Mmmm... Chocolate

[quasigeostrophy]

While at Trader Joe's today, Toni and I picked up some Valrhona chocolate. I've heard from a few people that it is actually better than my current favorite, Scharffen Berger. I shall soon find out. When I was in Champaign-Urbana, IL a couple of weekends ago, I also tried some Moonstruck Chocolate. They have a great dark chocolate bar that has ancho and chipotle pepper in it. I thought it might be really wrong, but is quite good.

Perhaps I need to put all three brands together and have a little taste comparison test. :-)

Comments

[firecat]

Neither Valrhona nor Scharffen Berger, as good as they are, hold a candle to Donnelly Chocolates in Santa Cruz. We tried them last time we took a short vacation there. Their chocolate bars and bark are the best chocolate I've ever had. The dark chocolate bars come in almond, cardamom, orange, French Roast, ginger, cinnamon, hazelnut, bittersweet, semisweet, and Chinese five-spice.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I give. After perusing the Donnelly web site, I can't seem to find an answer to my question of just what exactly are the five spices in the Chinese Five-Spice chocolate?

[firecat]

This isn't a specific answer, but one of the sites I found on Google says this about five-spice, which is a traditional Chinese flavoring combining "sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty":

Of course, these days the specific combination of spices used to make up five-spice powder varies. In fact, some brands could more accurately be labeled "seven-spice powder," since they contain seven ingredients. The traditional mixture includes fennel, cloves, and cinnamon, along with star anise and Szechuan peppercorns. However, you'll also find five-spice powder made with cassia (a member of the same family as cinnamon), ginger, nutmeg, and even licorice.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I totally spaced thinking about the more generic term for Chinese five-spice. My brain was stuck on looking for specific ingredients. :-)

Definitely sounds worth a taste.

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

"They have a great dark chocolate bar that has ancho and chipotle pepper in it"

This would be close to the original recipe for chocolate, as used by the (aztecs? - I think aztecs), except they did not sweeten it.

It's something I would like to try.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Joe prefers Valrhona, I prefer Scharffen Berger.