All my life, I have hated dark chocolate. Abhorred it. After a childhood Halloween candy spree, I would carefully remove each and every dark chocolate Hershey’s from my pile and toss them out. Through all my 23-odd years, I have avoided every bit of it in favor of creamy white chocolate or sweet milk chocolate. My primary complaint was that dark chocolate left a vile bitter aftertaste in my mouth.
Then, this weekend, I Mr. P bought a bar of Chocolove Raspberries in Dark Chocolate to sneak into a showing of Hot Fuzz (fine movie by the way). I broke off a corner of it and lo–! Angels did sing on high! It was so, so good. I went back to the store and purchased just a high quality organic plain dark chocolate bar for myself.
Now I’m hooked. How could this be? I feel like such a hypocrite for the years of lashing out at dark chocolate aficionados. Could it be that my taste in chocolate all these years have been perverted by low quality Hershey’s chocolates? Or even See’s? I felt unsure about spending $3 on a bar of chocolate, but dang…the pay off is good.
Low-quality dark chocolate is vile stuff, but if you get the good kind … damn. Try it with a glass of red wine sometime.
Comment by Lindy — May 16, 2007 @ 2:31 pm |
Ah at last you’ve seen the light! Try Dagoba or Green & Black brand, both of which I like a lot (Dagoba makes a neat blend of rather dark chocolate, chilis, cacao nibs, and other spices, which is called Xocolatl)
Comment by Coconuts — May 16, 2007 @ 4:25 pm |
Coconuts, I’ve seen Dagoba at the local Whole Foods! Now I have an excuse to give it a try.
the Xocolatl sounds divine.
I’ve also heard a lot about Scharffen Berger (sp?). But I know they’re owned by Hershey’s. Thoughts? Anyone tasted this stuff?
Comment by apricot — May 16, 2007 @ 4:50 pm |
I swear by Scharffen Berger, for eating and baking. There’s just nothing else that compares. I don’t know about them being owned by Hershey’s, but I’ve toured their factory in Berkeley and they convinced me they were nice and trustworthy people to make my chocolate.
Give it a try — I like the “semisweet” best.
Comment by lisa — May 16, 2007 @ 9:41 pm |
Lisa, you’re right; it looks like Scharffen Berger is darn well respected. However, it did come in second to Dagoba chocolate in a taste testing contest: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/07/FDGDS43BHC1.DTL&type=printable
But that was a few years ago. Perhaps SB is all the rage now. That and Green and Blacks.
Looks like I’m going to have to try one of each!
Comment by apricot — May 17, 2007 @ 3:30 pm |
Oh I so want to have a chocolate-tasting party now. Let’s do it! Are you up for it?
Comment by lisa — May 18, 2007 @ 9:56 am |
OMG THAT’S THE BEST IDEA EVER
let’s DO IT
Comment by apricot — May 18, 2007 @ 12:11 pm |
All right! And I had another brilliant idea — after we’ve tasted all the various chocolates, we should throw whatever leftovers we have into a pot and make chocolate fondue.
I shall email you about this!
Comment by lisa — May 18, 2007 @ 11:26 pm |
Oh PS — what day of the week (or dates) are good for you?
Comment by lisa — May 18, 2007 @ 11:26 pm |
Saturdays are good, but it all varies. So just tell me what your schedule is like.
I can’t WAIT for fondue. I bought some Scharffen Berger semisweet last night, by the way, and Mr. P LOVED it.
Comment by apricot — May 19, 2007 @ 10:28 am |
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