Hi all,

I've been trying to find out more about some types of Valrhona
chocolate, and the Web has provided me as many questions as answers.
Can anyone here provide some insight?

- Valrhona's web site indicates [1] that there are USA-specific versions
of the Guanaja, Caraibe, and Jivara 75g tasting bars. Does anyone
know what the difference is?

- There are some types of Valrhona chocolate (Superalpina, Tropilia,
Maitre Chocolatier) which I've seen mentioned on a few web sites [2],
but I can't find them on Valrhona's own site. Are these actually
types of chocolate, or are they candies? Have they been discontinued?
If not, are they any good?

- There are a couple other types (Araguani, Tanariva Lactee) which are
mentioned on Valrhona's Web site, but which I haven't found in person.
Chocosphere apparently has Araguani, but I haven't gotten around to
ordering any yet. Has anyone tried either of these?

Thanks.

Blake

[1] Go to http://tinyurl.com/ugtq (links to Valrhona's site),
then on the "Bars" drop-down, select "All".
[2] bona-company.ru, flambee.cz, musca.ma, caviarassouline.com

The listed "From:" address is valid for one month past the message date.

at Wed, 19 Nov 2003 05:49:03 GMT in <slrnbrm12t.9g51.20031118
@lawnboy.eng.sun.com>, (Blake Jones) wrote :

>Hi all,
>
>I've been trying to find out more about some types of Valrhona
>chocolate, and the Web has provided me as many questions as answers.
>Can anyone here provide some insight?
>
>- Valrhona's web site indicates [1] that there are USA-specific versions
> of the Guanaja, Caraibe, and Jivara 75g tasting bars. Does anyone
> know what the difference is?

Packaging. The USA versions contain the nutritional info and don't have the
ingredients and other information in multiple languages. The chocolate is
the same.

>
>- There are some types of Valrhona chocolate (Superalpina, Tropilia,
> Maitre Chocolatier) which I've seen mentioned on a few web sites [2],
> but I can't find them on Valrhona's own site. Are these actually
> types of chocolate, or are they candies? Have they been discontinued?
> If not, are they any good?

Superalpina is on their site, in the milk chocolate section of the
Professional side of the site. The other 2 I believe are discontinued. I
can't remember ever seeing Tropilia but I remember seeing Maitre
Chocolatier once.

>
>- There are a couple other types (Araguani, Tanariva Lactee) which are
> mentioned on Valrhona's Web site, but which I haven't found in person.
> Chocosphere apparently has Araguani, but I haven't gotten around to
> ordering any yet. Has anyone tried either of these?

I have tried Araguani. This is one of their best chocolates to date,
surpassed only by Guanaja (their best) and Gran Couva (next best). It's not
like the typical Valrhona chocolate in that it doesn't have the typical
fruitiness. Rather, it's more floral, with coffee notes. Perhaps a bit flat
in taste overall, but this could well simply be relative because the light
roast that yields the characteristic Valrhona fruitiness is also that which
yields a chocolate with more dimensions of flavour, while a darker roast,
such as what Araguani represents, is always going to be flatter.

--
Alex Rast

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