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I posted this to rec.arts.sf.fandom, but what the heck, I'll put it here too.
A while back someone -- I think on Making Light -- posted a link to an article in the LA Times about a dark chocolate taste test. It seems to be registration only (and/or bugmenot) now. Anyway, I read it at the time and was interested to see that my favorite chocolate, Valrhona "Le Noir Amer", came in second.
(Which stirs the memory: it *was* on Making Light, because a regular there said something along the lines of, "Good ole Hershey's Special Dark wasn't pretentious enough to make the list, eh?" Which sparked an argument that more-or-less ended with me declaring, "There is a reason that Hershey's isn't on the list, and pretension isn't it.")
So then I was quite interested to taste the number one on the list, Michel Cluizel "Noir de Cacao". I figured I could get them at my local upscale grocery, or at Whole Foods, but I was surprised to find it at neither place. Today I had an opportunity to visit a specialty chocolate cafe in north Oakland, and they had it, so I bought some.
I have to say that I'm not disappointed. It's an excellent chocolate, somewhat more assertive and earthy than the Valrhona. (I could say more but I'd risk sounding like a wine snob...although it's quite possibly too late there.)
Unfortunately for it, to get it I have to make a special trip to a place I don't normally go and spend $6.95, whereas the Valrhona I can buy for $2.99 when I'm getting groceries at Trader Joe's. So Michel Cluizel will be an occasional guest in my kitchen, but not a permanent resident.
A while back someone -- I think on Making Light -- posted a link to an article in the LA Times about a dark chocolate taste test. It seems to be registration only (and/or bugmenot) now. Anyway, I read it at the time and was interested to see that my favorite chocolate, Valrhona "Le Noir Amer", came in second.
(Which stirs the memory: it *was* on Making Light, because a regular there said something along the lines of, "Good ole Hershey's Special Dark wasn't pretentious enough to make the list, eh?" Which sparked an argument that more-or-less ended with me declaring, "There is a reason that Hershey's isn't on the list, and pretension isn't it.")
So then I was quite interested to taste the number one on the list, Michel Cluizel "Noir de Cacao". I figured I could get them at my local upscale grocery, or at Whole Foods, but I was surprised to find it at neither place. Today I had an opportunity to visit a specialty chocolate cafe in north Oakland, and they had it, so I bought some.
I have to say that I'm not disappointed. It's an excellent chocolate, somewhat more assertive and earthy than the Valrhona. (I could say more but I'd risk sounding like a wine snob...although it's quite possibly too late there.)
Unfortunately for it, to get it I have to make a special trip to a place I don't normally go and spend $6.95, whereas the Valrhona I can buy for $2.99 when I'm getting groceries at Trader Joe's. So Michel Cluizel will be an occasional guest in my kitchen, but not a permanent resident.
