Monday, June 04, 2007

Chocolate Eval

I've never been a chocolate lover. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a child, I sucked my thumb: my right thumb, which I called my vanilla thumb. Sucking my left thumb felt as weird as sucking someone else's thumb, and I called it my chocolate thumb to mark the difference between preferred and non-preferred. I've been known to pass up dessert if chocolate was the only option available.

Then I got pregnant with Ada. I think that Ada is going to be a chocoholic, if the way I felt during my pregnancy - which just happened to span the winter holiday gorging season - is any indication.

I thought that, perhaps, I'd go back to normal after she was born, but apparently this is the new normal. Oh, how fortunate for all those lonely pants languishing in a "too big" box down in the basement.

My new drink at Starbucks is hot chocolate, and oh, is it delightful. In fact, I think that all brands of hot chocolate are quite delightful, though some versions are better than others. Land o' Lakes can't make a bad flavor, but the Swiss Miss Diet packets are less fun than drinking plain hot water. A lot less fun.

As for actual blocks of delicious chocolate, here is a meltdown of my favorites and not-so-favorites:
  • Frango, all varieties: quite good
  • Hershey's, without toffee: quite decent
  • Nestle: aren't we supposed to be boycotting them or something?
  • Ghirardelli: I know that I'm supposed to love this, but it tastes like chocolate-flavored wax to me
  • Godiva: divine, indeed!
What kind of chocolate do you like best?

10 comments:

Psycho Kitty said...

Hey! I had a chocolate finger, a vanilla finger, and a strawberry finger, but the chocolate finger always won out.

Dove. It's the American version of Cadbury's in England, which is tons better than Cadbury's *here*, go figure. I used to live on Cadbury Galaxy bars, Jack and cokes, and Cartier cigarettes. (Back in my youthful, healthy days.)

Orange said...

I like the semisweet to dark chocolate, but not, like, 60%+ cocoa, because that's a tad too bitter. Once my travels took me through the Zurich airport and I bought a Lindt chocolate bar. It was huge--maybe 400 grams, 13 or so ounces--and lasted us for weeks and weeks. One block of it hit the sweet spot, so there was no need to gorge.

Trader Joe's sells similarly giant candy bars, and some months back I bought a darkish chocolate bar there. I think we polished it off within two weeks. That was some primo sh!t, man.

More mainstream, I am a sucker for the Snickers Almond (formerly the Mars Bar) and the KitKat (though the creamy filling is essentially sugared-up saturated fat). And Sno-Caps for the movies. Or peanut M&Ms when in need of a protein hit.

brooke said...

Dagoba - the Chai one is my favourite. Cadbury Dairy Milk bar - from England, not the US. I can't eat dark chocolate (it gives me migraines), so unfortunately, I cannot recommend any dark chocolate flavours.

Rob Monroe said...

Apparently we're boycotting Nestle because of their endless promotion of bottle feeding over breast feeding.

I totally agree about the Ghirardelli. Don't get me wrong, in a bind I'll grab one.

I like the Lindt balls that they have at Barnes and Noble checkouts. (They have them other places, but it's a reason for me to go to a bookstore!)

I'm just a sucker for chocolate in almost any form, as long as there are no nuts of any kind in it!

I think I'll go chew some gum so that I don't go crazy for some chocolate now....

selzach said...

I am such a chocoholic. I'm not much for the Ghirardelli chocolates either.

I'm all about the Swiss stuff. My overseas relatives spoiled me as a kid, and the American stuff just isn't the same. Lindt, Frey, and Toblerone are the brands I can usually find. Mmmmmm. I also love the hazelnutty goodness of Ferrer Rocher (I'm sure the spelling is off).

Camera Obscura said...

For chocoholics that are watching the calories, I recommend:

1) Dove "Promises." Little two-bite pieces of really good chocolate. One piece of the dark chocolate soothes my sweet-munchies.

2) Trader Joe's makes "chocolate" tea. It tastes / smells more half-chocolate, half-coconut, but if you're craving a cup of hot chocolate and wish to not consume the 120 (or more) calories that hot chocolate has, some of them fat and most of them simple-carbs, it's a reasonable substitute.

I get a wee box of Godiva truffles in my Christmas stocking. Sometimes I get a present of dark-chocolate nut clusters from Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate. Hubs likes their dark-chocolate-covered oreos, graham crackers, and pretzels.

Unknown said...

Ghiradelli IS wax. Yuck. I am a huge chocolate fan. My all time favorite thus far is a Godiva truffle, almost any flavor. From the mainstream outlets, I like Dove dark chocolate quite a bit. I also have a weakness for plain old Hersheys.

Beachcomber said...

We eat mainly Droste becauase you can get 76% Dark from them. I also like Cote D'Ivorie's dark chocolate. I'm a HUGE fan of Bernard Callebaut's chocolate, too.

Belovedlife said...

Hersheys is sufficient in a pinch, but nothing is close to Godiva...their key lime truffle and the classic milk chocolate truffles are to die for!
I am totally a chocoholic...

Redhead Editor said...

Having so much to say about chocolate, I will make this short and sweet. You live in Kirkwood. Get over to Tropical Moose and have the chocolate cream snow cone. And have one for me since I don't live there any more. Damn, now that's all I can think about.