at Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:37:50 GMT in
>,
(Meghan Noecker) wrote :

>Wow! Everytime I have asked at stores, people look at me like I was
>making it up. I didn't expect anybody to actually know of such a
>thing.
>
>>
>> Which grocery stores were carrying it? If I know this I can tell you
>> which brand it was.
>
>The one I used to get it all the time was XL Sooper. It was a smaller
>chain, and that store closed down many years ago. I know for sure that
>i was buying it in 1987 and 1988.
>
>Then I found it *once* at Fred Meyer. That was probably in the late
>90s at Christmas time. I still shop there frequently, but I have never
>seen it again.

If it was at Fred Meyer, a lower-price, budget-oriented chain, then almost
for sure it was a domestic brand. 1987-88 rules out Scharffen Berger
because they weren't in business yet. Besides, their target market is much
higher-end. So, most likely, it was one of the 3 domestic companies with
relatively widespread distribution - Ghirardelli, Guittard, and Merckens.
(There are others, but they don't show up very often)

>> IME, in Seattle, the Saran-wrapped chunks are usually Callebaut.
>
>It was saran wrapped. I don't know if it came in already wrapped or
>was wrapped in the store. It had a store scale label.

It would have been wrapped in the stores. None of the large chocolate
manufacturers use Saran Wrap on chocolate they produce in bloc form. Nor do
they break it up into blocks. That's something the store does. What I meant
is that I've noticed a curious pattern - most frequently, if they do Saran
Wrap the chunks, they are using Callebaut. Other break-up chocolates seem
for whatever reason more often to be sold loose in bulk bins or bags, or
sometimes wrapped in cellulose. (different, stiffer than Saran Wrap).

>> If you are accurate and your chunks are truly about an inch thick,
>> however, that would be from the 1kg blocs rather than the larger blocs
>> Guittard and Callebaut produce, which are typically closer to 2 inches
>> thick. The 1 kg blocs sold in the grocery stores are usually either El
>> Rey or Scharffen Berger.

We've ruled out both of these, because neither had US distribution in 1987-
88.

>
>I'm not really sure as it has been so long. It was at least an inch,
>but it might have been as much as 2 inches. I used to knaw on it,
>making it hard work to eat it, yet very satsifying.

If you had to knaw on it, it would have been the thicker, 2-inch blocs. The
thinner blocs have an axis sufficiently thin that you can bite right
through it.

That makes it unlikely it was Ghirardelli. Their blocs are thin enough to
bite through on the thin axis. So we are down to 2, Merckens and Guittard.

>>> Did the break-up have any sort of markings on the flat sides (i.e. the
>> ones that weren't along the break marks but rather were part of the
>> original surface of the bar)? If so, identifying them is usually
>> pretty easy.
>>
>I know there was an overall pattern to the bar, but not something I
>could pick up from one chunk. Some larger pattern.

Yeah, that describes the Guittard and Mercken's blocs pretty well.

>My sister thought it might be Ghiradelli, but I haven't found a small
>candy bar that tasted the same.

Lending credence to my suspicion above that it was *not* Ghirardelli.

>> Was the chocolate dark or milk? If dark, was it almost ebony black or
>> more of a dark, ruddy brown? If milk, was it a pale mocha colour or a
>> darker colour more like brown gravy?
>
>It was milk chocolate, and I think kinda pale. The closest taste I can
>come up with is Hershey's.

If it was pale, almost creamy in colour, more likely it was Merckens.
Neither Merckens nor Guittard tastes anything *like* Hershey's, nor, for
that matter, does just about any other milk chocolate, because Hershey's
has a *very* distinctive cooked-milk taste to it, the result of them using
liquid milk rather than powdered milk. The Guittard milk chocolate you're
most likely to find in supermarkets around here is Old Dutch, which is on
the darker side for a milk chocolate (because they use Dutch cocoa in it).
So I would lay odds on it being Merckens. I'd say the likelihood is about
70%. Merckens has 2 common formulations for milk chocolate: "Marquis" (the
more common) and "Zurich". It's understandable that you might have had
trouble finding it in Seattle recently because it's the least widely
distributed around here. Dilettante on Capitol Hill has had Merckens
chocolate every now and then but it's not their standard brand. Pike Place
Grocery has also had it. I don't know if they do now.

Merckens has virtually a hammerlock on the cake decorating supply business,
however, because in addition to chocolate, they also produce chocolate
compound coating (sometimes derisively called "vegelate"). Compound coating
replaces some or all of the cocoa butter with vegetable fat, usually palm
kernel oil. As a result, it has a greasy-pasty mouthfeel, which isn't
particularly appetizing, and the taste is rather sweetly chemical. It's
popular among many bakers because you don't have to temper it, but this is
about its only virtue - it's worse than chocolate in almost every way and
NOT good for straight eating. So be careful, when shopping for Merckens,
that you don't end up accidentally buying compound coating. Usually this
comes in discs, anyway, so it's unlikely you'll go too far astray.

A reliable on-line site for Merckens is http://www.bakerscandc.com. You can
get both types there, although brace yourself: you'll have to get the full
10-lb brick.

Several sources have the Marquis in more manageable 2-lb bars, such as
http://www.cookswares.com, and http://www.bakerscatalogue.com

If you want to pick it up in Seattle, you'll have to look around. I
certainly don't know of a store in Seattle which has *regular* stock.
Ballard's Central Market (corner of 15th Ave NW and NW Market Street) might
have had that brand in the bulk bins - I can't remember right off the top
of my head. As for the low Seattle availability, in truth, that's probably
because Guittard and Callebaut offer similar chocolates that are generally
better in flavour for comparable price. From Larry's, it's certainly no-
risk to try the Guittard because you can pick up a small chunk of it from
the bulk bins for a song (a 4-oz piece will be about $1.00) You can get
Callebaut just about as easily from any of the sources above. So if you
wanted to test the 3 chocolates side-by-side, you could do so and decide
which one you like best.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)