BS: What is the best chocolate?

Subject: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:41 AM

The most available best chocolate here imo is Dove.
See's chocolate candies claims to be the best chocolate in the world.
The most expensive and cheapest chocolate are numerous.
For the cheapest I vote for Hersheys.
the worst imo is Cadburys.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jos
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:45 AM

Someone gave me a Hershey bar once. I tried a bit, to see what the fuss was about.

Never again.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:51 AM

The flourless chocolate torte from a bakery in Lexington, VA, is the best chocolate I have ever had in my mouth.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:53 AM

The whole town of Hershey smells like chocolate from the silos at the factory. God knows what they do to it after that Jos.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:56 AM

Lindt is better than anything I've tasted. For cocoa powder, Droste. I got some when I was on a tour of Europe (I can't even remember what country - Switzerland? Austria?) and any recipe that wants to to add a pat of butter on your hot cocoa is perfect!

Hershey's is not awesome, but when you're desperate, it's chocolate.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:58 AM

And Don, I believe you can buy some Lindt at supermarket check-outs. You're welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 10:59 AM

Its true Virginia has the better bakeries than MD.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 11:05 AM

I think the best adds butter and the worst adds wax.
Do Chocolatiers have a Phd?:^/

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 11:25 AM

Raw coaco looks like garlic

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 12:01 PM

”Hershey's is not awesome, but when you're desperate, it's chocolate.”

The first part’s correct, the second part is nonsense - it’s not ‘chocolate’, it’s ‘shit’.

As always, the standard disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 01:46 PM

I've never tasted shit, so I can't make the comparison. I'll take your word for it.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 01:53 PM

I too was once given a bar of Hershey's and, frankly, had I had my eyes shut I might have doubted that it was chocolate at all. Horrible stuff. Maybe it just didn't travel well.

I'm not a fan of those very bitter dark chocolates, the sorts with 70%+ cocoa solids. I find them to be as enjoyable as taking medicine. Neither can I bear chocolate that's got weird additives such as chilli or ginger or rum. I find fruit and nut types, or just nut, very agreeable. Milk chocolate of around 40% cocoa solids can be very nice. Green and Blacks do a nice one. There's one with almond bits in it from that source that I'm particularly fond of. Cadbury's recently brought one out called Dark Milk, which is excellent. Any yank telling me that Cadbury's is rubbish is just having a laugh. Ordinary Cadbury's Milk is not too unpleasant, a bit too sweet and bland, but if it's all I've got I'll scoff it enthusiastically. And anything chocolatey that comes out of a tin of Quality Street will do me. Especially the purple job.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 01:59 PM

LOL! I’m very relieved to hear it! Neither have I, but I’ve smelled it and, if you’ve smelled it, I’m guessing its taste doesn’t take a great deal of imagination.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 02:02 PM

I love Green & Black’s 85% Cocoa chocolate. After fourteen years of being a diabetic and eating no other kind of chocolate, anything less than 85% just tastes of nothing but sugar to me - ‘orrid!

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 02:13 PM

Terry's chocolate gingers with a glass of fine malt was my favourite but I don't think you can get them anymore :-(

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jos
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 02:21 PM

I was once given a box of dark chocolate truffles called Monty Bojangles.
They were gorgeous, but when I look for them online all I find is things in lots of different flavours with embarrassingly stupid names.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 02:48 PM

Love Green & Black's.

Don, I don't know if you misread my post, but nobody makes chocolate with butter. Cocoa butter, but not butter butter. I think the amount of cocoa butter is what makes it soft and silky, and I figure Hershey's doesn't have much at all.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 03:26 PM

I'll out myself now and declare that I find Terry's Chocolate Orange to be a total abomination. Whoever thought of combining chocolate with orange wants their bumps feeling...And never, ever, offer me a McVities Jaffa Cake....

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 03:37 PM

Talking of tasting like shit, I remember a famous wine writer scoffing at the euphemistic way in which some aficionados described the aroma and taste of pinot noir wines as "farmyardy." What they really meant, said he, was that the aroma and taste was redolent of shit, the sort of taste you might have got as a tiny child as you sucked your finger that had just been up your own bum. He chided any of his readers who might indignantly claim that they didn't know what he was talking about, and then went on to say that it wasn't exactly an unpleasant attribute of the wine in any case...

Did I know what he meant? Not telling you...

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 05:38 PM

I don't know recipees but silky is nice. I think a childhood memory can make a Brit fond of Cadburys. I would bury the cad.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 05:41 PM

YMMV?

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 05:50 PM

Milk, milk, lemonade, round the corner, chocolate's made...

I can't vouch for how good it tastes,
but it's true...

There's a designer hand made chocolate shop round the corner,
not too far from our street...

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 05:57 PM

btw.. I'm still quite fond of mint aero..

..going to have the last one in the fridge/house,
right now the wife's gone to bed...

.. if it's still there...???

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 06:18 PM

The best tactic is to have a large and variable supply in the house. Filch, top up, filch, top up double... Then she'll never know whether you've filched a bar after she's gone to bed. I can attest to the efficacy of this policy...

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 07:32 PM

YMMV - Mrrzy, I typed it into Google, and got this, from the Oxford dictionary.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 07:41 PM

When I was in charge of the gourmet shelf in a grocery store almost 60 years ago, I developed a taste for Cadbury's Shortcake Snacks.. ate them like... ummm... candy.
When I moved East 40 years ago, they were hard to find. Finally, some Brits began coming to the Getaway and stayed with us several times.
As a gift one brought me some Cadburys. I savored those for weeks.

   I do like other types of chocolate ... especially good Belgian- and I don't mind the 60-70% type. At this time of the year, various stores begin offering 'sales' on Lindt and a couple other of those individually wrapped treats. COSTCO always has the best prices.
   I can't afford the really good stuff often, but every now & then I splurge...

    The problem is, Cadbury USA is now owned by Hershey, and there IS a DIFFERENCE..*sigh*

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 08:54 PM

After I posted, I couldn't get chocolate out of my mind, and I remembered I had some remnants of a jar of homemade chocolate fudge sauce a friend made for me. I got a small spoonful of good *Hagen Daz* ice cream and a very small amount of the fudge sauce and used the spoon to eat the ice cream and lick tiny dabs of sauce as I went... YUM!

   I do have to admit that I grew up in Kansas and when I was young, Hershey's was about the only thing we knew. I **recognize** the taste, and can tolerate it when I encounter it. It's not nearly as good as.... the good stuff... but nasty? Nawww....

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 02:54 AM

”YMMV - Mrrzy, I typed it into Google, and got this, from the Oxford dictionary.”

Yep, that’s it - ‘IMHO, YMMV’ = ‘In My Humble Opinion, Your Mileage May Vary’. I’m astonished that two Americans didn’t know it - it’s (apparently) a US expression and frequently-used on the several US music forums i lurk around. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 04:49 AM

... the worst imo is Cadburys

I bought a bar of Cadbury's chocolate in the States and it was absolutely dreadful. The wrapper looked pretty much the same but it wasn't at all like the Cadbury's chocolate that I buy in the UK. Clearly different recipes for different markets, so naming your favourite chocolate may depend on where you live.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 05:07 AM

Any Belgian chocs are amazing!!

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 05:16 AM

Tescos used to sell bars of their own brand dark chocoate with crunchy mint pieces. Unfortunately they stopped having it on the shelves about 3 or 4 years ago. I've not found anything as good since (happily researching though).

B&M had some bars that looked like Aero chocolate bars that left you with a tasteless fatty residue in the mouth. Not worth saving the money by not getting the real thing.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jos
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 05:22 AM

Doug said: "Clearly different recipes for different markets, so naming your favourite chocolate may depend on where you live."

I find that the Belgian chocolate in Belgium is better than the Belgian chocolate I get given for Christmas by well-meaning relatives in England.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 05:44 AM

The best chocolates I had were in a sort of sample box that contained chocolates of different strengths and from different growing areas. The best chocolate was one over 80% made from Venezuelan beans. It had a slightly fruity taste and was very melt in your mouth.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 05:50 AM

My 60-second in-depth google research revealed that Hershey holds the franchise for making Cadbury's chocolate in the US, allegedly following the same recipes. In view of the almost-universal opinion that the American Cadbury's tastes terrible, I can only conclude that the yanks use milk from chlorinated cows.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 06:31 AM

When I was a kid I loved Hershey bars with almonds, now if I eat chocolate it's Ghiradelli Intense Dark 72% or Green & Black 70% and sometimes a torte from P.F. Chang's which I'm told they contract from a local bakery but they won't say which one.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 06:41 AM

haha Chlorinated, radiated and mad infected cows? I see why a competitor would use inferior ingrediants like milk powder when licensed to make a competing brand. I thought Europe kept the good stuff and shipped the crap, but no we make the crap even cheaper?

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:00 AM

Backwoodsman, I knew what it meant. I thought it would be helpful if I 1) told Mrrzy about Google, and 2) provided an informative link. Back in MY day, the search engine was AltaVista. Wonder what ever happened to THAT.

The first time I tried Ghirardelli, I wondered what the hype was about. Too waxy for my taste. I do love the Belgian chocolates. You ever get those little sea shell-shaped truffle things with the harder marbled chocolate coating outside? Love!

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:09 AM

Phew, that’s a relief! I was beginning to think you’re a fake ‘Murrican - glad you’re for real!

What became of Altavista.com...

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:15 AM

This year I am trying https://www.sees.com/chocolate/assortments

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:15 AM

I like the waxiness but I also like the drier texture of G&B. We have a local chocolatier called Norman Love who makes incredible truffles in a variety of flavors.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:15 AM

Do you mean those Guylian jobbies? The ones that are different sea shell shapes but which are in fact all the same? Not for me, thanks! And just because the word "Belgian" is on the wrapper doesn't mean it's good. There's a lot of over-sweet Belgian muck on the market...

A bag of Cadbury's chocolate eclairs is a thing of great beauty, though such things tighten the trouser belt. A year or two ago we could get Cadbury's Tiffin bars from the Cadbury's outlet shop at Atlantic Village near us, but, sadly, it's closed down.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:23 AM

That was to Jeri...

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:45 AM

Thank you for not just telling me to look it up, which I could have.

Attended a nutraceutical [their term] conference once that had a fascinating talk on chocolate, and how it got to Europe and what various places did, which was figure out that choc was a great preservative. So everybody including the US later got into putting whatever they had surpluses of into chocolate. In Switzerland, for example, it was nuts, and with Hersheys, milk that had gone off.

I am not kidding.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Jos
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 10:48 AM

"those Guylian jobbies? The ones that are different sea shell shapes but which are in fact all the same"

Those are often the ones my well-meaning relatives give me. I usually find an occasion to pass them on to someone I don't mind offending, and usually they at least seem to be delighted.
I have had other supposedly Belgian chocolates that were merely disappointing rather than something to be got rid of.

Something else I find very disappointing is white chocolate. They have taken out everything I like about chocolate, leaving a kind of 'candy' that I really don't want to eat. Another unwanted gift to be passed on to the next unsuspecting aunt or in-law.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 01:05 PM

I didn't know until today I was looking for Norman Love.

White chocolate is like white dogshit. It may have the right shape but not the aroma.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: gillymor
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 03:01 PM

I guess you were 'looking for Norman Love in all the wrong places.'

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 07:45 PM

I think the love of great chocolate is a Normal Love shared by all.
I never met someone who was a chocolate hater. Chocolate graters yes but haters , no.

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Dec 20 - 03:49 AM

The old synapses kicked in and I remembered that as a teen at school I used to get a can of fizzy orange and a bar of chocolate from the local shop for lunch. An early chocolate orange? (Sorry Steve!)

Years later, in college, my favourite combination was 4 pints of Tetley's bitter and 10 Silk Cut for lunch but that was just to get out of economics :-)

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Dec 20 - 03:56 AM

Consuming a can of orange and a choccy bar separately is a whole nother matter, Dave. Nowt wrong with it!

I was more a Park Drive untipped chap meself...

Subject: RE: BS: What is the best chocolate?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Dec 20 - 05:15 AM

Anyone remember Fry's Five Boys? Solid chocolate bar in five segments, each with the face of the same boy embossed on it but with different expressions signifying his growing anticipation of getting the chocolate. The expressions (L-R) supposedly represented Desperation, Pacification, Expectation, Acclamation, Realization (not my spelling). The faces were taken from photos of a real boy taken in 1885. They were pretty scary! Unavailable since 1976...

Speaking of Fry's, I lament the disappearance of the boxes of Turkish Delight chocs you used to be able to get. They were my go-to for fussy Mrs Steve's birthday, anniversary and Christmas. She's a terror for rapidly devouring all the best picks from a box of chocs, leaving only the mushy and relatively disgusting strawberry (etc.) creme types for the rest of us. But Turkish delights always kept her happy.