42 replies to this topic

[rfarris]

I'm looking for dark chocolate bars for consumption in the afternoon. I'd like:

a) The best as a supplement
b) The best tasting that still is a good supplement

Hopefully, something that can be found online.

Thanks!

[Athanasios]

b. endangered species bars

[health_nutty]

specifically the black panther bar which is 88% cocoa.

[edward]

How is the taste say compared to a Dove dark chocolate bar?

[health_nutty]

The taste is better imho. A nice rich flavor without being harsh or sour tasting. You have to try one.

[lucid]

Be a man and get raw cocoa nibs. [thumb]
They will put some hair on your chest. And anti oxidants in your blood [lol]

[wayside]

Although I haven't sampled a wide range of bars yet, I like the Lindt 85% bar. I've tried the Lindt 99% bar, it is pretty bitter, and really pricy.

[Mind]

Be a man and get raw cocoa nibs. thumb.gif
They will put some hair on your chest. And anti oxidants in your blood biggrin.gif

Ditto, lol

[stephen_b]

I've gone the route of getting the power (nature's first law). My assumption is that it is better to avoid all the fat in a chocolate bar.

Stephen

[steelheader]

I've gone to raw chocolate powder and hot water. But before going the purist route I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler (a pot over boiling water) and then stirred in small portions of pure old fashioned un-dutched cocoa powder until the mix wouldn't absorb anymore. At that point it becomes very difficult to stir. Then just a touch of butter to loosen it up a little and stir in a lot of roasted almonds. Smooth into buttered plates and put in the fridge to solidify.

When it's good and solid, break it up and store in plastic bags in the fridge.

A little disgusting to me now that I'm a raw cacao powder purist but it's a cheap alternative to commercial dark chocolate bars and is really YUMMY!

Edited by steelheader, 11 April 2007 - 07:38 PM.

[ajnast4r]

garden of life cacao nibs.. god they are so good
i also get a noticeable increase in my ability to do math if i have a pack an hour or two before class

http://www.gardenofl...est_cacao.shtml

[mitkat]

Anything new to save me from Fry's Cocoa powder, which I learned recently is Dutch processed and is out of my diet...or my brief experiment with this:




raw, unsweetened, bitter like ash and the 'desperate-for-chocolate-fat-boy's-last-saviour' [nuk]

[ryan1113]

Probably the recently introduced Hershey's Extra Dark chocolate bars that have blueberries, almonds, and cranberries (which are all good for you along with the chocolate itself). And they're only a $1.50 a bar at Wal-Mart for a 100gram bar. Found either down the candle aisle or by the Whitman's chocolates section.

Although, dark chocolate has a lot of saturated fat.

[mitkat]

Some of these look good, the dark chocolate bar anyways - Fair Trade Organic Vegan Chocolate Bars.

[rfarris]

b. endangered species bars

Where do those come from?

[Athanasios]

Chocolatebar dot com

or health food stores

[shadowrun]

That 85% Lindt Chocolate bar was kinda nasty

It had no flavor!

but the 88% Black Panther Endangered specis bar cnorwood recommended is pretty awesome imo - its harder to find them than the other endangered species bars...I guess they think its only for the hardcore

[Matthias]

There are 317 entries online in the "Chocolate Bar Database".
http://www.ceder.net...p4?action=query

You can sort them by 'percent cacao' (30%-90%) and check their ingredients:
http://www.ceder.net...ingredient.php4

My favorite is Ritter Sport 71%
They always wrap their chocolate in polypropylene (PP). And that's important to me:


Years ago I bought a 86%-chocolate bar from another company, but it was wrapped in aluminium foil, and I discovered
aluminium particles of the tiny size of a tenth of a millimeter on the surface of the chocolate bar using a magnifier.

[EmbraceUnity]

Most chocolate bars are wrapped in aluminum foil, including the three I just bought. I know that foil is less sustainable than polypropelene, but is it unsafe to eat food wrapped in aluminum foil? I don't see any aluminum particles on my bar. They are probably there though, logically.

Edited by progressive, 12 April 2007 - 04:13 AM.

[mitkat]

Many chocolate bars are wrapped in aluminum foil, including the three I just bought. I know that foil is less sustainable than polypropelene, but is it unsafe to eat food wrapped in aluminum foil? I don't see any aluminum particles on my bar. They are probably there though, logically.

Taken from the chocolate bar link I provided in my previous post:

Ecologically packaged and labelled with polypropylene foil (OPP) and 100% recycled paper.

I shy away from aluminum on a whole...but it's mainly because my dad pretty much banned it from my parent's house a number of years ago (and I just moved home again post-school [tung])

[rfarris]

Probably the recently introduced Hershey's Extra Dark chocolate bars that have blueberries, almonds, and cranberries (which are all good for you along with the chocolate itself).

I found one of those at the grocery store last night, and it was pretty tasty, but each bar has 500 calories!

[edward]

Anyone concerned about the high levels of lead in chocolate? Apparently the more raw cocoa one eats the more lead one consumes as the raw bean, particularly the husks absorb lead from environmental pollution in the countries they are grown in. Ingesting lead with its free radical promoting properties among other things may negate any positive effects of the cocoa.

http://www.medscape....warticle/514249

The reason this has been allowed to continue is that the amount of cocoa in the average chocolate bar is not very high so the average person even consuming dark chocolate is not all that much at risk.... However we (including myself as I take three tablespoons of raw cocoa powder daily) are megadosing cocoa so the amount of lead we are likely consuming is very high. Any thoughts?


Edit: Using Organic will not solve the problem

I know this was mentioned briefly before and the solution I think was to use organic, this however will not solve the problem. Organic is great but it will not solve the problem. The lead is not coming from fertilizers pesticides etc. but from leaded gasoline emissions in the air and residual lead in the soil in developing countries where cocoa is grown. Even if these farms were to use organic methods there would still be lead in the cocoa coming from the air and soil that is not under their control.

Edited by edward, 12 April 2007 - 04:30 PM.

[chris_h]

    b) The best tasting

The source and processing of the beans is much more important than the percentage.

In my opinion, none of the chocolate mentioned in this thread tastes very good (Lindt 85% is the exception, although it is overly bitter for most).

Currently, the best online source of information about fine chocolate is http://seventypercent.com/forum/. I post there as ChemicalMachine.

Also see seventypercent's Chocopaedia , which contains reviews of chocolate bars.

Good chocolate is hard to find in stores. I order mine from chocosphere.com , which has the best online selection and reasonable prices.

I personally enjoy chocolate from the following companies: Amano, Amedei, Bonnat, Guittard, Michel Cluizel, Pralus, and Valhrona. Also worth mentioning is Domori, which many consider to be among the best, although I do not find their chocolate highly pleasurable .

In my opinion, bars such as the Endangered Species series sell due to their gimmicks rather than the quality of their chocolate. Similarly, organic chocolate bars have relied on their organic status as a selling point, to such an extent that organic chocolate as a whole has acquired the reputation of inferior quality (although excellent organic and fair trade bars are produced by some of the companies less known to the general public).

[garlicknots]

Chris,

Thanks for the post. It's great to hear from a chocolate cognoscenti.

Instead of offering 7-8 choices, do you think you could pick one brand/bar 80%+ that you suggest I give a bite? If it's also organic, that'd be great.

edit: Hmm, the 70 forum really likes Lindt 85%. I think that's available in whole foods and it should be pretty cheap. I had been eating endangered species for the extra 3%, but I'll give this a bite.

cnor (replying to your post below):

Chocosphere (the site chris linked to) has quite a few of the bars he mentioned at around $5. Granted, I was getting endangered species 88% for $2 at whole foods so I know where you're coming from.

Couple of thoughts:

Like tea, the more tannins that are released in the production process, the more bitter the chocolate tastes (from some 70 forum posts.) I assume quality chocolate is less bitter, so do you think quality made chocolate is less healthy in the same way that quality made tea seems to be less healthy.

Edited by garlicknots, 15 April 2007 - 07:27 PM.

[Athanasios]

Amano, Amedei, Bonnat, Guittard, Michel Cluizel, Pralus, and Valhrona.

Whoa! Too rich for my blood. I will give guittard a try cause it is cheaper, and maybe buy a different one for a special gift or somethin. Personally I am in an under $5 a bar price range, and certainly not above $10! Im cheapo!

[chris_h]

Chris,

Thanks for the post. It's great to hear from a chocolate cognoscenti.

Instead of offering 7-8 choices, do you think you could pick one brand/bar 80%+ that you suggest I give a bite? If it's also organic, that'd be great.

edit: Hmm, the 70 forum really likes Lindt 85%. I think that's available in whole foods and it should be pretty cheap. I had been eating endangered species for the extra 3%, but I'll give this a bite.

( The Lindt 85% is very bitter. Although some consider it the best 85%, most people do not find it pleasant. Its high rating is largely due to the absence of flatness in flavor profile, which is a common flaw in high percentage bars. )

It is hard to offer only one choice, as each bar and brand is unique in character. I could recommend an excellent bar which is dominated by fruity and floral flavors, but there is a good chance that you would prefer a bar dominated by spicy, nutty, or earthy flavors.

Many compare chocolate to wine. Everyone has different preferences, and those who truly love it are not content with the long term consumption of only one expression.

On the other hand, it is easy to recommend bars to avoid, as there is much more consensus on which bars taste awful. With that said, even the best chocolate producers make mistakes; there are bad bars made by the companies which I suggested earlier.

My knowledge and experience with chocolate is less than several of the regular posters at seventypercent. I recommend that you register there and make a post in which you introduce yourself and ask for suggestions. If you want a recommendation for a single bar, you will likely receive many different suggestions, which will leave you somewhat confused but with a more balanced array of suggestions than I alone could provide.

Most of the best dark chocolate falls between the 65% to 75% range. Lower percentage chocolates suffer from excess sweetness and a lack of assertiveness in flavor, while higher percentage chocolates are most often either highly bitter or flat in flavor profile.

Fine chocolate is expensive. The shipping cost is great enough that I have never heard of anyone ordering a single bar online. If you are unwilling to start with an assortment, I recommend trying any bar from the companies which I recommended that you can find locally.

Whoa! Too rich for my blood. I will give guittard a try cause it is cheaper, and maybe buy a different one for a special gift or somethin. Personally I am in an under $5 a bar price range, and certainly not above $10! Im cheapo!

From Guittard, I can only recommend their 65% single origin bars, all four of which are good. Their other chocolate is not as good.

Amedei is the most expensive, but it is affordable in bulk. I recently ordered a 1 kg block.

Valhrona and Michel Cluizel chocolates are priced similarly to Guittard’s. A few bars from these more affordable companies would be a decent introduction to fine chocolate.

I recommend checking the chocopeadia before ordering anything, to avoid ordering a bar such as Valhrona’s 85%.

[garlicknots]

Chris,

I'm not an oenophile by any means, but I understand what you mean by comparing chocolate to wine. The same happens with tea which I know just a little bit more about and how it's difficult to suggest only one brand/type. I'll do some more research.

One of the reasons I was going to try the lindt was that it was available in whole foods and I was going to cut out the shipping costs. I should be able to find a chocolatier (sp?) around nyc, if I learn a thing or two I probably won't be so overwhelmed when I go inside. If I did buy online I would have to buy at least $40-50 worth of chocolate (my general rule is that shipping shouldn't be more than 10% of any order I buy online.) Perhaps if I read some chocolate forums, I'll get to $50 pretty soon.

Do you know of a primer that generally explains chocolate production? I'm reading some of the sub forums on technique but it's pretty over my head at this point.

f/R

[Infernity]

I buy some Swiss 85% cocoa chocolate bar, I will tell ye the name as soon as I buy another one.

-Inf.

[chris_h]

Chris,

I'm not an oenophile by any means, but I understand what you mean by comparing chocolate to wine. The same happens with tea which I know just a little bit more about and how it's difficult to suggest only one brand/type. I'll do some more research.

One of the reasons I was going to try the lindt was that it was available in whole foods and I was going to cut out the shipping costs. I should be able to find a chocolatier (sp?) around nyc, if I learn a thing or two I probably won't be so overwhelmed when I go inside. If I did buy online I would have to buy at least $40-50 worth of chocolate (my general rule is that shipping shouldn't be more than 10% of any order I buy online.)  Perhaps if I read some chocolate forums, I'll get to $50 pretty soon.

Do you know of a primer that generally explains chocolate production? I'm reading some of the sub forums on technique but it's pretty over my head at this point.

f/R

I have collected a few links for you about chocolate production:

growing: http://www.amanochoc...bromacacao.html
fermenting: http://www.amanochoc...rmentation.html
drying: http://chocolateguil...48a331a1208a044
processing: http://chocolateguil...48a331a1208a044