No bait in a chocolate thread please. :eek:
Casdave is one dude serious about his chocolate! I’m willing to take his challenge! 
Mmmmmmmmmm…<sound of drool dripping off her chin onto keyboard>
Thanks for the offer, casdave! I eagerly await my chocolate. Would you believe my Mom’s maiden name is Thornton? Yes, the English Thorntons no less. Small world!
I prefer dark chocolate, and I’ve been known to commit bodily harm upon people with the sheer audacity to touch my truffles.
:wally
Got my special delivery in the mail today…thanks, casdave!
Thorntons are WONDERFUL.
There’s a chain of high-end grocery stores around Boston called Bread & Circus, and they sometimes have Callebaut fragments sold by weight. And that is some damn good chocolate. I’d send out samples, but I don’t think they’d survive the heat this time of year.
Dark Chocolate, I’d have to say Ghirardelli. For milk chocolate (my fav.), I’d have to say Ritter Sport. Mmmmmm…
Jman
My chocolate arrived Monday and I’ve eaten half the box!! (Well, I did share with some coworkers.) Absolutely fantabulous. Casdave rocks.
Got mine Tuesday.
Between me and a friend going through a breakup, the entire box is gone.
And you’re right, it’s damn good.
I’m going to look into sending you some See’s candy, Dave. Anyone else want to help me chip in so I can get him a ton of it?
Add a vote for See’s. And also those big “pound” bars of Chocolate at Trader Joe’s.
I especially like the San Francisco Brickle (Brittle?) Bar from See’s. Tofee and chocolate…yummm…
I’m still voting for Godiva’s, although that Thorntons sure gives them a run for the money. Thanks Dave!
Dave could you let us know if you have ever had Godiva’s, I know that there are some shops in London. If not, I am sending you some. If so, I will chip in with Drainy to send you a ton of See’s.
I couldn’t find anything online in England which sells Godiva. Are you interested in sharing costs? I live close to a Godiva shop so perhaps we can send some to Casdave as a thanks. I jumped in a bit late and was terribly late with my street address so I haven’t received the Thornton’s yet.
Perhaps we should start a more proper evaluation with criteria and scale? No, that reminds me of work… let’s just savor the flavor.
Yo Casdave: have you received any chocolate from this side of the big pond yet? can you get Godiva in the UK?
Great minds think alike, you know?
I have called Godiva’s about this. They have stores in London, but don’t sell gift certificates for overseas from their American shops or on the internet. So I would have to call London and buy a gift certificate or assortment, charge it to my card, and have it mailed to Dave from Godiva’s of London.
Gosh Dave, you should tell us if you like dark or milk chocolate too. I gather that you are a truffle fan, correct?
I’ve just collected the See’s chocs that Brachy sent and they look wonderful.
At the moment I’ve got a cold or flu or something and my head is spinning but worst of all my sense of taste is all naffed up.
So now I’ve got to put them in the fridge and wait until it’s cleared up.
Oh exquisite agony! Every time I open the door there they are.
Hehe, such is the theobromic torture when the essence of chocolitity is so close…
Glad you got the truffles, casdave. Now heal thyself. Take a zinc tablet to replenish those ions important to the taste sensation (zinc stores tend to get depleted when one gets sick, IIRC). Then dive in.
Mmmmmm, chocolate. That’s it. As soon as I get a break from being in the field so much (brachy eye’s kiffa’s CDC connection suspiciously), I’m headed back to Princeton to get some more Sees and to check if they have any Thorton’s.
Mr Kiffa has just returned via Brussels; he brought back some Neuhaus Belgian Chocolates. They’ve been in the business since 1857.
My assessment: everyone gobbled down some at the airport with rave reviews because we were hungry. Later, the serious tasting took place. Overly sweet, outside chocolate did not have good firm form, inside truffles were runny. Individual chocolates were a bit skimpy.
Final ranking of Neuhaus Belgian Chocolates is a disappointing “mediocre” - above Whitman or Hersey, but well behind See’s, Godivas and what I remember to be Lindt’s.
Awaiting the Thornton’s from England…
Welll the cold has gone and I’ve been nibbling away at those Sees.
They appear to be handmade by the way.
Each one is quite large so you can’t just ‘pop one in’.
It’s a very close call between Thorntons and Sees but really they are special in their own way, you could discuss the merits of either.
I’ll still go for the Thorntons but only because of patriotic pride its a dead heat really.
Belgian chocs - The paper I get usually picks out one luxury item a week and discusses the merits of one product over another and why they occur.Sometimes it will list the various standards bodies responsible for maintaining standards(Parma ham has one so does Champagne)
On Belgian chocolate it says that they use a very high coc-butter percentage which renders the finished item relatively hard and brittle.
When you put in in your mouth it seems waxy but this is because the melting point of coco-butter is just below that of body temperature and if you put a lot of it in yer gob at once it takes longer to reach that temperature.
When it does melt it happens fairly suddenly and you get a chocolate rush - heh heh!
British chocolate varies in coco-butter content but is usually a few points less then Belgian but ours is sweeter, richer,and lighter . I find it is not as harsh.
That said like any product just because it says Belgian on the label that may not mean the best Belgian I think some of it trades on the overall reputation.
Most British chocolate is distinctly average but there are one or two high spots.
Casdave, the Thornton’s have arrived and they look wonderful. Many thanks. I’ll send the others out today.
Re the Belgian chocolates brought by Mr Kiffa; I sent out a couple of emails asking what were the best Belgian Chocolates to include in this competition. My Belgian friend changed email addresses and the other person advocating Belgians over Swiss did not reply. That’s how I ended up with the Neuhous which were quite ordinary.
I reckon that we have a three chocolate race here:
See’s Godiva’s Thornton’s
casdave, got the Thornton’s today - marvelous! I had to go hide the box in a filing cabinet because I couldn’t stop my hand reaching into the box.
A very nice balance of flavor - nice & chocolatey, but not cloying. They have really good staying power, too - I like to let the chocolate melt on my tongue, and the Thornton’s was creamy enough to not vanish after just a couple of seconds (my principal complaint with Lindt truffles - they’re gone too fast!). My favorites are the Alpini and the Marsala Mousse. ::blushing now because I realize I’ve already sampled a third of the varieties::
In a comparison between Thornton’s and Godiva, say, I think it would be a close call… but I think I might give the edge to the Thornton’s for all-around body and flavor.
Thanks, casdave, for a delightful treat. And thanks to kiffa for being kind enough to relay them. You made my day! 
::doffs cap and bows low::
There is a town in Manitoba (Canada) called Brandon. Brandon (population 45,000) is essentially a big farm-town: everyone listens to country music and drives pickups with shotguns in the back. It’s a nice town - friendly people, low crime rate, etc. But for some reason that I’ve never been able to understand, there is an excellent Belgian chocolatiere set up in downtown Brandon. The name of the place is Castelyn’s and their caramels are incredible. Absolutely the best caramels I’ve ever tasted - a burnt sugar taste unlike anything I’ve run across in any other chocolates anywhere.
They don’t have a website (I just looked) and I realize virtually no-one here’s ever going to end up in Brandon, but…
I’ve found a possible supplier of Godiva’s in the UK!!
Wooohooo!!
It’s in London on Regent Street 
(miles away)
Gonna see if they can mail me
Watch the space - it ain’t over till it’s over.