Best super dark chocolate
Replies
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I’m typically a Montezuma 100% girl, but I also like the Valhrona 85%.
This one is 70% (lighter than I usually like) and 9$ a bar and has to be ordered online, but it’s pretty life changing.
https://www.ritualchocolate.com/shop/nib1 -
The Chocolove is typically at my WF too, so I wouldn't be surprised if you have luck there, kimny72.
I discovered it by impulse buying at a place called Hannah's Bretzel (which is an overly expensive but occasionally worth it lunch place that has a huge selection of chocolates that you are basically forced to look at when in line). I checked and it seems like Hannah's is just a local chain.
For fun, here's their chocolate information (doesn't seem like they are selling the Chocolove currently, although a variety of others I would like to try and some I have): https://www.hannahsbretzel.com/chocolate/
I found Hannah's while in Chicago once, and I loved it. They have some excellent chocolate. I haven't tried every bar on that link, but of the ones I've had, I would recommend the Michel Cluizel 45%. Pricey, but in my opinion well worth it. In the US, a product must be at least 10% chocolate liquor before it can be sold as "milk chocolate," and so cheaper chocolate bars may wind up having very little actual chocolate in them. More expensive milk chocolate bars usually start at around 30% cacao, and I personally love chocolate in the "dark milk" range (about 40-60%).
If you're at Hannah's and want something darker and also less expensive, go for the Equal Exchange 71%.2 -
purplefizzy wrote: »I’m typically a Montezuma 100% girl, but I also like the Valhrona 85%.
This one is 70% (lighter than I usually like) and 9$ a bar and has to be ordered online, but it’s pretty life changing.
https://www.ritualchocolate.com/shop/nib
I've heard good things about Ritual, but haven't tried any of their bars yet. I'd like to try their Madagascar bar. Of the single origin chocolates I've tried, I've consistently preferred Madagascar. (If you ever get a chance to compare chocolate from several different places, do it--it's amazing how different they all taste!)2 -
missysippy930 wrote: »I’ve tried a lot of the ones others have mentioned, but always go back to Dove Dark Chocolate caramel with sea salt. Only around 40 calories per piece, and I have one every evening. There’s a local company, Abdallah, here that makes candy. Their dark chocolate caramels with sea salt are better, but more calories and more expensive.
Can you keep these in the fridge? Sounds delicious. I miss caramel.0 -
The Chocolove is typically at my WF too, so I wouldn't be surprised if you have luck there, kimny72.
I discovered it by impulse buying at a place called Hannah's Bretzel (which is an overly expensive but occasionally worth it lunch place that has a huge selection of chocolates that you are basically forced to look at when in line). I checked and it seems like Hannah's is just a local chain.
For fun, here's their chocolate information (doesn't seem like they are selling the Chocolove currently, although a variety of others I would like to try and some I have): https://www.hannahsbretzel.com/chocolate/
I found Hannah's while in Chicago once, and I loved it. They have some excellent chocolate. I haven't tried every bar on that link, but of the ones I've had, I would recommend the Michel Cluizel 45%. Pricey, but in my opinion well worth it. In the US, a product must be at least 10% chocolate liquor before it can be sold as "milk chocolate," and so cheaper chocolate bars may wind up having very little actual chocolate in them. More expensive milk chocolate bars usually start at around 30% cacao, and I personally love chocolate in the "dark milk" range (about 40-60%).
If you're at Hannah's and want something darker and also less expensive, go for the Equal Exchange 71%.
Yay, I will definitely try both of those.0 -
SuperSlayer81 wrote: »Solkiki’s ‘Kablon’ 85% is the best I’ve found so far, but it depends on your taste preference.
I find Lindt and most of the other major chocolatiers a bit bland. Kablon has a lot of personality, being more bitter and slightly reminiscent of nuts and biscuit. Alternatively, if you’re UK based, I can highly recommend Cocoa Caravan’s dark vegan chocolate (sweetened with coconut sugar).
I've never liked Lindt at all, even before I became a chocolate snob. Good to know that's not just me--so many people seem to love it.
Definitely not just you. What other people call ‘smooth’, I call ‘flavourless’.
Clearly we need to get together and do a taste testing
I have a chocolate spreadsheet. My husband and I use it to keep track of all the bars we've tried and our thoughts on them. At this point, I could put together a pretty darn good chocolate tasting. We've also done tours of a couple chocolatiers, which were very nice ways to compare chocolate grown in different regions.
"Smooth" isn't something I'm looking for in a very dark bar. I would expect those bars to have complex flavors, and I think a bar described as "smooth" is usually pleasant but not interesting or complex.
This has made my night and I immediately want to start my own chocolate spreadsheet! 😍
The columns in our spreadsheet are:
Brand
Cacao percentage
Name of bar
Husband's rating (1-10) and comments
My rating and comments
Calories per half bar, since we split them in half unless the bar is unusually large.
Where we bought the bar
Whether we would buy the bar again (yes/no)
There are currently 86 entries in the spreadsheet9 -
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I hate to be a bummer, but as long as you are already shelling out for more expensive chocolate, you might want to consider sticking with Fair Trade chocolate (which several of the brands mentioned in the thread are), to avoid chocolate produced by exploitative labor practices, especially, exploitative child labor or trafficked slave child labor. Just a thought. (Personally, I'm not a chocolate snob, and I prefer the mouth-feel of milk chocolate to super dark chocolate. I actually like a milk chocolate Hershey's bar, which is definitely not fair trade. I also use more cocoa powder than I eat chocolate bars, and I've had to go online to find fair trade sources of cocoa powder.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/?utm_term=.46c775f8cd76
Again, sorry to be a bummer.2 -
missysippy930 wrote: »I’ve tried a lot of the ones others have mentioned, but always go back to Dove Dark Chocolate caramel with sea salt. Only around 40 calories per piece, and I have one every evening. There’s a local company, Abdallah, here that makes candy. Their dark chocolate caramels with sea salt are better, but more calories and more expensive.
I wish the Dove Dark Chocolate listed a %! I suspect it doesn't count as "super" dark chocolate, because I have yet to find an over 70% dark that I really like, and I love those little Dove Promises
I've yet to see Chocolove in a store, I must make a better effort to look for it!
https://www.chocolove.com/stores/
The Walgreens near me have it. Target used to, but I don't see it at the one near me. I used to get a mini bar with every order I made from iherb.com. (They don't ship chocolate this time of year.)
The cocoa beans are sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and some varieties are Fair Trade https://www.chocolove.com/social-intro/0 -
My former manager surprised me with a Taza variety pack one day: https://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Mexicano-Variety-Certified-Organic/dp/B0088OSAZ2/ (not super dark)
Some years later I learned that the factory is in my state, and I've been meaning to take a tour.
They ethically source as well:
https://www.tazachocolate.com/pages/about-taza
Taza is a pioneer in ethical cacao sourcing. We were the first U.S. chocolate maker to establish a third-party certified Direct Trade Cacao Certification program. We maintain direct relationships with our cacao farmers and pay a premium above the Fair Trade price for their cacao. We partner only with cacao producers who respect the rights of workers and the environment.0 -
@lynn_glenmont what kind of cocoa powder do you use? I use Equal Exchange. I used to belong to a food coop that ordered from Frontier a few times a year. Cocoa would always go on sale Nov/Dec and I would stock up. It's available other places online, but Frontier's sale prices were the best. I used to give hot cocoa for XMas presents. They have regular, dark (no milk), and spicy, which is a nice change. Spicy has some cinnamon and a tiny bit of hot pepper, and no milk, for those who need to think about that.
Equal Exchange is all about Fair Trade: https://equalexchange.coop/fair-trade1 -
My favorite is Green & Black's 85%. It's got a luscious, silky mouth feel you just don't get from most dark chocolate.0
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Sochatti chocolate is amazing. They make batches from different beans around the world, and each country has a different taste profile. It’s really unique. My favorite is Ecuador. It’s sold in pouches that you heat up and then squeeze the chocolate out. It’s good for a shot of chocolate every once in a while. Anymore than a spoonful or two is too rich for me.
(If it’s not available locally for you, it’s on amazon)1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »@lynn_glenmont what kind of cocoa powder do you use? I use Equal Exchange. I used to belong to a food coop that ordered from Frontier a few times a year. Cocoa would always go on sale Nov/Dec and I would stock up. It's available other places online, but Frontier's sale prices were the best. I used to give hot cocoa for XMas presents. They have regular, dark (no milk), and spicy, which is a nice change. Spicy has some cinnamon and a tiny bit of hot pepper, and no milk, for those who need to think about that.
Equal Exchange is all about Fair Trade: https://equalexchange.coop/fair-trade
@kshama2001
I don't think we're talking about the same product. I'm talking about plain, unsweetened, nothing added, cocoa powder for baking, not something that you would just add water or milk or nondairy milk to make a drink. Although I use it to make that too -- I like a barely sweetened hot cocoa, with a jolt of cayenne and some cinnamon, maybe a little almond and/or vanilla extract.
That said, I used to use Hershey's for natural cocoa and King Arthur Flour for dutch processed cocoa, before I learned that the commitments on exploitation-free sourcing that I had heard about years ago from major chocolate makers weren't being met. I've been using up what I had on hand, because it doesn't do any good in terms of creating an economic incentive for better behavior to toss what's already been bought, and I recently purchased Equal Exchange organic baking cocoa, so I'm glad to hear that you use some of their products (and I assume are satisfied).
I did look at both Frontier and Black & Green, but I can't remember now why exactly I settled on Equal Exchange. I know the idea of a worker-owned co-op was a plus for Equal Exchange for me. And I think one of the others might not have been Prime eligible (I was ordering from Amazon). I think there was a packaging issue mentioned in a review for one of the other products that sounded like the odds for damage in transit were fairly high. So nothing that suggested the actual cocoa from either of the others wasn't a good product.
Edited to tag kshama20010 -
ultra_violets wrote: »My favorite is Green & Black's 85%. It's got a luscious, silky mouth feel you just don't get from most dark chocolate.
That sounds promising!
Does anybody have any favorite chocolate bars with chili?0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »My former manager surprised me with a Taza variety pack one day: https://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Mexicano-Variety-Certified-Organic/dp/B0088OSAZ2/ (not super dark)
Some years later I learned that the factory is in my state, and I've been meaning to take a tour.
They ethically source as well:
https://www.tazachocolate.com/pages/about-taza
Taza is a pioneer in ethical cacao sourcing. We were the first U.S. chocolate maker to establish a third-party certified Direct Trade Cacao Certification program. We maintain direct relationships with our cacao farmers and pay a premium above the Fair Trade price for their cacao. We partner only with cacao producers who respect the rights of workers and the environment.
I like Taza. Not so much for making hot chocolate (that's the product I've seen from them, that you're meant to whip with the little wooden tool to make Mexican style hot chocolate), because I find the chocolate settles out of the liquid pretty quickly. I actually just like to break off a piece and eat it. I find a small piece tends to satisfy me, the way so many others find a small piece of high-end super-dark chocolate does.0 -
I just gobble milk chocolate with all the lights off. (dark as it gets )5
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