistry of baked goods), and my co-workers are happy to be tasters!

"Im such a freak. I don't actually like Valrhona. It has an "acrid" aftertaste to me, and I've even tried the fancy single-bean ones. I prefer Callebaut, and Michel Cluizel, and Scharffenberger."

Funnily enough, I cannot stand Sharffenburger. I want to, I really do. I love the artisinal nature of the product. It just has this edge at the end that I don't care for. I see they conch the cocoa mass with the vanilla...could this explain it? Although I don't normally have any problems with vanilla...???

[Simon Patrice]

My new favorite is Amedei Chuao. For those from Montreal, you have to try the truffles Geneviève Granbois (there's a kiosk at the Atwater market) makes with this chocolate (the Montecristo is especially good.) And while you're there, pick up a bar of Chuao. Yummy!!!!

[creepygirl]

Funnily enough, I cannot stand Sharffenburger. I want to, I really do. I love the artisinal nature of the product. It just has this edge at the end that I don't care for. I see they conch the cocoa mass with the vanilla...could this explain it? Although I don't normally have any problems with vanilla...???

You're far from alone in disliking Schaffenberger. To me it has excessively fruity and sharp overtones. I've read lots of chocolate snobs who don't care for it either.

My favorite dark chocolate is Guittard. I first tasted it when I was given a couple of boxes of Garrison Confections chocolates, which were sublime.

I also like milk chocolate, but I draw the line at white chocolate--it has to have some chocolate liquor to get my interest.

[yellow truffle]

Kinder Eggs.

I just love them. And you get a surprise to boot. Does any one know a place that sells them in the U.S. or Canada? I believe there is a ban in the U.S. for these products, bad for the little ones.

[CompassRose]

You can't find KinderEggs, yt? In Canada (or at least Ontario) they're in every single grocery store. All the time, changing seasonally. (I remember when they were Very Very Special, only appearing at Easter.)

Freak, you want freak? My mother. My mother has hoarded, in the cupboard under one of the bookshelves in the living-room, every single KinderEgg toy we have ever got. All of them, I'm not kidding. Why? I don't know. You have to open that particular cupboard door with great, great caution...

I keep having this strange feeling, deep in the back of my head, that some day, one of these days, she is going to make a huge killing on EBay with that bizarre collection.

[Verjuice]

When I was visiting Montreal a few months ago, I was utterly seduced by Genevieve Grandbois' chocolates; really amazing. I tried them all, and every last one of them had me rolling my eyes heavenward and reaching out blindly for something to support me while my knees buckled blissfully.

I love Valhrona and Guittard for cooking.

Michel Cluizel and Vosges (especially the Black Pearl) for bars. Teuscher in a pinch.

I don't like Callebaut, which tastes flat and somewhat malty to me, and seems to have a slightly grainy mouthfeel. For some reason, all the El Rey chocolate I have ever tried reminds me of gas station coffee; limp and burnt.

I loathe fruit and/or liquor in chocolate, except in Payard's champagne truffles and Christopher Norman's bittersweet-enrobed wild amarena cherries, which are tiny and firm, and pop in your mouth.

Eh. I guess milk and white chocolate have their place, but why bother? Everything from marzipan to candied ginger to peanut butter to caramel to rosewater-pistachio pairs better with dark.

The sole exception is probably gianduja or any sort of pecan or hazelnut praline, which goes so beautifully with milkier chocolate.

Chocolate is the lowest common denominator of all things divine.

[yellow truffle]

You can't find KinderEggs, yt? In Canada (or at least Ontario) they're in every single grocery store...

Freak, you want freak? My mother. My mother has hoarded,...

I just ordered 2 cases each, from two places, the Dutch Market and Kinder Surprise Eggs, both from Ontario. Something about not being able to sell these things in the U.S.

When I was in Italy, I would oder these things left and right. Then came Easter and they produced the grande. Oh yeah, about 10 times the size of the regular Kinder Eggs. Gotta love em. IMHO, it puts those damn Cadbury eggs to shame.

BTW, your mom should get in touch with this person.

[yellow truffle]

And welcome CompassRose.