uk_grenada

I dont get the swiss chocolate thing. I find it a weak slightly fake tasting product compared with the real thing. The belgians make better chocolates but that sort of isnt about the chocolate itself, its about fusions of flavour texture etc.

Pure chocolate is a complex product that requires careful processing handling and storage, it isnt made well by huge corporations who cant be bothered and dont want the costs to do it properly, but it is - by artisans who do. EG did you realise that the taste is quite volatile. It changes quite a lot over a few months as it ages. If you reduce the cocoa content these changes are a lot less noticeable and of course its cheaper to make.....

dbd33

I do. I'm blessed in enjoying both Swiss and Belgian chocolate. Also Cadbury's (from/in the UK). I had some local chocolate in Australia and liked that too. I don't eat the American chocolate sold here but otherwise I'm an equal opportunity chocolate glutton, I don't need my bars to be rolled on the thighs of Belgian virgins.

Souvy

What's your cocoa-loading preference? I like it dark, within reason. I tried some 98% stuff a couple of years ago. Inedible. Like a mouthful of quinine.

Shard

Surely taste is individual?

I find the commercial Swiss chocolate (Lindt, etc.) excellent, and prefer it to the Belgian commercial and artisian stuff. Normally choose 70% or 85% content.

Shard

I've had 99% and 100% and also find it too much. 90% I can handle, but it lacks texture and sweetness. I find 85% is the best balance of cocoa and sugar.

dbd33

Based on supermarket bars, just under 70% I suppose. I can't say I've ever thought about it but the 90% bars certainly have more than I prefer.

I don't just eat dark chocolate though. As noted above, I'm happy to gobble a broad range of chocolate products. No tin of Quality Street can be preserved in our house.

uk_grenada

There’s the distinction between pure chocolate and chocolate related products. Chocolate related ie Belgian choccies or their imitators are ok but the pure product i am a lot more demanding of. Clearly, cocoa is a tropical product. It is sweated fermented and polished in the tropics then exported or made into local products. Like wine it varies a lot depending on who grew it where and how it was processed hence the - I don’t get why anyone would rate Swiss or Belgian pure chocolate. Cadbury’s made in Poland stuff isn’t even allowed to be called chocolate outside the uk as they remove the cocoa butter and add vegetable fat.

IMHO the thing all chocolate lovers need to try is cocoa tea. That’s not drinking chocolate , it’s the roasted ground cocoa beans boiled for a few minutes in water then add milk and usually bay leaf and cardamon, some add chilli. With all the cocoa butter intact and fresh cocoa beans this is the most intense form of chocolate flavour. In Europe, conching always reduces the cocoa butter, and the normal use of emulsifiers damages the taste. The smooth mouth feel is really the result of over conching and the addition of other ingredients including poorer beans from mainly africa.

NB the closest you can get to cocoa tea in Europe is to take some green and blacks organic cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and treat it like cocoa tea.

BuckinghamshireBoy

I'm blessed with shuttling between home and soon to be new home, so I get the best of both worlds.

As a household (a quaint way of saying that I'm surrounded by chocoholics) we don't have a preference between Swiss and Belgian. Although, I don't generally eat what is often termed 'milk' chocolate - Cadburys for example - I will happily indulge in artisanal 'milk' chocolate when in Belgium, but not here.

And no, I'm not going to go for the somewhat obvious thigh trap...

Couldn't agree more. Supermarkets here pushed out some of the higher cocoa factor bars a couple of years ago, but they seem to have disappeared, thankfully leaving the 85% as king of the shelves.

Can't remember which brand, but there's one of the big players here doing a yummy dark bar with flecks of salt. I've put it on the shopping list...

Souvy

It's Lindt. Very yummy, as is the chili one.

dbd33

Chili, yes. Salt, no.

Back with Swiss delicacies, do they still sell Select? I thought them luxurious long ago.

Souvy

You would be surprised at the salt one. It's very nice.

I suspect that Select is now called Excellence.

bats

Cheese and jam? Why yes. Cheese and mango chutney sandwiches are even better.

MelVan

Yep. A heavy cotton or linen weave does not give rise to slippage problems. Laundering king size sheets of that kind can present some challenges (I send it out, and it comes back washed - and - ironed). The ultimate in luxury!

Shard

Quite like grated cheddar on marmalade toast, actually.

BristolUK

The Mountain Rd one.

Since you mentioned it I checked out the VH one several times, up and down 2 or 3 times. Never saw it.

I gave up looking but I was wandering along the cheese counter looking for Mahón from Menorca and I saw the jar.

It was the one bright spot and made up for half a dozen things I had to complain about. That store is terrible for running out of things and getting the price wrong. Or applying an unadvertised limit on how many whatevers per customer. But it's the first time I've seen three big freezers all empty with no indication of being out of order or currently being filled.

Ah, well, chutney and pickle, yes.

Hmmm...might try that. Do you put it back under the grill?