I think I've pretty much lost all faith in American chocolate.

[Immortalfire]

Those are the greatest confectioneries ever created.

 

[jaguarr]

I'm a bit of a dark chocolate junkie, but I only eat a few pieces a week if that. As far as domestic chocolate goes, I do like Dove Dark Chocolate (I believe that they market it under the Galaxy brand, rather than Dove, in parts of Europe). Other than that, you have to look to either smaller boutique chocolatiers (See's is a good one, as Lizzie mentioned) or import brands like Sephra, Vivani, Scharffen Berger, Valrhona Noir Amer (one of my faves if you can find it), Valrhona, and many others. Trader Joe's sometimes has some great chocolate, but they don't always carry some of the better stuff. You can read some great reviews at:

http://www.seventypercent.com/chocop/bars.asp

They cover a HUGE array of chocolate makers.

jag

 

[thorandsurfer]

Yeah, chocolate is bad in north america.

 

[Mutagen]

I know, I know... If you're from across the pond, you're probably laughing at me and saying "LOL! It really took that long?", but really, the quality of chocolate in the US has plummeted so fast recently that I think I've finally had enough-- and when it comes to chocolate, that is not something you're supposed to find yourself saying.

The last time I looked at the back of a good ol' Hershey bar, I almost wanted to burn it, bury it, and jam a wooden cross into the ground above it. The ingredients list was as long as a polygamist's will, and it was full of awful things like high fructos corn syrup and partially-hydrogenated soybean oil, so I might as well be drinking motor oil while I'm at it. I didn't buy the wretched thing, but a co worker recently offered me some peanut butter M&Ms, and I immediately regretted eating them. Not only did the chocolate taste like crap, but the peanut butter did too, probably because it was 90% soy oil.

I am fed up with just how crummy our chocolate has become. Food companies are getting lazy and thrifty, so they're using cheap sweeteners like corn syrup, and potentially toxic fillers like soybean oil. Well tonight, I've decided I've had enough, and I'm finally going to start trying out European chocolate. After checking some reviews, I made an order for some French Valrhona brand chocolate (milk and "noir" varieties), and I'm already thinking about ordering some German chocolate in the near future. It's far more expensive, sure, but the way I see it, chocolate is supposed to be a luxury food anyway. And in the end, I think it's wiser to spend $4 on a candy bar that tastes good than it is to spend 40 cents on a candy bar that can give you brain cancer and diabetes.

This might seem like a stupid thing to be posting a long winded rant about, but I love chocolate, and I am sick of how the ingredient lists on American chocolate bars have been getting longer and longer over the last few years. A few years ago, I loved Hershey bars, but now I hate them, and its because they don't taste anything like how they did before the "soy revolution." Almost all the European chocolates I've looked at have nice, short lists with cocoa products right at the top, which at their very worst might contain some soy lecithin. And really, that's nothing compared to making 90% of a candy bar from soy and palm oils, which is exactly what our crummy yank choco factories are churning out.

I hope your efforts are well rewarded, you know what they say about he who waits...

 

[Mutagen]

Lindt, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher are all very delicious. I'm a big fan of Hazelnut flavored foods.

 

[Shuley]

Cadbury FTW

 

[Leto Atrides]

Lindt, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher are all very delicious. I'm a big fan of Hazelnut flavored foods.

Have hazelnut gelato as soon as possible if you haven't yet.

 

[Mutagen]

Have hazelnut gelato as soon as possible if you haven't yet.

I shall keep my eyes open for them.

 

[Alexia Dark]

Ferrero Rochet is the best.

 

[swifty]

Have hazelnut gelato as soon as possible if you haven't yet.

yes but he needs to go to a proper Italian Gelato store in order to fully appreciate the taste of hazelnut gelato combined with a scoup of pistachio icecream all authentic Italian.

 

[Addendum]

The only stateside chocolate I eat

 

[Manic]

If you've got a Fry's Electronics store in your area (ie. if you live in California, Georgia, or Texas), check out their 'front checkout' candy aisle. Lindt, Ferrero Rocher, Ghirardelli. It's all there, likely laid out nice and neat on the shelves. The Fry family used to run a grocery store, so when they switched to electronics in the 80s, they kept the fine European chocolates and non-mainstream candies. We recently had a store-wide inventory count at the location I work at, and I had to go back and recount some of the candy a few days ago. It was like walking through some sort of confection wonderland.