Good Chocolate?

[thesuperkillerxxx]

So who makes the best chocolate in your personal opinion?

(USA - If I here Hershey's, I will dot your eye.... Piss poor sugar laden garbage, IMO.)

I am a big fan of godiva, anything dark chocolate rules in my book!

[Rob]

This one.

There's another favorite, but I can't remember the brand at the moment. Dark chocolate rules, and not the thing andi keeps spamming.

[landshark]

Fannie May Turtles. If someone put a truckload of these in front of me, I'd eat until I died of chocolate poisoning.

[Ramus]

I like World's Finest Chocolate. You know, the one that you get from baseball fundraisers. It's my favorite.

[iatneH]

I haven't been lucky enough to sample the chocolates for the high class (I actually have had Godiva on several occasions, but maybe I'm too crude to appreciate it).

I remember enjoying dark chocolates made by Dove though, I had a few from the Christmas snack bowl when I was visiting some relatives in the US several years ago. Very smooth chocolate!

[The n00b]

I like Hershey's dark chocolate and regular. You can't beat a classic, sorry...even if it is sugar laden garbage.

[MadSteelDarkness]

The chocolate made by Lammes Candies rocks my socks.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Dove's dark chocolate is good. I'd recommend it to people who like their dark chocolate not too bitter.

I think the more cocoa the better, though I've never tried anything more than 85% cocoa (which is awesome once you get used to the flavor.) I don't have any specific brand to recommend, just go for something that looks decent.

[Accutron]

There are three varieties of Theobroma cacao: Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario. The normal mass-produced chocolate we eat every day is made from Forastero. Criollo is the high-end variety. If you want the best chocolate, it must be made from Criollo beans. Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, and the beans are often described by their amount of Criollo influence.

Most of the best chocolate is made in France and Italy. Valrhona (France), Michel Cluizel (France), Amedei (Italy) and Domori (Italy) are the top brands that come to mind.

Lindt and Godiva are decent, but not spectacular. Hershey's is dog shit. If you must eat mass-produced crapola, go with Nestlé or Ghiradelli instead.

[professor ganson]

I only eat dark chocolate, but I don't stick to any one brand. If it's Swiss or Belgian, that's a good sign.

[Neo Rasa]

Dark chocolate is where it's at. Milk chocolate exists for the same reason you water down beer or cut heroin. It's just a cheap way for major companies to put out as much of it as possible by diluting it. Milk chocolate is a damn disgrace. Bacci and Godiva are great. Bacci for the almond/chocolate hybrid stuff.


White chocolate can be good but I don't have a particular brand choice there. Suggestions? Guilliaume is decent.

[gameoverDude]

Lindt's 70% Cocoa bars are great stuff. Hershey's pales in comparison. Dove and Ghirardelli are also good.

I've tried a few pieces of Godiva chocolate- it's wonderful, but not cheap (at least the kind I had was $2 per piece). You do get what you pay for in the quality. Godiva also makes some really good dark chocolate/raspberry bars.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Don't know who makes the best chocolate but I really like Godiva Champagne Truffles.

[judesalmon]

American chocloate sucks in comparison to European stuff.

Even the 'chocolate' bars we get in the UK are vastly superior.

My favourite is Lindor by Lindt.

[SheSaidDutch]

The one with a swiss alp onthe front I think It's Lindt or something similiar.

I only buy one bar every so often as It's damn expensive (about £1+ for a normal sized block.

[zinger]

I was in NYC about two weeks ago, and was suprised to see such a bad selection of chocolate. I had to go for the classic, english Cadbury-ones, which most shops seemed to have. Kitkat Chunky is probably my fave bar though.

[The n00b]

Is it true that European candy usually has a much stronger taste and has more sugar than most American candy?

I'm going off one episode of Ozzie's tv show and one episode of the Simpson's here. I think it was Ozzie had the best description of American candy I have ever heard or at least it contained the most curse words I've ever heard while talking about candy.

[Michaelm]

The Belgiums make the best - Cote D'or

[Accutron]

Cote d'Or is very good, though I'd rate the French and Italian brands I mentioned above more highly. I would also say that the Belgian Callebaut is superior to Cote d'Or.

[shariar07]

There are three varieties of Theobroma cacao: Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario. The normal mass-produced chocolate we eat every day is made from Forastero. Criollo is the high-end variety. If you want the best chocolate, it must be made from Criollo beans. Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero, and the beans are often described by their amount of Criollo influence.

Most of the best chocolate is made in France and Italy. Valrhona (France), Michel Cluizel (France), Amedei (Italy) and Domori (Italy) are the top brands that come to mind.

Lindt and Godiva are decent, but not spectacular. Hershey's is dog shit. If you must eat mass-produced crapola, go with Nestlé or Ghiradelli instead.

I agree with Accutron: Valrhona and Domori are really fine stuff. I would like to mention that Lindt chocolate bars are great too. Bounty bars put Almond Joy and Mounds to shame. Best 3 chocolate bars come from Europe and always are superior they use more natural stuff and real milk chocolate just lookout for the saturated fat though, but who cares i love the taste. Swiss(Lindt, Tolberlone), France(Valrhona), Italy(Domori) are the best brands.

I also love Dark Chocolate, Hazelnut and chocolate, Coconut Filling Chocolate are my top varieties.

[landshark]

American chocloate sucks in comparison to European stuff.

I'm yet to be impresed by European chocolate. I used to work for a company that was based in Switzerland and they brought back chocolate for us all the time and it never impressed me.

[Super Laydock]

The Belgiums make the best - Cote D'or

Word! Absolutely agree. In the days before the "open" border between Belgium and the Netherlands we actually bought many of their bars a month from a Belgian smuggler.

oh, the memories...

[beatifik]

man, everybody's big on european chocolate. i don't know, if chocolate has to travel that far to get to my mouth, who knows where it's been.

http://www.harborsweets.com/

^
that's a company that is local where i grew up. there chocolate is some of the best i've ever had. my mom works there during the holidays so we get a fat discount and tons of free "regect" chocolates.

http://www.moonstruckchocolate.com/

^
the other great american chocolate company i've tried out. located in portland, oregon. they have great coffee and AMAZING chocolate.

[Accutron]

man, everybody's big on european chocolate. i don't know, if chocolate has to travel that far to get to my mouth, who knows where it's been.

Man, everybody's big on Japanese video games. I don't know, if games have to travel that far to get to my console, who knows where they've been.

In other words, I find this a strange place to see import reluctance.

European fine chocolate is the best, period. If a person thinks otherwise, they do not know what they're talking about. In much the same way that a non-shmupper cannot discern the difference between a good and bad shmup, people who aren't chocolate tasters often cannot discern the difference between a fine European chocolate and some random American pap with fancy packaging. There are good American chocolates, but none have been mentioned in this thread thus far (I'll now rectify that).

Scharffen Berger and Guittard are both very good American brands, but they do not quite match the quality of the European varieties already discussed. I'll also mention the Venezuelan brand El Rey, as it beats the pants off anything in North America, and can stand with the best of Europe.

[beatifik]

man, everybody's big on european chocolate. i don't know, if chocolate has to travel that far to get to my mouth, who knows where it's been.

Man, everybody's big on Japanese video games. I don't know, if games have to travel that far to get to my console, who knows where they've been.

In other words, I find this a strange place to see import reluctance.

European fine chocolate is the best, period. If a person thinks otherwise, they do not know what they're talking about. In much the same way that a non-shmupper cannot discern the difference between a good and bad shmup, people who aren't chocolate tasters often cannot discern the difference between a fine European chocolate and some random American pap with fancy packaging. There are good American chocolates, but none have been mentioned in this thread thus far (I'll now rectify that).

Scharffen Berger and Guittard are both very good American brands, but they do not quite match the quality of the European varieties already discussed. I'll also mention the Venezuelan brand El Rey, as it beats the pants off anything in North America, and can stand with the best of Europe.

yeah, a perishable consumable is the EXACT SAME THING as a plastic video game.

everybody, listen up:

from now on Accutron's opinion=ABSOLUTE FACT.

man, what a great attitude you have.

[Accutron]

yeah, a perishable consumable is the EXACT SAME THING as a plastic video game.

I think a pretty strong analogy can be made. They can both be imported, usually at a higher price, to obtain a finer product. They can both be damaged in shipping, and sometimes the product does not match your expectations.

everybody, listen up:

from now on Accutron's opinion=ABSOLUTE FACT.

man, what a great attitude you have.

I'm not sure what the hell this is about. Why must an 'IMO' be attached to every single sentence? Unless we're discussing scientific or (assumed) historical fact, it's always an opinion.

[The n00b]

and what about if you end up with an imported dating sim? That's some fine product you'll end up with then

Anyway chocolate is a silly thing to fight over because more than most things it really does come down to taste. How do you know your silly ultra expensive european chocolate is better than some little known american brand that you've never tasted? They could very well be the same damn product wrapped in a different wrapper.

I'm going to try some of these European chocolates mentioned here but I think I'll always like Godiva and Hershey's. I kind of like that it's hated among European chocolate snobs because I don't like thinking I'm eating anything more than a simple candy bar.

[Accutron]

and what about if you end up with an imported dating sim? That's some fine product you'll end up with then

Likewise, Europe has its fair share of crappy chocolate.

[FatCobra]

I LOVE German dark chocolate. I always pick some up over at the Mr. Dunderback's at the local mall.

[captain ahar]

the best chocolate i've ever had was an organic coffee/cocoa bar. for the life of me i cannot recall the name of the company. it was american though, i'm sure.