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Ping Alex Rast, Again
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Alex Rast
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Ping Alex Rast, Again
at Mon, 05 Dec 2005 18:13:45 GMT in >,
lid (Margaret Suran) wrote :
>Dear Alex, Once again, I would like to ask you what you can tell me
>about the "new" (?) Hershey's Extra Dark 60% Chocolate bars. The ones
>I saw and bought come attractively packaged in purple and black bags
>and probably contain several mini chocolate bars. I did not open the
>packages, because I need them as part of small Christmas baskets or
>boxes. I paid $1.99 for each 5.1 oz bag, reduced from $2.99 as part
>of the pre Christmas sale at RiteAid.
Haven't seen it yet locally, but you can be sure that when it arrives I
will pick it up, although honestly I have quite a big backlogue of
chocolates to try (Christmas season always does this).
>I have used the Hershey's Special Dark chocolate for baking and found
>it pretty good, once I realized I have to reduce the sugar in the
>recipe and/or add some unsweetened cocoa powder.
Well, relative to using Baker's Brand, it will seem good, because literally
*anything* next to Baker's brand would seem good, probably even pure dirt.
However, IMHO Special Dark relative to most dark chocolates isn't
particularly good. In the USA, virtually any supermarket will have at least
Ghirardelli, which is a quantum leap above Special Dark.
>I also ate some, but found it too sweet for my taste as an eating
>chocolate. I hope that the new 60% is better.
)
Yeah, that's the problem with it. It tastes a lot like marshmallows. Pretty
overroasted as well, but then again, that's probably necessary if they're
using bulk beans. The 60% is surely stronger, because Special Dark is below
50%, but stronger could be worse if they're using really bottom-of-the-
barrel beans. OTOH, if they take some time to source beans that are at
least halfway decent, it could be OK. I wouldn't expect any miracles, but a
pleasant surprise would be great.
--
Alex Rast
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