I am looking for a pretty factual answer, not totally personal opinion. If this is in the wrong place, please shoot it to CS.
After dumping some change on Godiva today, I was thinking about what the world’s best chocolate would be considered. What is the stuff that chefs use? I know that a lot use Valhrona, and after sampling that, I can agree with their tastes. I have also had Vosages chocolate truffles, which are miles above hershey bars. What is the world’s best chocolate? Chocolate truffle? High prices, demand, awards, and reviews could all be an indicator. Thanks!
Milka, a European brand, is without a doubt the best I’ve ever had. I don’t know how to quantify that, except to say that everyone I’ve ever given any to has agreed with me on that point.
Generally speaking, the higher proportion of cocoa solids, the better the chocolate; for plain(dark) chocolate, 70%+ is the stuff to go for (most chefs would agree with me on this, I think), for milk chocolate 35 or 40% is good.
Other factors include the type of fats, sugars and other flavourings; much of the chocolate here in the UK has a certain amount of vegetable fat instead of milk fat, and we recieve much criticism for it, but most of that criticism (IMHO) is based on what people percieve to be violation of principles, rather than inferior taste.
Chocolate made with unrefined cane sugar and real vanilla (not that awful synthetic stuff) will usually taste better.
My personal favourite is Green & Blacks which is fair-trade and organic, as well as being phenomenally tasty.
To go back a step to the raw ingredients: Do really serious chocolate enthusiasts obsess over the source of their cocoa? Or is the cocoa secondary to how much is used and how the chocolate is manufactured?
I mean, coffee drinkers will tell you how their beans from Kona (or wherever) are the best and wine lovers will spend hours talking about the differences between various grape growing regions, but I’ve never heard anybody say something like, “You’ve got to try this chocolate; it’s made with cacao beans from a secluded valley in Ghana known only to connoisseurs!”
Cocoa is a fermented product, I’d be quite surprised if there isn’t a fair bit of regional variation in the flavour and quality. But I’ve never heard anyone talk about it either, perhaps because the origin of the beans isn’t usually declared (and may not be known) by the confectioner.
Milka is only ordinary, industrial chocolate with no pretention to be a “gourmet” product. Though they improved(IMO) their recipe several years ago, it fall still IMO below some others regular brands. But anyway, I think we’re quite a long shot away from a high-quality product that the chefs would use, or anything similar. I personally would tend to suspect that a chef very concerned about the quality of the chocolate he uses would probably buy stuff from some little producer extremely concerned with selling very high quality stuff. Even Valrhona, despite pretentions to high quality, is an industrial brand, and I would expect it to be of lesser quality than the chocolate sold or used by a random very reknown chocolate shop.
I am a big fan of Callebaut Chocolate from the Netherlands.
Grat mouth feel and flavour, I have a local chocolatier who imports it and makes the most amazing truffles…hmm, I think I need to go run out for a minute…
Bah! Off with this fancy stuff. Bring me some dark chocolate sno-cap type thingies from Gene and Boots (near Pittsburgh, PA) or the chocolate covered crackers from Gertrude Hawk (Eastern Pa and Central NY).
I don’t think there can be a factual answer to this question. It has to be based on opinion, since it involves tastebuds. I love Godiva, and Sno-caps. Two opposite ends of the spectrum. And there are some Godiva pieces I just despise. Not many, unfortunately!