As a result of a steady trend of the last fifteen years or so, high-cocoa-content chocolate has become widely available. In the late 1990s, the Swedish customer still had to rely on a few special addresses until one particular chain store took three varieties of a French 86% cocoa-content brand into their assortment. In 1999, Wegman’s in Ithaca, NY, carried many American specialty brands (some of which were really good) but apart from that only the 70% cocoa-content Lindt chocolate. Today, even our local supermarket offers a whole gamma of Swiss, Swedish, Danish and Finnish high-cocoa-content chocolate.
After many years of chocolate addiction I have, among perhaps 30 brands, been able to identify two clear winners in terms of taste and smoothness. I am continuously testing new kinds. The first winner is the German brand Hachez from Bremen with all their high-end non-flavored varieties (including their milk chocolate, which strictly speaking shouldn’t be mentioned here). One warning is, however, necessary: Hachez’s famous and widely exported 77% Cocoa d’Arriba comes in rather many varieties, not all of which are honoring the excellent standard of the “Classic” unflavored kind. Especially their chocolate with peanuts has an unbalanced, rough taste that reminds of old peanuts found between the cushions of the TV chair. (more…)
