Godiva truffles.
DeBrands. They’re local to me but they ship all over. Their truffles are to die for.
I’m a chocolate pleb. The more posh and considered “good” it is, the more likely I am to hate it.
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is, for me, chocolate perfection, despite a battle going on for thirty years (ending in 2003) where half the EU refused to accept it as even being chocolate.
Sweden’s Marabou is almost as good. Not quite, but very, very close.
Vosges. Godiva used to be awesome but is now mass-produced waxy dreck. Vosges is amazing. Try the Barcelona bar if she likes nuts, or the Mo’s Bacon Bar if she’s an adventurous carnivore. They have one with caramel and sea salt that’s awesome, but I can’t remember the name. All the truffles are awesome, too.
It’s a matter of taste, like everything else.
The most recent blind tastings at Cnsumer Reprts gave about 10 companies an Excellent rating, ranging in cost from $3–$5.50/ oz. It looked like ordering online was the standard technique.
Names included: Norman Love 25pc., Woodhouse Asst. 48pc., Christopher Elbow 21 pc., L.A. Burdick Lg. Wood Box, Candinas 36 pc. – the Candinas was a “Best Buy.”
Very Good “Best Buys” were Godiva Gold Ballotin, Ferrero Collection, and See’s Assorted. The last two are about 1/3 the price of the preceding.)
I can’t offer any personal comments on the above ratings (and any reference to CU usually brings 5 or 6 denouncements). My own favorite chocolate thingies are those spherical Lindt Lindor Truffles.
Can’t go wrong with Ferraro Rocher!
I’m curious about opinions of Teuscher. Every time I go to NYC, a friend hands me a $50 bill and asks me to pick up a box of 16 champagne truffles from this place. I’ve never had one myself because each little truffle costs about $4.
Scharffen Berger is a nice boutique chocolate. Bought out by Hershey a couple years back, but still seems to be good. Not that Hershey would definitely ruin it - I grew up near Hershey and no other milk chocolate tastes “right” to me… but there’s always the risk that in trying to take it big-market, unfortunate changes might be made.
Concur. To my recollection, Hershey started producing dark chocolate when it became wildly popular 20ish years ago, to compete with all the fancy brands. I like good dark chocolate, which Hershey’s ain’t.
So for me: for milk, gotta be Hershey. For dark, gotta be anything else.
Lindt truffles- Amazon.com : lindt chocolate
I like the plain ones best. They have a lot of flavors, but it’s the soft texture and extreme meltyness that I really like.
Just to throw one more name out there, my brother brings me a box of chocolates from Leonidas in NY every time he visits so I will let him stay in my guest room. It’s very nice Belgian chocolate.
I’m fond of Domori.
I’m partial to Callebaut milk chocolate. Callebaut was originally Belgian, but was bought out by a Swiss company in 1996. I find it in grocery stores near the deli section in blocks that look like they’re broken from a larger five- or ten-pound bar. Around Boston, Whole Foods carries it.
Buy a block, use a stout knife to cut off a smaller block, then gnaw on the corner of that until you break off a mouthful. Good stuff.
Saying that your girlfriend like chocolate is like saying somebody likes wine: rather unprecise. Sweet chocolate or dark (bitter)? What type of filling? Crunchy or soft-melting?
I’ll recommend:
Zotter chocolate- a small austrian company that has decided to explore the 600 aromes in chocoa bean by mixing it with … unusual stuff, so not only hazelnut and raisins, but also mountain cheese. They are hand-made (lifted), and organic and fair-trade, and ship to the US.
Vivani also has very high-quality chocolate organic quality, but doesn’t ship, they only have a list of traders who sell them.
A good organic store should have a good selection of several brands and kinds.
I would advise against all Nestle and related corps., which might also include Hersheys (but don’t know about them), because the big companies have only a few suppliers, which use child slave labour to harvest the cocoa beans. Therefore I would recommend fair trade chocolate.
Others have mentioned it, but I’ll repeat: If you can get your hands on a box of Neuhaus, go for it. Absolutely wonderful. My wife loves the stuff and regards most other chocolate as distant seconds at best.
The best chocolate I have ever, ever tasted (and I have tasted a lot - I am a chocolate freak) is from the organic British chocolatier Montezuma’s. They have managed to perfect each of the basics: Dark, Milk and White. Each type is absolute perfection; the beans they have chosen are of such clearly high quality that they fill the mouth with flavour, hitting each note brilliantly, and their texture is spot-on.
They’ve gone a bit crazy on their varieties recently, which makes choosing one a bit difficult. Unfortunately I don’t think they ship overseas.
If you want a milk chocolate extravaganza, you can’t go far wrong with the texture and taste of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Giant Buttons.
This:
It’s unbelievable.
~VOW
My favorite local place is Piron - they are totally old-school Belgian. They make everything in the back room. It’s a teeny storefront place, but they ship throughout the U.S.
Trivia point: I grew up half a block from there, and the owner’s father used to be the janitor of the building we lived in when I was a toddler.
Quoted for truth. Extra Noir, mmmmm . . .
For boxed chocolates, I’ll put in a plug for Gail Ambrosius in Madison, WI. Yes, her name really is Ambrosius, from birth. How cool is that?
It’s a bar a smidge over 11 pounds (5 kilo). One of my brothers is a food broker who sells to restaurants. I asked him to get me some chocolate for cooking purposes once and he got me a Callebaut bar the size of a small end table - the standard size apparently. Chocolate heaven. I just stared at it for a while before attacking it with an ice pick.