This is Mangiare Bene’s ongoing chocolate tasting blog, and your suggestions are welcomed.
I’ve found that for my palate the best-tasting chocolate bars have 70% or higher cacao content. In the 55% cacao bars the sugar taste, or sweetness, overrides the rich, pure chocolate flavor of darker products.
So much chocolate is out there, including organic—we’re facing a booming and growing industry. The packaging is a product in itself and often requires close inspection of both the artwork and the printed information (the artwork often includes an environmental or socially conscious message).
I’m posting the names of chocolate bars that taste the purest to my palate; that is, when my eyes shut in bliss as unadulterated chocolate begins to melt in my mouth. This chocolate bite (or two or three) along with a piece of fruit, is my favorite dessert. I like chocolate bars divided into small rectangles, rather than large ones, as the small treat-size seems to enhance my savoring experience.
Perugina Nero
70% cacao
When I’m living in Italy, where there isn’t the enormous chocolate bar selection available in the States, I depend on Perugina Nero, which is fairly new. (Everyone knows about Perugina’s “Baci,” but it’s harder to find Perugina Nero in the States, in fact, I haven’t seen it in a store yet, I’ve only read about it online.) It’s sure to catch on soon.
Here is what it looks like:
It ranks among my top, sublime chocolate bars.
Chocolove
73% cacao
Certified 100% organic grown.
This is a delicious chocolate product from the USA. The owner and founder, Timothy Moley, sent the following in an email:
“The cacao beans are grown in equatorial regions. The beans are converted to block or bulk chocolate in Belgium. We received the chocolate as bulk in Boulder. We melt it to liquid, depending on the flavor we may mix more than one type of bulk chocolate and or add fruit and or nuts and mold bars and wrap them in our factory in Boulder CO.”
Many food stores carry the full line of chocolove bars. www.chocolove.com
Sao Tomé
74% cacao, dark Belgium chocolate
I have to be sure not to fall in love with the chocolate packaging, which can be so precious, but concentrate full powers on taste alone. This Belgium bar comes from cacoa grown on West Africa’s San Tomé island. The taste is purely, divinely, chocolate; it has that unadulterated flavor that contributes to the term: choco-aholic.
And then, there is the unbelievable packaging…a printed enveloped with the bar slipped in and secured with a ribbon that on a real letter would be sealing wax. Just lovely, as divine as the chocolate itself.
www.neuhaus.be/150/
Cuorenero
70% cacao from Bolivia, produced in Bologna, Italy
Just delicious! www.cuorenero.it
Fairly, Ethically Traded Chocolate
A number of chocolate bars identify themselves as “fairly traded.” This means the chocolate-bar company has collaborated with small farmers, who are often exploited by the larger market, to ensure they’re paid fairly for their cacao beans and labor. Some chocolate bar producers in this category also protect the environment and endangered habitats of our planet (see www.chocolatebar.com). My favorite tasting chocolate from the fairly traded producers follows and will undoubtedly be added to as my sampling of chocolate bars continues.
Dark Chocolate Blackout--Alter Eco Fair Trade
85 % cacao for impassioned chocoholics. As the producers say, it is strong enough "to help cocoa farmers in Bolivia improve their livelihood while promoting sustainable farming. That's cocoa power!" Made in Switzerland, www.altereco.com
Alce Nero--cioccolato extra fondente
80% cacao, Made in Switzerland, from Costa Rican organic cacao beans; this chocolate has a light crunch of cacao bean shavings, adding extra pleasure to the rich amaro flavor. www.alcenero.it
Equal Exchange Chocolate
Organic Very Dark Chocolate, 71% cacao
This is the company’s top seller and also my favorite for its deep chocolate essence that slowly dissolves in the mouth. For the full line of chocolate bars and company mission, visit the web site: http://www.equalexchange.coop/chocolate-bars
“Our founders envisioned a food system that empowers farmers and consumers, supports small farmer co-ops, and uses sustainable farming methods. They started with fairly traded coffee from Nicaragua and didn't look back. Today, we continue to find new and powerful ways to build a better food system. We partner with co-operatives of farmers who provide high-quality organic coffees, teas, chocolates and snacks from farmers all over the world, including here in the United States.”
Divine
70% dark chocolate
This is a leading Fair Trade brand based on cacao producers from Ghana. The chocolate has a unique, velvety texture as it melts.
http://divinechocolateusa.com/
Gail Spilsbury, Mangiare Bene