FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

at Fri, 23 Jan 2004 02:07:57 GMT in
>,
(frood) wrote :

>I've been checking out various online sites to buy chocolate supplies. I
>can find information on the sites on the chocolate liquor content, as
>well as cocoa butter content; both useful bits of information. However,
>since taste is subjective, it is still hard to figure out which I want.
>
>Anyone care to describe the taste attributes of different brands? How
>about ease of use properties? Favorite sites in terms of price or
>customer service?
>

Half of this depends on what's available to you. I can give you
*exhaustive* characterizations of brands, properties, and application
suitabilities. Clearly publishing all this information in one posting would
overwhelm the system. So if you have a series of specific applications in
mind, let me know and I can give detailed recommendations, descriptions,
where to buy, etc. I can likewise match your personal taste preferences to
brands and chocolates. However, here's some general leanings of different
brands. This is very, very broad and won't apply uniformly to all the
products in their lines. I'm also including only the more common or well-
known and regarded brands. I've broken it into some rough quality
categories.

Low-end:

Baker's : Terrible. Don't even consider. Invariably overroasted, very dry
(low cocoa butter), coarse, and tasteless.
Hershey's : Somewhat improved on Baker's, but not by much. Usually very
sweet. They prefer earthier chocolates, mostly, I suspect, because that
type of bean is cheap.
Nestle : In Europe, some of it is pretty good, in the US, most of it isn't.
But it does improve on the brands above. They go for a very dark roast.
Cocoa butter is usually middle-of-the-pack. Texture is below average.
Cadbury's : Famous for pushing vegelate. Always far too sweet. Usually they
choose surprisingly tasteless, flat beans, although the roast is generally
not badly overdone. Texture is typically fudgy, not surprising given that
it's usually vegelate (i.e. uses other vegetable fats than cocoa butter)

Mid-range consumer:

Droste : As one might expect, they go for Dutch processing. This means a
flat, metallic taste. Texture is usually below average, but not by much.
Lindt : Usually fruity and uncomplex. The flavour tends to be
overwhelmingly a single note. Sometimes that can be good, as in the 85%,
sometimes not so good, as in the Surfin. Texture is usually about average.
The milk chocolate is so mild it could be white chocolate.
Caffarel : Very dark roasting predominates. They lean towards a nutty
flavour, with an affinity for hazelnuts. Usually not especially complex,
and chocolate impact is often a bit lacking. Texture is generally a bit dry
and somewhat coarse.

Quality chocolate:

Ghirardelli : In the US, the best, by far, of the consumer brands. Fruity
tastes predominate, signifying light roasting. Texture generally slightly
above average. Their milk chocolate is superb. In spite of being a volume
producer they're also a high-quality producer, quite a feat. One of the
hidden gems of many a supermarket.
Callebaut : Similar to Ghirardelli across the board. If anything, a little
fruitier. The milk chocolate, however, isn't in the same league as
Ghirardelli.
Guittard : Very high cocoa butter ensures a melt-in-the-mouth creaminess.
Usually very well balanced flavour profiles, often complex but with no one
component really standing out. Roasting is spot-on, neither high nor low.
However, bean quality isn't usually at the ultimate level, and so there's a
bit of a generic taste to them.
El Rey : Usually very earthy, but not in an unpleasant way. They use very
high quality beans indeed. The roast is perhaps a little heavy-handed, and
therefore the chocolate can be a bit dark and lacking in character, but
it's still pretty good. Texture, however, needs work: it usually is
somewhat rough and dry. The white chocolate from them is the best in the
world by miles - literally the only white chocolate you should ever
consider buying.
Scharffen Berger : Incredibly fruity, to a degree that becomes distracting.
I think they're underroasted. Leans towards blackberry/cherry notes.
Usually very smooth texture, with plenty of cocoa butter. The bitterness
hits you with a mighty punch.

Elite brands:

Valrhona : Also very fruity, not perhaps as extreme. Also, perhaps a more
subtle, pleasant fruitiness, towards the raspberry/currant spectrum. They
set the reference standard in the industry for texture, invariably silky
without even a hint of grittiness to them at all.
Michel Cluizel : A darker roast than Valrhona, combined with perhaps even
better beans, results in chocolates with extraordinary balance and
exceptional richness. The flavours are somewhat more nutty/spicy than
Valrhona, but still retain fruity characteristics as highlights. Texture is
very similar to Valrhona, super-smooth, although if a judgement must be
made Valrhona might barely edge him out in terms of texture.
Domori : It's expensive, but it's very good. Darker than either Cluizel or
Valrhona, very resolutely towards the nutty/woody/spicy end of the
spectrum. The varietals bring out the best characteristics of each bean
excellently. Similar to Cluizel texture-wise.

--
Alex Rast

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