Trader Joe’s sells a 1-pound block meant for baking…but it is soooo good to eat.

Clark (who comments here frequently) is a co-founder of Amano chocolate which makes some of the best chocolate in the world. I have “sampled” a few hundred dollars worth of three of their four varieties (haven’t gotten to the Jembrana yet) and all are excellent. If you or someone you know likes dark chocolate you owe it to yourself (or them) to buy a bar. If you think that you don’t like dark chocolate you should probably still buy a bar because this tastes nothing like the Hershey’s Special Dark that you always regretted showing up in your Halloween haul. They’re using high quality beans (each bar coming from a different region) and doing the whole process of creating chocolate from the beans themselves. Frankly, I’d suggest getting one of each of the available varieties just to taste the differences between them.

Brian – I would agree that the TJs chocolate slab is good.

Jota – See’s Candy – not in the East, although I occassionally see them in airports – any particular favorite chocolate they make?

ARJ – thanks for the reminder – I will have to try it

I’m with you ARJ. I just bought some more Amano chocolate bars yesterday. $7.00 a bar but completely worth it! Their new bar (which isn’t even shipping yet it is so new) is called Montaña and actually has a hint of marshmallow in the dark chocolate. It is the only way to truly appreciate dark chocolate and the natural flavor of the cacao bean.

My second favorite is Lindt.

PS – for those interested in trying our new Montanya bar or our Ocumare milk you can only order off our blog right now. It’s a special introductory offer. (Basically we have the chocolate made but the boxes didn’t make it in time for Valentine’s — but we’re getting amazing feedback on them)

While I can’t mention anything explicit here since this blog is indexed by Google, some of you might like to go to this link as well if you’re looking for a deal. (I shouldn’t do that, but a lot of you here have been pretty fantastic in your support) It is only up for a few more days.

As for favorites, on the mission in Russia, we used to spend a lot of time contacting by a Nestle factory just for the smell of chocolate.

In my experience, European chocolate (including Russian) was more “chocolatey” than ours. It seems ours is more sugary.

Amano chocolate sounds incredible. Thank you for telling me about it. I usually request a few Godiva truffles. I do not live by chocolate and really only like the “good stuff”.

If you’re looking for chocolates rather than chocolate bars try Chris Blue’s. (Chocolatier Blue) He’s the best chocolatier in the country in my opinion. (He kindly sent my wife and I some chocolates for V-day and we loved them) Chris used to be a pastry chef at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, one of the best restaurants in the country, and continued to supply them when he lived here in Utah and then when he moved to Berkeley. You can still buy his chocolates (and our chocolate bars) up at Tony Caputo’s in SLC. I believe that’s the only place you can get them other than his store in Berkeley or online. My favorites are the pistachio and the lime.

BTW – for those interested, when someone says their chocolate is Belgian it just means they are using industrial chocolate from Callebaut which they melt down and remold. It’s a good industrial chocolate. Far better than most of the alternatives. But there’s nothing special to being Belegian other than it being a billion dollar multinational based in Belegian. The chocolate people buy that they call Belegian isn’t typically actually made in Belgian. It’ll be made at one of the many factories they have across the US and Canada.