February 16, 2008
"There is no product on the planet that can match that lush, melted-chocolate mouth-feel of milk chocolate."
Are you a dark-chocolate snob or are dark-chocolate snobs just making you feel that you shouldn't want what you really want? Get over it!
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40 comments:
Milk chocolate is just a bit too sweet for me.
Trey
Turns out the fat in cacao is not so easily digested, so the darker a chocolate, the more of it you can eat and not gain weight. (And you won't eat as much of it anyway, because it tends to be bitter and have a stiffer mouth feel.) It's the sugar and cream that makes chocolate so fattening.
Also, cacao (depending on how it's processed) is actively heart-healthy. So the dark-chocolate snobs are also the health nuts, rich and thin.
I love Cadbury's Flake milk chocolate bar, that one is lush and good. I'm not so fond of US milk chocolate, although Hershey used to make a Golden Almond bar that was pretty good, almonds in every bite.
I actually don't like chocolate unless it is a chocolate man.
Also, it is horrible for your figure.
Mo's Bacon Bar: applewood smoked bacon + Alder wood smoked salt + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao
I am back and rejuvenated. It is amazing how working out can make you feel so much better.
I was not in the mood to leave my fabulous loft this morning but now that I did I feel great.
My lunch was a whey protein shake with bananas and strawberries-yum.
Also, the dogs are exhausted which is wonderful. The best thing in the world is a tired dog.
I am burning insense, having a carrot with water and contemplating my options for tonight.
My mother used to warm my bottom because I'd eat all her baking chocolate. I love chocolate.
Below 55% cacao, however, it's so sweet I gag. No snobbery at all -- I just can't eat that stuff.
My Dutch in-laws (and wife) OTOH eat their chocolate 'hagel' [haxhel = 'hail'] on buttered toast. In the morning. Now that's a serious habit.
I don't care what kind of chocolate it is. If it ain't Sees chocolate than it ain't all that good. :)
I saw a documentary about how most chocolate is harvested by de facto slaves in East Africa. The slave children are actually killed if they don't harvest enough chocolate per day. The documentary was so upsetting that I can't eat chocolate from Hershey's or Cadbury's now. (There are a few varieties that say on the package where the chocolate is from, and how it wasn't harvested by slaves, but it costs about three times as much, is only found around here in one health food store, and I can't afford to pay 4.95 for six ounces of their guilt-free chocolate.)
There must be a list somewhere of chocolate that didn't cost some child their life on the net, and I should have done the research before posting this, but I didn't.
I love it all, even baker's--if I know that's what it is before taking a bite. What I consider sacrilegious is the addition of nuts to most any form of chocolate be it hard dark or milk, fudge, brownie, or sauce. It's not that I don't like nuts, I do, but they prohibit that wonderful, smooth tongue and full-mouth experience.
Milk Chocolate is to Dark Chocolate as audio books are to printed books.
From an article on chocolate and slavery -- first article that came up when I put in chocolate, slavery, Hershey's:
"M&M Mars and Hershey Foods Corp. are not alone. Other companies whose chocolate is almost certainly tainted with child slavery include: ADM Cocoa, Ben & Jerry's, Cadbury Ltd., Chocolates by Bernard Callebaut, Fowler's Chocolate, Godiva, Guittard Chocolate Company, Kraft, Nestle, See's Candies, The Chocolate Vault, and Toblerone. While most of these companies have issued condemnations of slavery, and expressed a great deal of moral outrage that it exists in the industry, they each have acknowledged that they use Ivory Coast cocoa and so have no grounds to ensure consumers that their products are slavery-free."
ORGANIC chocolate is almost certainly slave-free.
The article also said that a great amount of coffee is produced by slaves.
You are consuming a child's life when you are eating non-organic chocolate. Enjoy it.
I don't understand the "milk chocolate is too sweet" criticism. Chocolate isn't sweet and milk isn't sweet. Sugar is an additional ingredient. Dark chocolate also has sugar or it would be very bitter. It's all a matter of how much sugar is in it. There's no inherent reason why milk chocolate is sweeter than dark chocolate. It's just creamier and mellower.
Here's the best I can do:
Dollar for dollar, I have not found a better bar.
I don't see it on Kirby Olson's list of slave chocolates and this sounds good.
Per serving, 70% Cocoa is about half the sugar of the Lindor Milk.
"Chocolate isn't sweet and milk isn't sweet"
No, but condensed milk is very sweet and that's what milk chocolate is made with.
"There's no inherent reason why milk chocolate is sweeter than dark chocolate"
Yes there is, it's because it's made with condensed milk. Have you ever tasted condensed milk?
Dagoba Xocolatl
No slave children involved. It's Kosher, too.
Condensed milk is a product with added sugar. Anyone making milk or dark chocolate can independently determine how much sugar is going into it.
ORGANIC chocolate is almost certainly slave-free.
Organic chocolate is actually less likely to be "slave-free", since the inefficient production methods force the growers to cut costs somewhere else -- salaries, for example.
I have no idea WHY, but milk chocolate tastes sweeter to me. I like dark chocolate better, but I don't like chocolate all that much anyway. Why is it that women crave chocolate so much? I don't care enough to Google it, but I'm sure there's an explanation.
"Condensed milk is a product with added sugar. Anyone making milk or dark chocolate can independently determine how much sugar is going into it."
I'm not a chocolatier but I think you're wrong. Apparently condensed milk is used because the chocolate won't solidify when combined with regular milk. Any chocolate experts out there want to weigh in?
The article said that Paul Newman's chocolate was certainly slave-free, and was from Costa Rica, that has very good oversight.
All of the slave chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast.
Lindt's may be slave-free (non-Ivory Coast). I'm not sure.
But the article said that organic chocolate came via Costa Rica, where there are serious oversights and thus no slavery. Ivory Coast produces 40% of commercial chocolate, and that's where the slavery is, and they never produce ANY organic chocolate there.
So if you stick to organic chocolate from Costa Rica, you are not biting into some African kid's life when you eat chocolate.
Does Newman's chocolate taste just as good? It seems in fact to be relatively cheap. There are also a few others, that are mentioned in the thread.
Milk chocolate is the n-dimensional portal through which heaven is viewed. The others are as false idols.
I can't worry about the slaves, since we are all slaves here if we earn a paycheck. We are not killed for not paying up, but for most, prison isn't much better.
Condensed milk has had the water reduced, but the sugar is added to the milk, and dark chocolate has sugar added too. That's my point. I like milk chocolate, but it's important to find the right brand (which is what the linked article is about).
Did you know that cocoa trees grow only 15˚from the equator? A good deal of international effort, mostly US, has gone toward developing it as a cash crop for African countries. Child labor. Leave it African countries to completely ignore US labor laws. From the US point of view, one thing at a time.
There are two main tree species. The venezuelan variety produces much less bean pods therefore much more expensive.
I temper both kinds and pour it into molds I made. Did a batch right before Valentine's Day. I like to spread them around as unexpected gifts and to accompany a tip, whether or not the recipient appreciates chocolate, they still make a neat gift. Want some? Email me with your address and I'll send you a box gratis, but hurry before it gets too warm to mail confidently.
Is this a brown day or what?
The first time I ate dark chocolate reminds me of the first time I drank a Guiness. "Oh, I thought I didn't like beer/chocolate!"
I love chocolate- all types. I especially like to experiment with different seasonings to add flavor or spice to the chocolate. I also use it to flavor certain dishes.
There us nothing better than a piece of dark chocolate with a glass of wine or a real Martini.
I care not where it comes from, how it is produced, or who produces the final product. I eat what I want. If I had to worry about some socialistic non-sense I would either starve to death or never have the pleasure of the finer things in life. I do not look up anything, except the price. If I can afford it, I buy it. Chocolate, coffee, fois gras, or sea bass; makes no difference to me how it is produced or where it comes from. Any body have a deal on blood diamonds?
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, I ate chocolate as a child: but when I became a man, I put away milk chocolate. Note that drinking milk along with dark chocolate reduces the heart-healthy effects.
British chocolate tastes like a poor grade of polystyrene. Other European chocolate producers wanted British chocolate defined as imitation chocolate because they used cheap subtitute fats.
If you want a good grade of American milk chocolate at a reasonable price, the best I've found is the fundraising World's Finest Chocolate.
I don't like "World's Finest" at all. This is not good news. Newman's stuff is usually pretty good, though.
(I don't buy diamonds either.)
Kirby,
You seem to be using the word "organic" to mean "Costa Rican". "Organic", in farming, usually refers to agricultural techniques that don't use modern pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. It isn't specific to Costa Rica or anywhere else in the world. There's certainly nothing contradictory about a crop being both slave-grown and "organic". Heck, that's what the South's entire cotton crop was back in the 19th century.
In any event, if you're worried about slave-labor cocoa growers the only thing you can do is stop eating chocolate entirely. Buying Costa Rican isn't good enough, since cocoa is highly fungible -- if you buy a bunch of Costa Rican chocolate, that just pushes other parts of the market into buying from Ivory Coast.
Althouse- there is both sweetened and unsweetened condensed milk.
One of my favorite chocolates is Michel Cluizel's Noir Infini which is 99% cocoa content and very darkly bitter. But it reveals the complex and amazing flavors withing chocolate. It's like having a high-quality cup of coffee, black, after years of drinking only Frappucinos from Starbucks.
I like chocolates that hint at the true, ambiguous nature of cocoa- as much a savory taste as a sweet one. Remember, the Aztecs drank chocolate with chili peppers.
Fazer.
Fazer Fazer Fazer.
If you ever are in Helsinki, you MUST stuff at the Karl Fazer cafe. Heaven.
Palladian said..."Althouse- there is both sweetened and unsweetened condensed milk."
I don't think the chocolate manufactures are buying little cans of Carnation Evaporated Milk. I assume they are using exactly the proportion of sugar they choose in a made-to-order supply of evaporated milk.
"...It's like having a high-quality cup of coffee, black, after years of drinking only Frappucinos from Starbucks."
I don't get this prejudice against added milk. Do you order clear soups and sneer at people who order bisque? Milk products are great ingredients that enhance other things. It's not fair to compare high-quality black coffee to a low quality coffee milk drink. The right comparison -- since I'm talking about excellent milk chocolate -- is a great cappuccino.
The problem with bitter dark chocolate -- and I well recall eating some 99% bars two summers ago (Very astringent!) -- is that the bitter taste can mask out all the other nuances of the chocolate. But perhaps the Palladian palate is more perceptive.
"There's no inherent reason why milk chocolate is sweeter than dark chocolate."
The inherent reason is that the producers make it that way.
There is no inherent reason why a Ferrari is so much faster than a Yugo for the same reason.
I have had some milk chocolate that was to my taste, but most of it is not. Where is the problem?
Trey
"But at their best, dark milk chocolates have a combination of silky texture and coffee-caramel creaminess, with a slight bitterness that pulls them back from the edge of too-sweet.
"We liked several American products, especially those from Guittard, Theo and Scharffen Berger. From Europe, unsurprisingly, Michel Cluizel and Valrhona were popular."
Have you tried the brands recommended in the linked article? I bet you haven't.
http://www.chocablog.com/reviews/lindt-lindor/
I had some of the Scharffen Berger milk chocolate today. Excellent!
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