notes on chocolate
by john d. erickson
updated 21 november 2003

Because quality is always at the forefront of my purchasing mind, chocolate is one of those food treats about which I've become studious and slightly obsessive. Information is readily (but not too readily) available about how chocolate is made and where it comes from, and labels are usually informative. Unlike wine, that other great connoisseur's vice, the retail price of chocolate rarely prohibits tasting on a budget; one must only get over the slight discomfort in paying as much as five dollars for as little as 50 grams of enjoyment (this for chocolate bars; confectioneries can run even higher). And unlike cheese, another food of endless variety and delight, even a poor yet expensive selection is unlikely to go to waste, the way that some mounds of moldy raw milk cheese that run into the gaps of the tiny straw mats they're displayed on have. I will always gladly eat a good piece of chocolate.

As a wine enthusiast looks out for new wines to try, I look for new brands and types of chocolate to try. My biggest obstacle to acquired knowledge, though, as it is with me and wine, and me and cheese, is the difficulty in remembering the important differences: cocoa percentages, bean origin, blend details, manufacturer's name, manufacturing location—and the less important ones: cost per pound or kilogram, and where I bought it. Part of the function of this page is for me to record and share these details.

I should explain an important distinction in my mind—that between chocolate bars and chocolate confections. I enjoy eating chocolate dressed up with other flavors and in other shapes. (The Teuscher shop in Chicago, with its proprietor Gilles Noyer, used to be a weekly stop for me.) But it is a less, how do you say, intellectual experience for me. It is a cheap, enjoyable, and short-lived thrill. Those of you familiar with les femmes de la nuit will understand. Eating a chocolate bar and knowing a bit about it, knowing where it came from, knowing where its ingredients came from, that is more stimulating for me. A truffle is only good for eating. A chocolate bar, though, has so much potential. I could eat it raw to study the delicate tastes within, or I could turn it into brownies, into chocolate gelato, into a chocolate sauce, into a milkshake, into hot chocolate, into a ganache for a tart, into ganache to fill meringues, into so many other things.

Among chocolate bars, many people unfamiliar with chocolate think there is a line between chocolate for baking and chocolate for eating. This is incorrect. Baker's brand bars are good for nothing; a hunk of Valrhona is good for everything. There is chocolate marketed and packaged for eating out of hand and then for baking. I don't recommend baking with individually wrapped 3 ounce bars of Scharffen-Berger because it gets expensive. Bittersweet chocolate purchased in bulk is good for melting down or chopping up, but it is just as good for eating.

I want to share a lot of information on this page, but I haven't yet decided the best format. Like the section of my site devoted to men's clothing, this is not intended to be a how-to. It is some objective information mixed with my impressions and opinions. Let's get started.

who makes good chocolate in bulk form?

Valrhona - The one that, supposedly, most professional pastry chefs use. French. Available in many varieties and cocoa percentages. Following are a few of their more popular varieties; comments in quotations are descriptions from their website.

Equatoriale Noir: 55% cocoa. Blend details unknown; considered all-purpose.

Caraque: 56% cocoa. Blend details unknown.

Noir Gastronomie (extra bitter): 61% cocoa. A blend of Criollos and Forastero beans, unknown location.

Manjari: 64.5% cocoa. A blend of Criollos and Trinitarios beans from Madagascar. "Very characteristic, fresh slightly acidic chocolate taste, with intense hints of red fruits."

Caraibe: 66% cocoa. Trinitarios cocoa beans from the Caribbean Islands. "Very chocolate taste, sustained fullness with hints of dried fruits and toasted almonds with a woody base."

Guanaja: 70.5% cocoa. A blend of Criollos and Trinitarios beans from South America. Named after an island off the shore of Honduras. "Very chocolatey taste, exceptional bitterness, very long on the palate."

Araguani: 72% cocoa. I don't know which cocoa beans they use, but they are from Venezuela. "Powerful, bittersweet, distinctive flavor, with liquorice, raisin, and chestnut notes."

It's also quite expensive: usually $13 - 15 per pound. I was pleased to find this chocolate early in my baking fun at the Whole Foods market on North Avenue in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Since then, I've found it at most Whole Foods stores, including the Bread & Circus stores in the Boston area, in bulk in the cheese section. (I have never purchased the packaged "baking bars" in the chocolate section of the baking aisle because they're so expensive—usually eight or nine dollars for 200 grams.) They have an poorly designed but potentially informative website, valrhona.com.

El Rey - Venezuelan chocolate, many varieties. Moderately priced; I usually find it for $7 - 9 per pound. While I previously used the Bucare (58.8% cocoa) for my standard home baking projects, the flavor is now too, I don't know, cheap. El Rey is unique in that they use only Venezuelan cocoa beans; nearly everyone else uses a mixture of beans from different regions, a cru.

Callebaut - chocolate from Belgium—or is it only the company that is Belgian? Rumor has it that they produce their American-market chocolate in their large factory in Vermont on the Canadian border. Perhaps this is how they keep their prices steady while others like Valrhona rise and rise with the strength of the Euro. I only see it available in large, thick blocks which are difficult to work with. (How can you cut off five ounces?) Sometimes as cheap as $5.50 per pound, usually six to eight. Some type of their broadly-classified "bittersweet" is my standard baking chocolate now, but I never really know which one it is. They have dozens of blends, all codified like "mild 805."

Scharffen-Berger - American made, and of the highest quality. Expensive, though, like Valrhona, and they don't make many varieties. (Usually $14 per pound when I see it bulk.) There's a 61% "semisweet" and a 70% "bittersweet" type, as well as 99%. Two middle-aged guys started this company in 1997 and they've been hugely successful at getting their name and product out there. Last time I was in Berkeley, CA, I tried to visit the (small) factory but came right after they closed. My next visit to the Bay Area will be planned around their availability. Learn more from their web page, scharffen-berger.com.

Lindt - It's okay. I'm not crazy about it; I don't know why.

Guittard - From California. Quite good, and inexpensive. My godmother in Brooklyn found a big hunk of their bittersweet chocolate for $3.50 per pound. I never got around to baking with it because I ate it all raw. Their couverture chocolate line is called E. Guittard and should compete with Scharffen-Berger and the fine European makers; I haven't yet tasted any.

i can't find those varieties because i live in moline, il

Ghirardelli - its greatest benefit is that it's easily available. They're the popular fine chocolate maker, from San Francisco. Most four ounce "baking bars" are $2 - 3. The semisweet chocolate is cheap; it includes milk solids, something I think kicks the chocolate down a notch. If they're using good cocoa and cocoa butter, why do they need the extra fat and flavor of milk solids? If you can't find one of the better brands, buy Ghirardelli "bittersweet," sometimes called "double chocolate"—a proper combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and sugar—and you'll be fine.

i want to buy a good chocolate bar to share with my friend (we are walking down the street)

Cote d'Or - Belgian. Tried some for the first time in July 2003. I had "bittersweet." (They have many others, but I don't think they disclosed cocoa percentage.)

CUBA Venchi - Piedmont, Italy. A 100g bar of 56% bittersweet costs four dollars at Louis Boston. It tastes okay. They also make a variety of little treats such as chocolate cigars.

Dolfin - From Belgium. A company devoted to chocolate bars with additional flavors. I just looked up their web page, dolfin.de, and now I can't wait to try every other variety. Each 70g bar is only $2.50 around the corner, so it won't take me long. I've purchased some Dolfin, in the name of trying new chocolate, at South End Formaggio. The first was a "noir 70% de cacao aux éclats de fèves de cacao"—that is, dark chocolate with cocoa bean pieces. Wonderful flavor, very strong but not in the least bit bitter. The cocoa bean pieces add another level of enjoyment. Then the dark chocolate (52% minimum) with earl grey tea. Mmmm. An unexpected combination, but so very good. The bergamot is on equal footing with the chocolate, so don't expect one flavor to dominate. Most recently I had a bar of bittersweet chocolate with mint leaves; too bad the association with the flavor of an Andes mint is so strong. One added benefit is the packaging: they're plastic and designed like my father's old Borkum Riff pipe tobacco pouches. Resealable for the road trip.

Domori - Genova, Italy. Nearly impossible to find in the States. (I still haven't tasted any.) It is reputed to be the favorite boutique chocolate of Pierre Hermé, the legendary French pastry chef. (His everyday chocolate is, unsuprisingly, Valrhona.)

Maglio - from Maglie, a city in Puglia, Italy; a bar of bittersweet, 56% cocoa solids minimum. Extraordinary. It's clearly packaged by hand and it has the look of being very small production—just clear plastic with a brand label and a content label. It was an impulse buy today, August 11th, at South End Formaggio, around the corner from my house. I got a 300g bar for $8.95. I expect a bar of 56% to be a bit weak, perhaps too sweet, but this was neither. No taste of bitterness, but strong chocolate flavor.

News flash! 19 Nov 2003: South End Formaggio, around the corner from me, just bought a few new treats from Maglio. They seem to be truly amazing. There are four different 100g chocolate bars made from single-variety single-plantation beans. There is Equador (60%), Santo Domingo (70%), Cuba (70%), and Africa (75%). I could only afford to buy one ($6.50 for 100 grams—that's $30/pound!) so I started with "Equador," which is made from "Forasteros of the Amenolado variety" from Equador. They call this cocoa "the Nacional." They say it has a unique aroma of flowers and dried grasses. I think it's the smoothest chocolate I have ever eaten, and especially creamy for the medium-high cocoa content.

Also look at the nice small bars from Valrhona (including Noir Orange and Aux Noisettes) and a few from Scharffen-Berger. Lake Champlain chocolate from Vermont is easy to find in the Northeast, too, and is okay tasting.

i want yummy confectioneries

Okay okay. I still have my preferences, although I have less extensive experience with them. Seek these manufacturers and check them off your list.

Freshness is very important with confectioneries. Some truffles that are a few weeks old taste little like their fresh counterparts. Buy from a source that can assure you a recent manufacture date. (This means no Godiva from Barnes & Noble, no matter how cute their seasonal packaging.)

L. A. Burdick - Walpole, New Hampshire. [website]

La Maison du Chocolat - Paris. [website]

Michael Recchiuti - San Francisco. [website]

Teuscher - Zürich. [website]

Vosges - Chicago. [website]

where can one purchase good chocolate?

First try your local specialty food store. Try Whole Foods if you have one. Trader Joe's sometimes has smaller bars of Valrhona, and sometimes has Ghirardelli in huge, bulk bars (remember—only buy Ghirardelli bittersweet.) Call around to "fine foods" stores.

If you know anyone in the restaurant business, ask them if they will order chocolate from their suppliers for you.

There are a few good places online, too, but shipping is often expensive and if it's an even moderately warm season, add a bit of extra money for the necessary dry-ice packaging. Chocosphere.com has good prices and has many more varieties and brands than I have ever tasted. (It's also a good place to learn about chocolate.)

i need cocoa powder

Did the recipe say if it was supposed to be "Dutch-processed" or not?

Regular cocoa powder is ground up cocoa beans, cocoa butter removed. It is not usually difficult to find. (But, again, try to avoid the Hershey's.) Scharffen-Berger distributes some in nice little tins and boasts on the label that it is not alkalized, like the Dutched ones. Scharffen-Berger is the superior choice if you need regular cocoa powder.

Dutch-process cocoa powder is cocoa powder that has been treated with an alkali (a process invented by a Dutchman, hence the name). It is less bitter than regular cocoa powder and, generally, a bit deeper and redder in color. It is better if you're using the powder raw—to sift over a tart, or roll chocolate truffles in, because it doesn't have that bitter and undesirable tang. I like it better even in recipes with added sugar—like for a cake. If your local chain supermarket is sophisticated, it will carry Hershey's "European Style / Dutch-Processed" cocoa in addition to the regular tin. Use it if you must. Droste from Holland is the most commonly available good-quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder. I saw a 250g box at my Whole Foods the other day for $5.69. If you can find Valrhona cocoa powder, next to the bulk chocolate in the cheese section of your local Whole Foods, and usually in the little supermarket plastic container, buy it. It is superior. (It is Dutch-processed.)

i like white chocolate

I don't. (White chocolate has no cocoa solids; it is really just cocoa butter and sugar.) Valrhona, El Rey, Callebaut, and Ghirardelli all make white chocolate. Try it.