Artisan Chocolate

I still find Valrhona (Guanaja), plain and simple, a very rewarding chocolate treat. I don't care for the overly sweet ones.

When it comes to artisan chocolate, I am not very picky, I tend to go for almost any less known/less commercial brand available. However, I too prefer low sugar content and thus have a liking for less sweetened and also preferably dark or white chocolate, as opposed to milk chocolate- for the simple reason that less sugar often brings out more flavors.

If I was to talk about any specific brands, my tastes are quite diverse and include quite an array of various manufacturers: from the dark chocolate by the more exclusive confectionery line of an affordable discounter (Moser&Roth, the upscale in-house range of Lild supermarkets, preferably their dark chocolate), to the diet hypo-caloric chocolate by health food brand Schnee Koppe (no medical condition or dieting, simply like the more intense and slightly less sugared flavored), to Lindt chocolate, preferably with cocoa contents of 70% or above, to the chocolate from artisan chocolatiers like Leonidas, Bur Chocolat (the former still has a subsidiary in my town, the latter closed down their local store, but hopefully they might re-open someday), Maxim's de Paris, Michel Cluziel or Aux Chocolats.

The pleasant part is that not only big supermarket chains import both the more known and the more artisan, obscure, niche Belgian and Swiss chocolate brands, so there is quite a bit of a diversity in my town. Plus, even a few local artisan brands are being developed and launched just as we speak (even a former high school colleague of mine considers entering this business and her chocolate specialties she once invited us to sample are quite good, merely the marketing, the distribution, the publicity, the purchasing/supply etc. aspects are to be perfected), thus there is enough to choose from.

Only a few years ago, my town of residence had a quite limited and quite generic supply of chocolate brands, with the artisan segment almost entirely absent, but now the isolation seems to end and be replaced by an increasing diversification of both large-scale and niche appeal suppliers, plus, everything unobtainable in my town can be easily ordered online anyway.

So, I should check these out, hedonist! Will have a look next time I hit that one special store in Vienna.

Guittard chocolate is my favorite.

The La Maison du Chocolat here in London does very nice hot chocolates, including one with chilli.
There's a quirky chocolate shop located in the Marais district of Paris. I can't remember its name, but it has delicious stuff.

The best I had so far was from Pierre Marcolini, Brussels.

I am extremely picky when it comes to chocolate. Usually I take either the one with 80% chocolate by „Naturata” or one with 85% by „Rapunzel”, both available in organic supermarkets (I only buy organic food).
Delightful is also the raw chocolate by a dutch company „LoveChoc”. Here I prefer the one with figs and almonds, or with cacao nibs. Drop dead.

For plain chocolate bars, I am partial to some Italians (unsurprisingly), for instance, Amedei and Domori. Amedei has some smooth pure pure ones like Chuao or Porcelana. Domori had some strikingly vegetal and green ones (Apurimac, if I remember correctly). But Valrhona is great too - its bars for baking are fantastic. As is Cluizel - Cluizel has an interesting set (il y avait un feve or something like that) which lets you taste chocolate throughout its process, from the bean to the finished product in various concentrations.

For chocolate concoctions, I agree on La maison (they also have great chocolate cakes). For the chocolate-nut mixes called Gianduia and typical of NW Italy, there's Gobino.

Godiva and Neuhaus, which have an enormous percentage of fats, do not deserve to be spoken of in the same paragraph. I once read a book by a choc connoisseurs and the mantra was: in low end, Hershey bad, Mars good. In middle range, Godiva bad, Lindt good.

cacio

I like my local chocolatier, Mitchell's here in Cleveland Heights. What I love is that you can buy a single choclate. They take your chosen morsel from the display case, weigh it out, you pay and savor. This is good for me since if I buy four pieces of chocolate, I will eat all four pieces, and if I buy but one, I eat that one. High quality and portion control is where it's at.

As for store bought, I like Lindt 70% because it's available, wish Valrhona were more easily available.

hedonist222, I lurv the photo!

jujy:

is there a Worlds market in Cleveland? The DC one sometimes carries Valrhona.

Never heard of melt and Forrey et Galland, so something to try (though I am usually not anglophile for my sweets).

cacio

pretty much all over the place...except those dusty chocolate truffles.

praline - la maison or jean-Paul hévin, sometimes agnès b if i crave some of those lychee, mango fillings one.
dragée - as for now i like one that's raspberry coated in white chocolate from agnès b.

a local brand paul lafayet makes some awfully good chocolate cakes and one of my favorites is chocolate blueberry dome which has a macaron on top of a rich chocolate cake. when i was a kid, i used to like a pistachio chocolate bar from lindt, but now it seems no longer available here for some reasons. another off the shelf chocolate would be toblerone and maltesers, i mean who doesnt?!

just checked out melt on the web and the products seem pretty good.

This is the best thread ever. That Rocher Noir looks deeevine! I like chocolate, I don't care if it's American, Swiss, German, Belgian, whatever. I really haven't tried too many specialty or imported chocs but, I gotta say..the German Ritter Sport Bars, those are up there for me. Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts, that's a chocolate bar! lol. I don't really care for See's Candy, an American brand. I find their stuff too sweet and overpriced, idk. Their stuff is so sweet, I really don't even like to eat all of even one chocolate from them. I find a lot of stuff in local Amercian chocolate shops to be pretty sweet and just stuff I can do without. I do like pretty much any chocolate one can find at an American grocery store though. And I do like that Mr. Goodbar. Hershey Kisses are the only thing I am not really fond of. Godiva..not really ever a fan..thought it was overrated? Overpriced for what you get quality wise, imo. Lindt is pretty ok. I don't get the salted caramel, chili pepper, lemongrass, whatever stuff they put in chocolate now. I don't want spicy chocolate or to have chunks of salt on there. Ugh. Someone mentioned Leonidas Belgian chocolates I think on here once, I have yet to try. Mars bars? Why are they so hard to find in America now? Ugh. Those are awesome. I'd like to try more German chocolate for sure. So far, Germany is winning in the chocolate Olympics for me, I give Ritter an 8.5.

So ya, that's my chocolate spat.

That looks so good!!!!

Can I please have a small bite?

I saw a recipe for Alton Brown's "white trash" not long ago, and he seemed to stress using "Callembaut" white chocolate for it. I have not seen that brand anywhere here in the U.S. Wikipedia sez it's more common in Europe. Is this true? And is it really better than Lindt?

Hotel Chocolat is a lovely company. They have lots of fun things, all good quality, but they also have a "Purists" selection too, you know, sort of "appellation" chocolate, different origins and percentage coco and all that. They also have a Tasting Club which you can subscribe to every month. They do wonderful childrens selections too. I've used them for ages and everyone is always delighted.

Yes Hedonist, a litle salt in chocolate is good. Don't you just love salted caramels? That POP when you bite through the chocolate shell and that runny salted caramel? The best ones IMO are by "Artisan du Chocolat" of London.

Both stores online.

I've tried salt on sweets and don't really care for it much. But everyone is different.