My wife loves chocolate. I want to get her the best chocolate there is. Who makes it? What is your personal favorite?
I’m partial to Godiva.
Local chocolatiers are rather popular now. If you can find a chocolatier in your town, that would be a good place to start. Where are you?
If you want to flash cash, you could order from La maison du chocolat in NYC (La Maison du Chocolat). Their stuff is very good and very expensive. Personally, I like them about as much as my local chocolatier, so I go with them (Burdick Chocolate).
I’ll second Godiva. Especially their fruit fusion bars. Nothing else like them out there.
I like their liqueur. It’s like liquid love.
I’m fond of the local chocolatiers at The Chocolate Chisel. Their chipotle chocolate is great, and just the tip of their flavor iceberg.
Welllllllll…there is the matter of personal taste. Milk chocolate is very different than dark chocolate…Belgian is different than Swiss is different than Italian is different than German…etc.
That said - my personal favorite is dark Belgian style (creamy dark and light, with hazlenut tones). With Neuhaus being the preferred commercial vendor. Godiva is close but not my number 1.
But if you want really good stuff there are nearly infinite small quality chocolatiers. Shop around and enjoy!
You could get her a variety. Throw some Mexican chocolate in there.
Well, my favorite is Trader Joe’s belgian milk, but that is totally worthless for this discussion.
For a gift, I’d go with a local place, if you can find a nice one.
Moving thread to Cafe Society, from IMHO.
Depends. The best milk chocolate is Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.
Best white chocolate is Lindt.
Lindt is also the best overall.
Neuhaus available in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, etc. I haven’t seen it in the States.
Dark chocolate, the darker the better (and NOT Hersheys, which hardly qualifies)
At BevMo, there are these bars by Love Chocolate - there’s a dark chocolate with orange peel and a dark chocolate with raspberry that I love. And they have love poems on the inside of the wrapper, if that’ll get you bonus points.
My favorite chocolate is from a company called Rausch that offers plantation chocolates: different concentrations of cocoa ranging from milk to dark chocolate from different cocoa plantations. My absolute favorite is the Tobago, which is 70% cocoa and as creamy and complex in flavor as fudge.
However, my favorite chocolates come from a local store in which they make their own. The quality is out of this world. I echo what others have already said – check around and see if you have a local chocolate shop.
Lindt dark chocolate with hazelnuts,
I’ve been a total chocolate snob in my life, and ate a couple of $7 bars every week for years of my life. The Vosges Red Fire bar was a particular favorite.
Until I discovered the Hersheys Extra Dark bar (not Special Dark. It’s different.) It is hands-down my favorite and they cost about $2 apiece.
I particularly dislike Maison du Chocolat (dry) and Lindt (acidic).
Oh, are you talking about chocolate candy? In that case, Godiva is very nice.
Ghirardelli chocolate is outstanding in all its varieties.
If there is a Cost Plus near you, they have a good variety, although I can’t say for sure if they go high end.
Oh! How could I forget! Valrhona is the best. The bestest best. Mmmmmm …
I liked Lindt of any big brands. But there’s more to chocolate than just taste, so now I either buy Divine, Green&Black’s or locally-made Belgian-style chocolate from ethical sources. Because child-labour-free chocolate tastes better.