Ed,

Thank you for the information. I dearly love my aunties (one's 78 and the
other is 89) and want them to be happy. I don't know what they "really"
like as yet. BUT, my wife tried the Lindt 73% cocoa chocolate, and was very
happy.

We also like Mexican hot chocolate cocoa. El Popular, especially. They
used to wrap the bars in a thin, white, translucent waxpaper with blue
lettering. I think the coca bars in the old style wrapping tasted better
;>)). But El Popular for me is always the best.
--
Manjo
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built
for. --William Shedd
Ed-Au Chocolat > wrote in message
om...
> I offer El Rey dark, milk and white bars. Direct source from
> Venezula. Excellent dark 73.5% cocoa. and the price is far less than
> Valrona. www.treats.net I ship anywhere in the continental USA
>
> (Alex Rast) wrote in message
>...
> > at Fri, 17 Oct 2003 18:56:00 GMT in
> > >, (Manjo)
> > wrote :
> >
> > >I Googled for bars and found very little available online.
> > >My aged aunt loves chocolate bars and I want to send her a box of bars.
> > >Is there a web site where I can order a box of 10 or 12 bars and have
> > >them shipped directly to her (1,000 miles away)? Is Cadbury the best
> > >and most easily available bar chocolate online?? TIA for any info,
> > >tips, suggestions, comments.
> > >--
> > Go to http://www.chocosphere.com. This is the best chocolate site
on-line,
> > the handling is always great, their service is the best, and they have
by
> > far the best selection of quality chocolate. The brands can be a bit
> > intimidating, so here's a quick synopsis of each of their characters:
> >
> > Michel Cluizel : Perhaps the best all-around. Tends towards a somewhat
> > darker roast, less fruity character. The 50% milk chocolate of his is
the
> > best milk chocolate in the world. The 72% is perhaps the second best
> > bittersweet.
> > Valrhona : Very good. Very fruity and bright. One of their signature
> > characteristics is the best texture in the industry - silky-smooth.
> > Guittard : They have perhaps the best single chocolate in the world,
> > Gourmet Bittersweet. The selection Etienne chocolates are outstanding.
> > Overall they tend towards a very neutral balance, but tend towards a
> > "generic" taste.
> > Slitti : Extremely delicate. Slitti has some of the mildest, least
> > aggressive chocolates at every percentage level. None of them are bitter
in
> > the slightest. I find them a little bland, but it's personal.
> > Max Brenner : Extremely uneven. The bars have an incredible variability.
> > They tend towards the fruity side, but often taste "wild".
> > Caffe-Tasse : Generally good. Leans towards a darker roast. They tend to
> > select beans with little specific character.
> > Cuba Venchi : Very, very dark roasters, typical of Italians. The
chocolate
> > is OK, but it's the gianduja that's superb - easily the best in the
world.
> > Dagoba : Tend toward the fruity side. Their chocolates always have a
> > complex flavour. I suspect they use a lot of Trinitario beans because
their
> > bars tend to have that woody/leather signature that the Trinitarios
usually
> > possess.
> > Cocoa Camino : They seem to focus on texture because although that's
very
> > good, the flavour is extremely bitter for their dark, excessively mild
for
> > the milk.
> > Green & Black's : Terrible. One of the most overrated chocolates.
Somehow
> > they seem to think that the label "organic" should be enough. The
chocolate
> > displays all the weaknesses common in cheaper chocolate - cloying
> > sweetness, harsh bitterness, etc.
> > Cote D'Or : Mixed-bag. They have good and bad chocolates. While the
flavour
> > tends towards fruitiness, suggesting a light roast, some of them seem to
be
> > very heavily roasted. Trying them is often difficult because you don't
know
> > what to expect
> > El Rey : Always intense. They have found a nice balance of roasting, but
> > somehow the bars seem to lack the sophistication of some of the top Euro
or
> > American brands. It's not the fault of the beans - their Carenero
Superior
> > bean is one of the truly great cocoa varietals.
> > Galler : Lean towards the nutty side of the spectrum. They have a nicely
> > balanced roast as well. Texture is always good. Excellent overall but
there
> > are a few companies (such as Cluizel) who are better.
> > Dolfin : They take dark roasting to an extreme. This is for the person
who
> > likes black, black chocolate. As a result they have little specific
> > varietal character but are also minimally bitter, at most. In spite of
the
> > aggressive roast, they are one of the best.
> > Callebaut : Fruity, but not so much as Valrhona. They're a big
industrial
> > concern of good but not great quality. Their flavour profile is almost
> > identical with Ghirardelli, except Callebaut's milk chocolate which is
much
> > worse than Ghirardelli's.
> > Valor : Decidedly lacking in character. They seem to lean towards the
> > problems of cheap chocolate - sweet milk chocolate, bitter dark
chocolate,
> > rough texture.
> > Grenada Chocolate Company : They have a very woody taste to them, not in
> > the unpleasant sense but rather in the sense of certain aromatic woods
like
> > teak. Good overall.
> > Lindt : We all know what they are usually like, but it's worth trying
their
> > 85% if your aunt likes VERY strong chocolate. This is by far the best
85%
> > chocolate available. The rest are, well, Lindt.
> > Villars: Where's the chocolate? Not here. In common with many Swiss
> > manufacturers, their bars taste very mild. Even with the 70% it was hard
to
> > detect much chocolate in there.
> > Scharffen Berger : If Dolfin represented the dark-roast extreme, S-B
> > represents the extreme of light roasting. Thus, their chocolates taste
> > *ultra*-fruity. IMHO this makes them quite unbalanced and always bitter.
> > There's no denying that they're quality chocolate, but I'd stop short of
> > calling them excellent - a clear case where a company's reputation
exceeds
> > its actual product.
> >
> > I hope that based on that, you can take a stab at what your aunt would
> > like. Still confused? Send me a list of chocolate bars your aunt likes
or
> > has liked a lot in the past. I will match her profile to some chocolates
> > and give you a recommendation.