Your favorite Gourmet Chocolate Bar

[vin]

Hi all,

I'm looking to see what your favorite gourmet or Artisinal chocolate bar is. I've tried "Vosges Chocolat" and love them, especially the dark chocolate, ginger wasabi bar. Anyone out there have their favorites.

Has anyone tried "Chuao" or "Burdick" chocolate bars ?

Vin

[skyflyer3]

I just tried the Vosges Gianduja, and it's quite tasty. Creamy, excellent mouthfeel.

edited to add that the Scharffenberger milk chocolate bars you can pick up at Trader Joe's are nice as well. And the Valrhona ones from there, too, are excellent. Ooh, I love the Ritter's Joghurt (chocolate with yogurt filling), and the Lindt red bars. Wow, I had no idea I eat this much chocolate....

Edited February 1, 2005 by skyflyer3 (log)

[Sebastian]

Domori has one from a certain valley in madascgar, which is wonderful - the name of it escapes me, it starts with an 's' (sambirano, i think)..i also like pralus's madascgar bar (see a trend forming here?). However, they're both very different from one another. Amedi's got a pretty good porcelana, and i like pralus's sao tome as well, but as much for the melting characteristics of the butter as for the taste.

[sladeums]

I really enjoy Domori's stuff too.

Couple favorites:

Barrique: 75% of cocoa solids (chocolate liquor and cocoa butter) with pink peppercorns, mace, cinnamon and ginger.

Gem: 85% chocolate liquor with crystals of raw cane sugar.

[M. Lucia]

Richard Donelly's Cardamom Chocolate Bar

[docsconz]

Fauchon's dark chocolate with Marcona almonds recently flooreed me.

[Wendy DeBord]

Welcome to The eGullet Society of Arts and Letters Vin!

[Anni]

Ditton on the Scharffenberger Milk Chocolate (mmmm...)! I also like Dolfin's Dark Chocolate with Green Aniseed. This one really surprised me because the combo was much better than I anticipated, and I'm not usually a fan of aniseed. Dunno if Ritter Sport counts as "gourmet" but I love the marzipan and chocolate. That's all I can think of right now...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Not a gourmet chocolate bar here but an extremely interesting analysis of gourmet chocolates in Slate Online today:

the thread Sweets for your Sweetie

[Gary]

I'm now munching on a Michel Cluizel Amer 85% that I just picked up at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor. The best part was the "free" chocolate tasting offered by the lovely lady at their chocolate display area. She let me taste several types before I picked the one I liked best. I love Zingerman's.

[jgarner53]

I'm on a chocolate nib kick right now and really liking Scharffenberger's nibby bar.

At the moment, however, I'm nibbling on a square of their 82% extra dark.

[Moopheus]

Favorite chocolate bar? So many choices . . . how to decide?

[pam claughton]

Lake Champlain's 5 star bars are amazing. Especially the fruit and nut one that is dark chocolate, bits of praline and pecans, wild dark cherries and raisins.

Another new favorite are the organic Dagoba bars.

My favorite was this one,

Dagoba Xocolatl Organic Chocolate

Xocolatl is inspired by ancient chocolate culture and tradition, infused with chilis, cacao nibs, maca, vanilla and nutmeg.

this one was very good too

Dagoba "Lavender" Organic Chocolate

A uniquely wonderful blending of flavor! Dagoba’s signature rustic grown organic dark chocolate is infused with lavender essence and organic wild sundried blueberries.

[skyflyer3]

Lake Champlain's 5 star bars are amazing.  Especially the fruit and nut one that is dark chocolate, bits of praline and pecans, wild dark cherries and raisins. 

Another new favorite are the organic Dagoba bars.

My favorite was this one, 

Dagoba Xocolatl Organic Chocolate

Xocolatl is inspired by ancient chocolate culture and tradition, infused with chilis, cacao nibs, maca, vanilla and nutmeg.

this one was very good too

Dagoba "Lavender" Organic Chocolate

A uniquely wonderful blending of flavor! Dagoba’s signature rustic grown organic dark chocolate is infused with lavender essence and organic wild sundried blueberries.

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I was surprised with how good Lake Champlain's chocolates were. Their cherry ganache one is excellent, with a wonderful, non-cloying cherry taste.

[JFLinLA]

Not a gourmet chocolate bar here but an extremely interesting analysis of gourmet chocolates in Slate Online today:

the thread Sweets for your Sweetie

←

Check this out too!

[CaliPoutine]

I'm now munching on a Michel Cluizel Amer 85% that I just picked up at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor.  The best part was the "free" chocolate tasting offered by the lovely lady at their chocolate display area.  She let me taste several types before I picked the one I liked best.  I love Zingerman's. 

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Hey, I was there today too and no one offered me any chocolate. I picked up and looked at all their chocolates, but I concluded that they were overpriced.

I did buy some chesnut honey and some dulce de leche( all overpriced as well).

I had a really good sannich too.

[Mirandar]

Mmm, i second the thought on the yumminess of Dagoba. the xlocolatl (that might be spelled wrong) is exactly the chocolate/chili bar i've been wanting.

[charlotte baker]

Hi all,

I'm looking to see what your favorite gourmet or Artisinal chocolate bar is. I've tried "Vosges Chocolat" and love them, especially the dark chocolate, ginger wasabi bar. Anyone out there have their favorites.

Has anyone tried "Chuao" or "Burdick" chocolate bars ?

Vin

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This one is my favorite and she is a poster on this board. She's currently shut down until the spring but the chocolate is well worth waiting for---particularly her salt caramels.

http://www.samakichocolates.com/

[sladeums]

Mmm, i second the thought on the yumminess of Dagoba. the xlocolatl (that might be spelled wrong) is exactly the chocolate/chili bar i've been wanting.

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You might look at some of the other high-end producers for this type of product as well.

The chocolate with chili and/or spice is not that uncommon.

A good one-stop place to look for reference is:

Chocosphere.

Never ordered from them, so don't know how that fares, but they do list a wide range of products which I enjoy e-window shopping.