By Florence Pia G. Yu
Gulf News, 2003
Dark chocolate, which used to be called "baking chocolate", is teasing the palate of chocoholics fine-tuning their taste buds.
It's the stronger cocoa flavor and exotic taste that turns on chocolate lovers. "A good chocolate is sweet and bitter at the same time. Mass market chocolates are mostly sweet," says Jason Atherton, executive chef of a five star restaurant. Valrhona is the base chocolate for his recipes.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, dark chocolate must have at least 35 percent combined content of cocoa and cocoa butter. To enhance the cocoa flavor, premium chocolate makers add more cocoa and less sugar. Chocolate mass-manufacturers usually use a smaller percentage of cocoa and cocoa butter and more sugar.
"The more cocoa it's got, the better the chocolate will be," Atherton says. "Something with a minimum of 75% cocoa is good chocolate." Michael Schneider, Editor-in-Chief of Chocolatier magazine, says the best chocolate is the chocolate with the most cocoa butter. This gives chocolate a melt-in-your-mouth quality. A chocolate has a high percentage of cocoa rather than sugar when there is a clean "snap" when the bar is broken into two, said chocolatier Marilyn Mueller in the Washington Post's chocolate taste test.
Mueller's pick: Valrhona's 64 percent Grand Cru Noir Manjari with its pleasant citrus tang and perfect balance of bitter to sweet. She liked El Rey'sCarenero Superior GranSaman, a very bitter yet flavorful bar with 70 percent Venezuelan cocoa. Included in the list is Michel Cluizel's line of 72 percent chocolates, particularly the "Nuance Box" of 70 small disks with various cocoa contents--from a 33 percent cocoa milk to a 99 percent dark.
Chocophile.com recommends the 70 percent DomoriBlend #1, a dark, bittersweet chocolate for every day eating.� The dotcom also recommends the flavored chocolate called Barrique. It contains spices (including ginger, cinnamon) and cracked rose pepper. It goes well with red wines.�
Mass-manufacturer, Hershey's, is jumping on the bandwagon with its dark chocolate Kisses, and a dark version of the Kit Kat bar. On the top spot at Yahoo user polls are: Godiva, M & M, Hershey, Snickers, Cadbury, Clark Bar, Nutella, Ghirardelli, Dan's Chocolates and Lindt. "Mass produced chocolates have vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter. The chocolate is cheaper, but it doesn't taste the same," compares Ata Atmar, general manager of Bateel. He says he'd prefer gourmet chocolates because "you don't have to chew, it melts in your mouth. You get the flavor and the taste." But he concedes, "If I want a snack and the only thing available is a good bar of Hershey's with nuts, I'll eat it."
While others are fussing over cocoa contents, chocopile.com advices that the freshest chocolate is still the best. Popular among on-line shoppers is Dan's Chocolates, which are hand-made in small batches, and made the day before the chocolate is needed by the buyer. The chocolates are then hand packaged and delivered via FedEx.
"The best chocolate in the world is the one that you like best. It really doesn't matter what someone else thinks. If you don't like it, then you don't like it. It's not the best to you," advices chocopile.com
Sources:
Fulmer, Melinda. Raise the Bar. Friday Magazine. 2002.
Gugino, Sam. Singular Chocolate.Wine Spectator. February, 2002.
www.avalonwine.com
www.chocolatier.com
www.chocophile.com
writer's note: see related article
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