ps only dark chocolates (70-80% cocoa) are good for weight loss -- cause it reduces our cravings for salty, sweet, fatty food. Milk and white choc ---- fattening still

Sorry do u have any idea whether lindt chocolate halal or not? I wanted to buy lindt chocolate bar 300g for friend but i don't have any idea whether its halal or not.

Can i get patchi cholocate for less than RM50? Is it possible....just want to buy some for friend..

I do have some Lindt chocolates from Europe - my brother bought them whole lots of other brands - strawberry cheesecake, etc etc.

I do have cadbury colourful bars from Aus, other chocolate brands from US and all.

#IadmitIamAChocoLover

Dove

have you tried Awfully Chocolate from Singapore? I had once and it's so rich and it's way heavenly than Baskin or even Haagen. Never buy any tub ice cream after that. the chocolate ice cream is so real.

i oni eat dark chocalate

high 5 ,come 2 share with me some affordable yet nice dark chocolate

Dark Chocolate - What constitutes a dark chocolate and what's best for a dark choco?

>70 to 80% of dark choco is best to consume on a daily basis - good for heart and some other health reasons.

Lower than that %, it is not a good dark choco.

Dark chocolate mint flavoured with almond nuts~

dark choc bar with nut is nice to eat....

now cadbury is the talk of the town~ of cos cadbury !!!

Nice info for the brands with countries stated. Thanks. ^^

GODIVA.

I'm excited to see so many choc lovers in this forum. I'm somewhat of a chocolate surveyor, (other passion is durian surveyor), and i'm happy to share my findings of chocoalte brands.

First thing to understand about chocolate is that bitterness in chocolate is not desirable. Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tropical fruit (just like coffee berries). A good chocolate must be made from quality beans. The best beans that are produced are not sold in the commodity market, and they have to be booked or sold via contract. So only the reputable chocolate makers will buy them because of the higher price per tonne.

Good cocoa bean is like fine wine, it can be complex, it has character and flavours that are multi-faceted. So the chocolate maker's objective is to retain and bring out as much as possible the bean's complexity and flavours. This is done by careful processing, especially roasting, as over-roasting will produce a bitter chocolate.

To achieve bitterness, it is easy and cheap to do, start with a lousy bean (or broken beans with twigs, leaves, etc) and then over-roast at high temperature. Done.

A good test before buying any chocolate is to ask this question: where is your bean origin. If they say something like Belgium, Swiss, French, then they are clueless, as none of these countries grow cocoa. The more premium chocolates (one in Royce's offering, several in Lindt, most in Amedei, just an example) are single origin. Meaning all the beans come from one region, and I don't consider a country a reagion.

Also a higher % doesn't mean better quality. It just means more cocoa and less sugar. A 75% choc means 25% sugar (roughly, after subtracting vanilla and emulsifing agent, if any.) Read the ingredient list too, if the first ingredient is sugar, put it back on the shelf, because ingredient list is sorted by most first.

Difference between choc maker and chocolatier: Chocolate makers will acquire beans, clean, roast, winnow (deshell), mill / grind, blend, conch in the process to make chocolate. Chocolatiers most likely acquire chocolate and process into confections, by melting, tempering, flavoring, making ganache, etc.

hi glory, right and also wrong.
it really dependent on the roasting and conching. Pure Dark Chocolate with lesser time in the process have higher anti oxidants or flavonoid in the chocolate thus it helps heart but also depend on daily consumption or intakes.

All chocolates flavonoids will be destroyed or reduced once heat was introduced.

I think theres a trend in europe that seeks the word Pure or Organic now . Over here, many people still thought all dark chocolate percentage mades the Quality of the chocolates which were wrong.


This post has been edited by missysleepy: Dec 17 2014, 02:39 PM

nice write up, just to add . just to highlight the origin part. Single Origin chocolate have been labeled according to the country of the cocoa beans like Madagascar, Ecuador, Peru etc.

Why do we asked the origin of chocolate, to know who made my chocolates
Swiss emphasize a lot on smoothness, Belgium probably taste and aroma, French chocolate probably for details and perfect concoction of ingredients(Valrhona wins) , Italy for Nut based choc. (gianduja)


Now , the european marketing of chocolates have been making new statements and expanded further which were now using the words Local Plantation, estate or Pure chocolates . Reason: theres a collection of cocoa beans from different small planters and all those beans were mixed up before it were sent for processing. As you know , different soils and climates alter the dna of the taste. So , now those who were seeking the ultimate ONE is sourcing for one estate. Quality of chocolate is measured till this sector and not the percentage of chocolates where most people thought.

To find out a good chocolate,

since you and i knew these stuff, hopefully we can create more awareness and discussion group to expand this knowledge , what do you think if we do a meet up among those who love chocolate so much. There's so many false information spreading outside.

This post has been edited by missysleepy: Dec 17 2014, 02:46 PM

Let me qualify why I've stated that I don't consider a country a region that constitutes a single origin. That is because of the diversity found in any growing country, to the point that it is not beneficiallly descriptive to the consumer. Imagine buying a wine that is "Wine of France" rather than the expected regional labels ie "Rhone, Asace, Loire" ... The reason that "wine of france" is not acceptable is the same reason we should not stop at country origins ie "Ghana / Madagascar / Cote d'ivoire" for bean origin and insist on more specifics. Why? Because this is an indication (one of many) that the chocolate makers who source their beans cares (or not) about what happens at the plantation level where they source their beans. It is a much harder argument to make that the choc maker cares if the beans are acceptable from any growers in the country rather then specific ones.

Oh, and yes, we should have a chocolate tasting tour.

Precisely , the single origin thing is just a marketing gimmick. Most chocolatiers will be keen on the specific species of the cacao beans like Criollo , fostero and trinitario . If my knowledge was correct, criollo beans the most prefered one is originated in south america and very scarce. So usually, chocolatiers needs some sort of indicators i guess about the origins. They probably assume if one has to look for real chocolatey experience, they go for south american beans as compared to south africa which has fruity and all kind of different notes . Whereas like malaysian chocolates, most trees were hybrids . Still learning, correct me if i swayed from some details.