CHOCOLATE
What to Look for in Chocolate:
When looking at chocolate, it should be smooth and even in texture and color with a slight gloss.
When you break it, it should snap cleanly and loudly, without crumbling. The snappiness of chocolate is determined by how well it is tempered. Tempering is the process of heating and cooling chocolate to form the most even crystal structure when baking and confecting. Well tempered chocolate has the highest possible percentage of Type V crystals which are formed at 84C. Chocolate that is crumbly was melted at too low a temperature and thus multiple types of crystal formed, making it uneven and flaky.
When you buy chocolate, it should always be wrapped foil, not plastic. Chocolate is very prone to melting and therefore is light sensitive. Furthermore, it should not be wrapped in cardboard, as chocolate easily absorbs the odors and tastes of foods around it and cardboard is permeable. Store in a cool dry place away from other foods.
It should also taste good.
Brand Evaluations:
Baker's: Not that good for eating on your own and not well tempered. Yet a very respectable and readily available brand of baking chocolate. This is the one that I primarily use.
Caffarel: (73%) I never thought the Italians made such good chocolate. An extremely smooth taste and finish. Very well tempered. Highly, highly recommended.
Dove (Dark): The best mass produced mainstream american dark chocolate chocolate candy, though it still qualifies more as candy than chocolate.
Ghiradelli's: A bit too mainstream for a distinctive taste, but good for baking, especially when trying to appeal to a wide audience.
Green & Black's (70%): A good eating chocolate. A light taste that can be bitten, instead of nibbled, without making you thirsty. Slightly crumbly - not well tempered. Overall, a very decent dark chocolate without being excessively bitter, and thus quite accessible to those looking to start experimenting with dark chocolate. Also a fair trade company. Yay.
Hershey's: Hershey's is not chocolate. It is chocolate-flavoured candy. Seriously. In most countries this would not even be legally allowed to call itself chocolate. Still good for S'mores, I will admit.
Lindt (70% & 85%): Meh. It's o.k. I'll eat it. Readily available at Swarthmore. It's Swiss, so there's nothing really distinctive about it.
Neuhaus: The better of the mainstream brands of Belgian chocolate. Decidedly not as cheap as Godiva. The truffles are quite good (the chocolate covered cherries come to mind), though their plain chocolate has little distinctive about it. It makes a good gift if you are in a hurry and are not buying for a Belgian.
Schaffer Berger: Not a traditional chocolate taste. Unusually fruity, possibly from the use of whole vanilla beans, which overwhelms both the sweet and bitter aspects of the taste. It is quite possible to eat 99% of this, even if you are normally adverse to the bitterness of pure chocolate. I want to try this for baking, possibly in truffles
Wittamer (77%): Wittamer is a chocolatier located in the Grand Sablon in Bruxelles. They are the official confectioner of the royal Belgian court. Repeatedly judged "orgasmic" by several independent sources. Their milk chocolate is also one of the few that is not too sweet to eat plain. Their confections (truffles, etc) are also all quite delicious, especially their tea-flavoured truffles.
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