Could be a brand or just a type of chocolate
I go for anything dark and single origin, but I’m pretty easily pleased with anything that at least tried to not use slave labour
The kind without lead or cadmium. So I’ve pretty much cut it out. https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
“CR used a very conservative threshold for determining ‘high’ levels of the metals, which are not backed by major regulatory and health agencies, including the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration. While pressuring chocolate companies to do more to keep contaminants out of our treats is a reasonable goal, this is not something anyone needs to fret about.”
Edit: Obviously, chocolate production is problematic due to the exploitation of labor (and the use of child labor and even slave labor). Edit #2: Fixed quotation marks inside article quote.
I know the question didn’t ask for it, but I don’t like chocolate, ha!
But I love two specific types; salted dark chocolate or chilli dark chocolate. Especially with a glass of tempranillo. Brand don’t really matter, but generally the bigger brands just don’t do dark chocolate well and put way too much sugar in. I don’t have a sweet tooth and all other chocolates—including other dark chocolate—I don’t really care for.
Here here! I also am not a big fan of chocolate, but dark chocolate, with chilli! Ooh la la.
Ooh yeah, same opinoins here. I’ve never tried chilli dark chocolate though - I’ll have to be on the lookout for that.
Ethically sourced and not too sugary. I make sure to grab a selection of Tony’s Chocolonely bars whenever I’m in the Netherlands. It’s second to none.
Belgian chocolate is of course also great. I love Galler, it’s good but not overly pretentious/expensive.
Dark chocolate in small doses; if I want to go wild a milk chocolate with something salty (sea salt, salty roasted almonds, salty caramel, freaking corn flakes for that matter) is always a treat.
Tony’s Chocolonely
Better check the lead levels on that one.
I read the Consumer Reports article you linked, but honestly I can’t imagine lead levels in chocolate is something anyone would need to be concerned about.
The testing methodology CR used boils down to ‘we sent the chocolate to a laboratory for testing and turns out there’s lead above the safe limit in each bar.’ Consumers aren’t going to do this.
Also, the list on the article is flawed in my opinion. It shows the amount of lead and cadmium found in each chocolate bar, but doesn’t scale it to the size of the bar. CR estimates in their risk assessment the daily consumption of chocolate by looking at the portioning of the bars on the nutrition label, and the average by the FDA of 30g.
In Tony Chocolonely’s case, these figures are the same. As their regular bar size is 180g and the portioning is 1/6 a bar - 30g. This means that the CR listing a Tony’s bar at 134% of the daily limit of lead, it would also mean eating 500% the amount of chocolate the FDA expects.
If you adhere to the average of 30g, Tony’s is only 22% your daily lead limit.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve eaten a full bar in a day. But it’s far from a daily occurrence, and I’m certainly not thinking of the health ramifications when I indulge.
Even at 265% the lead limit, the Hershey’s bar is 120g, so a portion is 66%. The most frightening thing about that bar is that it’s Hershey’s.
If you EVER limit yourself to a portion of a bar you’ve got to be the only person in the world who does that.
Consumers aren’t going to do this.
Of course not. That’s why consumer reports does it for them. You don’t believe samples are representative? That’s ridiculous.
Non dairy! All the best chocolate is non dairy. I didn’t realize this until I was on opioid pain meds for a few years and had to get off dairy entirely. All the American crap uses cheap milk fat as a filler. Once I started only consuming chocolate that is non-dairy the difference is substantial. Anything is pretty much great if you simply use this trick. The easiest way is just look for vegan marketing. All vegan deserts are best, seriously, and I’m no vegan.
I still follow my food rules like, I don’t eat in a chemistry lab storage cabinet, and all flavorings are, at best “strawberry from a beaver’s butt gland” level of natural. If you are not familiar with the reference, there was a 60 Minutes episode 10-20 years ago on the flavorings industry. One of the highlight remarks was the origin of
naturalstrawberry flavor… I consider all additive flavorings of any kind as drugs. Not in a tin foil hat sense, but more of a ‘Madd Hatter CEO has no ethics’ and makes a junk product with no real value sense. I’m not eating chocolate flavored sawdust.I don’t agree. I’m Norwegian though, so there is a bit of a difference in how our chocolate is made with regards to additives. Our Milk chocolate is the shit! Additives to it is also great, but they come in the form of actual pieces of dried fruit or salted corn chips, tiny pieces of fudge, brownies etc, etc.
Freia milk chocolate is the shit. Especially the one with salted almonds.
In continental Europe (except Benelux) I find milk chocolate often gets too sugary, while dark chocolate is usually more expensive but maintains a high quality. I have never been to the US, but I am inherently sceptical of what they might pass as chocolate over there.
As far as Norwegian chocolate goes, I share my favourite chocolate with a lot of senior citizens: Mokkabønner are amazing. Dark chocolate beans with a hint of coffee, amazing with a cup of java in the morning.
Oh yeah, mokkabønner are awesome! And I don’t really enjoy dark chocolate that much in general. I get really sad every time I have gotten Kremtopper by accident. Why are those boxes so damn similar anyway? And often stocked in the same shelf as well…
If you’re American try other countries chocolate. Not something like Cadbury you buy at Walmart, but go to an international grocer or pay for a box of chocolates and have them shipped to you and eat them over the next 3 months. Most American chocolatiers try to mimic Hershey flavor because that’s what’s most popular.
The best chocolate you’ll ever have: https://www.castronovochocolate.com/
She travels down to the communities that harvest the cacao and sources directly from them, then she hand makes the chocolate in her shop. Internationally award winning. So good.
Really goes to show what economies of scale can do. Castronova chocolate appears to have 65 gram bars at a price of $12. That’s only 5g/$.
Tony’s Chocolonely, a commonly touted ethical chocolate company, sells 180 gram bars for $6. 30g/$. Half the price for triple the chocolate comparatively.
That said, there’s not much to really compare. Castronova seems to be going after a different market with most of the bars being titled as their place of origin and composition, not what taste to expect. A smart move for a business with a smaller footprint.
The few bars I saw mentioning flavours were the lavender dark milk, lemon and lemon salt, and Fleur de sel - an apparently high end French sea salt. Quite different than Tony’s milk honey almond nougat or white raspberry popping candy.
They won’t be replacing our orders from Tony’s, but Castronova has a 12 pack I think we’ll get to see what they are like. Thanks for recommendation.
Meanwhile those of us with Lacoste intolerance…
I can’t wear polo shirts as well
I still eat chocolate. And cheese… And ice cream. I live alone so the only person who suffers is me. 😹
Afraid of the tiny alligator bite?
I just eat the chocolate anyway. Ice cream too, if I’m feeling brave.
Anything that’s at least 50% cocoa.
Mousse au chocolate.
Tony’s and toblerone are probably my favorites rn, i love how creamy they are
Nothing from Hershey’s, Nestle, or Mars, that’s for sure. Shits so waxy and bland. At least as far as chocolate goes. I don’t mind their candy bars so much, but I couldn’t tell you when the last time I had candy was.
Anything from Aldi. Here in the US they put butyric acid in the chocolate. It’s partially because it’s what people associated with chocolate because if early Hersey production and partially because it increases the shelf life. It’s also the acid you find in rancid butter and vomit. European chocolate doesn’t do this and so you get a smoother chocolate without the gross bite.
Before living near an Aldi I could only afford to get good chocolate on a rare occasion but even the junk Easter egg chocolates at Aldi are amazing and affordable! So now I can actually say I like chocolate!
That Aldi chocolate can’t be beat!
As a Swiss person who likes chocolate, that sounds disgusting 😱
As a German who lived in the States for a year, it is. I love chocolate but barely ate any in the states.
Milk chocolate without any nuts.
Cadbury dairy milk.
Its like the top of the line Toyota Camry of chocolates. Its not going to make the snobs happy, but theres absolutely nothing wrong with it. Its just really fucking good basic ass chocolate.
I really like the chocolate from kinder. All of them, but the schoko-bons the most
