tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3398495373911831782024-03-13T11:47:08.899-07:00ChocolateChristine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-74642125306432171582015-02-28T23:50:00.000-08:002015-02-28T23:50:28.211-08:00Chocolate Results 2015<div>
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This year's chocolate tasting was once again a veritable celebration of Swiss Chocolate, but with a few surprises. </div>
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<b>Gilgen</b>, the <b>Swiss</b> maker from Basel takes the crown again for Milk. The second and third places in milk went to standby favorite <b>Lindt</b>. Fourth place was the upstart however: <b>Butlers Milk Chocolate</b>, from Ireland. An old hand at chocolate making (since 1932) but new to this tasting, Butler's has notes of caramel and a smooth melt. </div>
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In the Medium Dark (under 70%) category was also swept by <b>Switzerland</b>, with <b>Gilgen</b> taking the lead there too. <b> Patrizia Dungglischoggi</b> another <b>Swiss</b> maker took second place. <b>Schwarze Herren's Edelbitter</b>, a <b>German</b> supermarket staple which always does well, placed third. <b>Cailler Cremant </b>from <b>Switzerland</b>, another frequent winner, took fourth place.</div>
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The biggest contest is always in the 70%+ Dark category, and this year we have several surprising results here. <b>Marks and Spencer</b>, the british grocer, produced this year's wining dark bar, in <b>Italy</b>, which is a first for Italian chocolate. <b>Trader Joe's Swiss Dark </b>took the second place, again proving itself the best chocolate you can buy in the US. Interestingly, <b>Trader Joe's Swiss Dark</b> is made in the <b>Villars</b> factory in Switzerland, and the <b>Villars Noir</b> bar placed fifth in this tasting. In years past, Villars has beat out the Trader Joe's re-branded bars. This year, freshness may be a factor, as the Villars bar was poured 4 months before the tasting (it had to be hand carried from Switzerland), but the Trader Joe's bar was produced just a month before the tasting. </div>
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The other winners in the 70%+ Dark category were <b>Divine</b>, the <b>German</b> bar which does well every year (and is available in the US!) in third place, and <b>Sainsbury's Belgian Dark</b>, another British supermarket chocolate, in fourth. </div>
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Finally, in the 75%+ Dark category, we have an <b>American</b> chocolate taking the crown. <b>Balao</b>, by <b>Ritual Chocolate</b> from Denver, Colorado. For the complete results, check out <span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration: underline;">this spreadsheet here</span>. </div>
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Huge thanks to Madleina for providing most of the chocolate for this year's tasting (hand carried from the EU), and to our 50 tasters, who completed 1597 chocolate tastings over 8 hours. </div>
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Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-10406054005785962732014-02-21T00:00:00.000-08:002015-02-28T23:49:21.879-08:00Chocolate Results 2014This year's Chocolate tasting results are a little abbreviated, as I'm *extremely* pregnant, but it's all old favorites, so no surprises. <b>Lindt</b> won the <b>Milk</b> category, <b>Gilgen</b> from <b>Switzerland</b> took the Medium Dark category, and <b>Trader Joe's Swiss Dark</b> won the Dark category.<br />
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<br />Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-49178607573006103672013-03-08T08:01:00.000-08:002013-03-08T15:05:35.939-08:002013 Chocolate Tasting Results, Short Version<span style="font-family: inherit;">Switzerland and Germany take the lead! If you can get your hands on some <b>Gilgen, Villars, Edeka,</b> or <b>Schweitzers</b> chocolate, do so at once, but if you're restricted to USA shopping, hit up the <b>Trader Joe's Swiss,</b> <b>Divine</b>, and <b>Galler</b>, which are all available in this country and also received top marks. If you find yourself in Australia (or have a friend who does), try the new <b>Daintree Estates </b>chocolate, which you will either love or hate- it's pretty different. You'll need a Russian connection to get your hands on <b>A. Kournov</b>, but it's worth the trouble. And finally, if you're a die hard super dark fan, go straight for a <b>Blanxart</b> bar from Spain- you'll probably love it!</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall Winners:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Milk:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Trader Joe's Swiss Milk (made by Villars) from Switzerland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gilgen Milk Hausegmacht from Switzerland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Divine Milk from Germany</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Galler Milk from Belgium</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lindt Milk from Switzerland</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dark:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gilgen Chocolat Cremant Hausegmacht from Switzerland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Edeka Zartbitter from Germany</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Callier Cremant from Switzerland</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Super Dark:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A Kourkunov Elite 72% Dark Chocolate from Russia</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Schweitzers Zartbitter 72% from Switzerland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Divine 70% Dark Chocolate from Germany</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Edeka Edel Zartbitter 72% from Germany</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Villars Chocolat Noir 72% from Switzerland</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Other Chocolates of Note (popular but polarizing):</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Daintree Estates Dark 70% and Milk 45% from Australia</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Blanxart 82% Congo Dark from Spain</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kallari 70% Cacao from Ecuador</span></div>
Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-65786445135250380842013-03-08T08:00:00.001-08:002013-03-08T15:04:21.581-08:002013 Chocolate Tasting Results<span style="font-family: inherit;">The results are in from this year's chocolate tasting and once again european chocolates triumph, with Switzerland and Germany taking the lead.<br /><b>Gilgen</b> once again demonstrates the appeal of swiss chocolates- this three-year champion maker once again got high ranks, topping the dark category and coming in second in Milk. <b>Divine</b> also proved themselves perennially popular, with a third place in both the milk and super dark categories. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Trader Joe's Swiss Chocolate,</b> which is made in the <b>Villars</b> factory in Switzerland, got high ranks- winning the milk category and doing pretty well in dark, though, as it did last year, not quite as well as the Villars' branded Villars chocolate, which placed 5th in super dark. Still since Villars isn't sold in the US, we highly suggest that you get your hands on some TJ's. As an experiment this year, we included TJ's milk chocolate from two different production batches a few months apart, and were delighted to see that production quality is very constant, as the votes for both chocolates were nearly identical. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The other milk chocolate to receive top marks was <b>Galler </b>from Belgium, with rich caramel notes that were popular with everyone, and especially loved by milk fans. <b>Lindt</b>, unusually, did not receive the highest marks in the milk category, at least among the general audience, however when considering the scores of only die hard milk chocolate fans, Lindt Milk beat out every other chocolate on the table, with tasters noting that "it tastes like childhood."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The second place dark chocolate was <b>Edeka</b>'s Zartbitter, from Germany, a bargain supermarket bar costing only 0.39 euros, which once again demonstrates both that price is no indication of quality, and that even the cheap bars from Europe beat out what the new world has to offer. Edeka's 72% bar also placed fourth in super dark. <b>Callier</b> slipped from second to third place in dark with their classic Cremant bar, and their new offering of a 64% Cremant bar was poorly received, particularly by dark chocolate fans who considered it mediocre. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The super dark winners this year were the Russian <b>A. Kourkunov</b> chocolate, a perennially winning performer, a new (to this tasting) Swiss chocolate maker, <b>Schweitzers</b>, and <b>Divine</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Kallari</b>, the big winner from last year, faced an unfortunate challenge in this tasting: due to trouble sourcing the chocolate, the bars we used turned out to have expired two months ago, and the aging showed. Kallari was the chocolate that received the most "I loved it" votes of any chocolate in the tasting (38% of tasters), but several tasters were off put by the staleness and noted that "it just tasted wrong," leaving it difficult to fairly judge this chocolate in the rankings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We introduced a new category this year for the darkest chocolates, because the number of 70%-72% chocolates is exploding, and it seems unfair to compare an 80% bar with them. This category had a (perhaps predictably) polarizing effect on tasters. The most dramatic example was <b>Blanxart's</b> 82% Congo bar, which was given very high scores by super dark chocolate lovers, and horrible scores by milk fans, a quarter of whom simply hated it. Perhaps the complex fruit tones put off the traditionally caramel-loving milk fans, as this chocolate was full of complex fruit flavors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of special note are the <b>Daintree Estates</b> chocolates, which were the most controversial on the table. Everyone had strong opinions on these chocolates, with many people commenting that they "don't taste like chocolate," or "taste like wine." This new company is the first australian company to grow beans in the continent, and has taken "bean to bar" to a whole new level by growing the beans themselves. Perhaps there's something about the soil in Australia that polarizes the pallete, but in any event, we suggest you try their chocolate if you have the chance- it's very polarizing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For the first time this year, we don't have any "big loosers" to report. All the chocolates we tried were loved by at least a handful of people, and even the lowest ranked chocolates received middling scores. Some of the poorer performers include: </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Droste</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from the Netherlands has dropped significantly in the rankings since we last tasted it, earning last place in milk and middling scores for their extra dark chocolate. </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Equal Exchange</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">, an organic fair trade bar from Whole Foods that we tried this year did pretty poorly in both the dark and super dark categories, though their darker 71% bar was somewhat popular among super dark fans. </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Sirius</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">, the national chocolate of Iceland (being the only chocolate produced there), got pretty middling scores for all three of their chocolates on the table, with tasters noting a somewhat waxy consistency but good flavor. </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">TCHO</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> has finally (in the third year of tasting) produced a chocolate which no one in our tasting hated: Serious Milk Chocolate. Unfortunately no one particularly liked the TCHO chocolate either- it had the fewest number of people who loved it of any chocolate on the table and nearly everyone gave it middling marks. </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Madecasse</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">, the new Madagascar chocolate maker was probably the worst performer overall, with both their milk and dark bars receiving very low marks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The full list of 54 chocolates we tasted is available <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnHbzqncs1dddEN1el9sUGwwSnotVlkwTUo4X3NyMUE&usp=sharing">here</a>, and the compilation of every chocolate we've ever tried is <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnHbzqncs1dddHhBbWdUMEZGOC0zRE93dU9iSFI1YUE&usp=sharing">here</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many thanks to our 52 tasters who provided 1920 tastings for this analysis! Special thanks also to Madleina for importing most of the European Chocolates and to Cynthia for the Australian Chocolates. <b>Galler</b> and <b>Blanxart</b> donated chocolates to our tasting and we are very grateful- they were delicious!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love math? Curious about the data? <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3Hbzqncs1ddMFJjTjRjeUF3dzA/edit?usp=sharing">Check out the complete anonymized data set here</a>!</span></div>
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Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-89553070628081710342013-01-22T21:00:00.000-08:002013-01-23T14:31:25.673-08:00Announcing the 2013 Chocolate TastingIt's chocolate time! This weekend at the <a href="http://www.specialtyfood.com/fancy-food-show/">SF Fancy Food Show</a> I had the chance to meet several chocolate makers and get ramped up for our 6th annual Chocolate Tasting Party, which we will hold Sunday Feb 17th. Last year we compared new American small batch makers to the usual winners from Europe (mostly, the Swiss still win). This year we're bringing back old favorites and pitting them against new European chocolate makers plus some other chocolates of interest.<br />
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At the <a href="http://www.specialtyfood.com/fancy-food-show/">Fancy Food Show</a> I met Jean Galler, the maker of Galler Chocolates from Belgium (new to this tasting), who sent me home with deliciously caramely milk and super dark bars to include in the tasting. Blanxart, a favorite from the 2007 tasting will also be back, with two chocolates not yet released in the US- both single origin blends bursting with fruit. I enjoyed meeting Xavier Puigarnau, Blanxart's chocolate maker himself, at the show. On a less positive note from the show, I met a promotor for Chocolove (a popular 2011 chocolate), who brusquely informed me that their chocolate is not bean to bar. I also met the promotors for Dagoba and Sharffen Berger, both now owned by Hershey, and suspiciously co-located in a booth with the name of the mother company nowhere in sight- both served me chocolate samples which I found rather dreadful. The chocolateirs I met, who were too numerous to mention here, had many interesting flavors and really rounded out the <a href="http://www.specialtyfood.com/fancy-food-show/">Fancy Food Show</a><b> </b>for me. Most of the chocolateirs I met are using E. Guittard chocolate, which we will have in the tasting, or importing chocolate from Europe. Callebaut, which has tasted well in our tasting party in the past, was the most commonly mentioned european source. </div>
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The final list of chocolates for 2013 is not set yet, but so far includes chocolates from America, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Iceland, Madagascar, and Australia. If you have a chocolate you'd like to include, tell me now! The tasting is only open to bean-to-bar manufacturers, and only to their pure chocolate bars (no flavored chocolates, even hazelnut). Chocolates will be grouped by category: Milk, Dark (no milk, up to 70% cacao), and Super Dark (over 70%). In the interests of not completely overloading everyone, we'll try to keep things down to 50-60 total chocolate types. </div>
Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-29662367723232573322012-02-14T12:30:00.000-08:002012-02-14T12:30:02.128-08:002012 Chocolate Tasting Results: The Short Version<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The new artisan American chocolate scene does not yet measure up to Swiss chocolates. Artisan American chocolates are very controversial though, so we suggest you give them a try and see if you passionately love or hate them. In the meantime, we highly suggest you get your hands on the new </span><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Kallari Chocolate from Ecuador</b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">, which was the best chocolate available retail in the US. For the top chocolates though, <b>fly to Switzerland and buy any chocolate at all</b>. For those of you without a private jet to satisfy your chocolate cravings, buy <b>Lindt</b> or <b>Divine</b>, and you might want to check out <b>Trader Joe's new Swiss Chocolate</b>, which is clearly made in the same factory as this year's winning super dark chocolate, <b>Villars</b>. </span>Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-30541461133474763902012-02-14T12:00:00.000-08:002012-02-15T14:35:15.291-08:00Results from the 2012 Chocolate Tasting<br />
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The results from the 2012 Chocolate tasting are in, and (sadly) we have to report that the many new and interesting American artisan chocolate makers have not been able to topple any of the winning international chocolates.<b> Switzerland </b>contin<wbr></wbr>ues to make unquestionably the best chocolate available. In particular, the winning <b>Gilgen Chocolat Cremant Hausegmacht </b>and <b>Callier Cremant </b>from our last tasting once again blew all the other dark chocolates out of the water. Sadly, the only way to lay hands on Gilgen Chocolate is to show up in person at their family factory in Basel Switzerland, preferably with a German speaker in tow. Other Swiss makers won top marks including <b>Villars</b>, the top performing super dark chocolate,<b> </b>and <b>Bernrain</b>, which followed Gilgen and Callier as third place in dark. Indeed even the <b>Co-op Chocolate</b> from Switzerland's budget supermarket chain was more popular than any American chocolate (at a whopping $1.30 per bar to boot).</div>
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However, we can report with interest that <b>Small-Batch American chocolates were the most controversial </b>(high standard deviation), with decided camps for and against most of them during the blind tasting. Unusually for our tastings, many of these chocolates were adored by some who went back for seconds, and literally spat out by others who described them as "not even chocolate." There was no correlation by person either- everyone had some they liked and some they hated. Perhaps we're seeing the emergence of a whole new kind of chocolate which is not yet ready for widespread consumption. <b> Dandelion Chocolate from San Francisco </b>was the most controversial, with half of all tasters hating it, the other half passionately loving it. <b>Ostara Raw Chocolate from Berkeley</b> was also quite controversial, and was the only chocolate at the tasting which used sun baked rather than oven-roasted beans. The even darker (higher percent cacao) American chocolates were all extremely controversial, including <b>Snake and Butterfly from Campbell, CA</b>, <b>Chuao Chocolate from Encinitas, CA</b>, and <b>Theo Chocolate from Seattle</b>. Perhaps predictably, the <b>Dark Goats' Milk Chocolate by Escazu in Raleigh, NC </b>was extremely controversial, something which can't be explained by it being the darkest milk chocolate as it was equally enjoyed by milk and dark chocolate fans. </div>
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<b>Kallari Chocolate from Ecuador</b> and <b>Wild Boar Chocolate from Vancouver, Canada</b> (both available at Wholefoods) are the only new local makers to earn top marks this year. This is the first top chocolate from either country, which is especially an accomplishment for Kallari as every other chocolate we've tried from the tropics has been pretty terrible. <b>Kallari </b>made a surprising second place in super dark with intense fruity notes and fresh flavors, and is <b>the chocolate we most recommend</b> you try, as it's the best chocolate from our 2012 tasting which you can buy retail in the US. </div>
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<b><i>Other Chocolates of note</i></b>: <b>Haighs Gourmet Dark Chocolate from Australia</b> remains a top chocolate, but was knocked from second to third place in the super dark category this year. <b>A. Korkunov,</b> <b>the National chocolate of Russia</b> which made top marks in 2007 and then became effectively unavailable outside of Russia, made a strong return to our tasting as 4th place in the dark category. We almost didn't get to include this chocolate, until I found a company that ships Russian Dolls by boat across the Pacific-- they were able to import some (no joke!). <b>E. Wedel Milk Chocolate from Poland</b> turned out the top milk chocolate, pushing the ever popular <b>Lindt Excellence Milk</b> to second place. <b>Freia Melkesjokolade, the national chocolate of Norway</b>, was the least controversial of the winning chocolates, taking 3rd place in Milk. <b>Divine Chocolate</b>, the winning chocolate maker from 2009 which is owned by a Ghanan farmer co-op and produced in Germany, has a new 85% Dark Chocolate which was the best of the over-75% cacao chocolates. Divine's 70% Dark was even more popular though, earning 4th place in the over-70% "super dark" category. </div>
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Most interestingly, the brand new <b>Trader Joe's Swiss Dark 72%</b> and <b>Milk Chocolate</b> are clearly being made in the same factory as the <b>winning Villars Chocolate Noir 72% from Switzerland. </b>Unwrapped, the two dark chocolates are identical in break and snap, and all are made in the same unique molds. Trader Joe's Dark took 8th place whereas Villar's made 1st place, so perhaps the factory is reserving their best quality beans for the house brand and using "seconds" for their Trader Joe's production, or maybe the time in transit had a noticeable effect on quality. Impossible to know, but still it's definitely worth checking out the new TJ's Swiss bars. </div>
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<b><i>Poor Performers</i></b>: Sadly, we had two chocolates which crashed and burned in our tasting: <b>Mast Brother's chocolate from Brooklyn New York</b>, and <b>Taza Stone Ground Chocolate from Somerville, MA</b>. No one liked these chocolates and a many spat them out with effusive cursing- they were pretty universally reviled. I gather they are using some very different techniques for their production which, at least for this audience, did not pan out. <span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Also included in our tasting was the much hyped "</span><b>Fortunato No.4" Chocolate</b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">, which is made with a rare and different variant of chocolate bean (the beans are white instead of purple inside). Unfortunately the chocolate did not do well, with most people either finding it boring or outright disliking it, and it is certainly not worth the extravagant price tag. </span></div>
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<b>Winners of the 2012 tasting:</b></div>
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<b>Milk Chocolates:</b> </div>
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1. E. Wedel Milk Chocolate from Poland (imported)</div>
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2. Lindt Excellence Milk (available at any grocery store)</div>
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3. Freia Melkesjokolade, the national chocolate of Norway (imported)<br />
4. Trader Joe's Swiss Milk Chocolate (made in the Villars factory in Switzerland)</div>
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<b>Dark Chocolates</b></div>
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1. Gilgen Chocolat Cremant Hausegmacht from Switzerland (<wbr></wbr>imported)</div>
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2. Callier Cremant from Switzerland (imported)</div>
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3. Bernrain Cremant from Switzerland (imported)</div>
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4. A. Korkunov Dark Chocolate, the national chocolate of Russia (imported)</div>
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<b>Super Dark Chocolates (Over 70% Cacao):</b></div>
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1. Villars Chocolat Noir from Switzerland (<wbr></wbr>imported)</div>
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2. Kallari 70% from Ecuador (available at Wholefoods)</div>
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3. Haighs Gourmet Dark Chocolate from Australia (imported)</div>
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4. Divine 70% Dark Chocolate (available at Wholefoods and increasingly many other grocery stores)</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Thank you: </b>We would like to extend our thanks to Madleina, Cynthia, Paul, and Eva who carried chocolate across oceans for this tasting, and to the makers of </span>Ostara Chocolate, Dandelion Chocolate, Snake and Butterfly Chocolate, French Broad Chocolate, and Chokolait in Melbourne for donating bars. We would also like to thank the 42 people who faced down a table of 54 chocolates and provided 1414 data points for this statistical analysis. </div>
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Interested in the math? Check out the <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/2012ChocolateTastingResults.xls">complete anonymized results!</a></div>Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-70485578392480709422012-02-10T15:23:00.000-08:002012-02-10T15:23:08.929-08:00Chocolate Tasting is this weekend!And just to whet your appetite, check out the chocolate!
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZiRP60eB-1pv5ILHimQ3sg3ka6xT-V1vAKU_yXMsGIL8rirPr5XSgfP6minXP-M-_tATa__GiLibIdULZb5sg074sBEe_-VlJS3vLpJh-7Scdl4a5udgdzDHgiPieHcKHQzPUyqdhZhE/s1600/2012-chocolate.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZiRP60eB-1pv5ILHimQ3sg3ka6xT-V1vAKU_yXMsGIL8rirPr5XSgfP6minXP-M-_tATa__GiLibIdULZb5sg074sBEe_-VlJS3vLpJh-7Scdl4a5udgdzDHgiPieHcKHQzPUyqdhZhE/s400/2012-chocolate.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-26326898751900914392012-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:002012-01-14T22:48:37.659-08:00Gearing up for the 2012 TastingThe 2012 Chocolate Tasting is on! This year's theme is small batch chocolate makers, and our plan is to pit the newly expanding local chocolate scene in America against the best of the international chocolates from 2010. It's going to be epic! <br /><br />We've got a delicious lineup of chocolates, and are adding more as your suggestions come in. Please provide your chocolate suggestions as early as possible! The tasting is only open to bean-to-bar manufacturers, and only to their pure chocolate bars (no flavored chocolates, even hazelnut). Chocolates will be grouped by category: Milk, Dark (no milk, up to 70% cacao), and Super Dark (over 70%). In the interests of not completely overloading everyone, we'll try to keep things down to 50 total chocolate types. Here's the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnHbzqncs1dddFFNOEZLVUhMVVRqbW5pNC1hR0JrRkE&hl=en_US#gid=0">list of 2012 chocolates</a>, so far.<br /><br />Want to know if your favorite chocolate has already been tried and how it measured up? Here is the big list of <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnHbzqncs1dddHhBbWdUMEZGOC0zRE93dU9iSFI1YUE">every chocolate we've ever tasted and how it performed</a>.Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-47743698978494953262011-05-20T12:00:00.000-07:002012-01-14T22:48:19.998-08:00An Impromptu Chocolate Tasting at CHI 2011Chocolate tasting is always fun, no matter how large the crowd. We discovered this at <a href="http://chi2011.org/">CHI 2011, the International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems</a>, where I was asked to organize a chocolate tasting event for the 2000+ attendees on behalf of IBM. <br /><br />Due to the space constraints of the event, and the very short lead time I had to prepare, the tasting included only 12 chocolates, chosen from what was readily available in large quantities and had a proven history in our tastings: Lindt Milk & Dark, Divine Milk & Dark, Godiva Milk & Dark, Lake Champlain Milk & Dark, Trader Joe's Milk & Dark, Valhrona Le Noir Amer, and Chocolove Strong Dark. <br /><br />In a cocktail party setting with the chocolate laid out directly between h'orderves and the open bar, the results had a predictably high standard of deviation. Opinions on the chocolate varied widely, but Godiva Milk Chocolate and Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate stood out as popular. <br /><br />Data integrity aside, the event was certainly fun, and there's nothing quite like seeing a couple thousand people take a break from the conference to get excited about chocolate! <br /><br />Feel free to check out the <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/CHI-2011-Chocolate-Tasting-Results.xls">complete anonymized dataset (xls)</a> from those attendees who filled out and handed in tasting sheets.Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-563008593762436512010-04-21T21:00:00.000-07:002010-04-21T11:32:46.506-07:002010 Chocolate Tasting<div>The results are in from this years chocolate tasting and the winner is... Switzerland. Yes, the whole country. This year's Swiss chocolates resoundingly topped the rankings in every category. In fact, only 2 of the top 10 chocolates are not Swiss. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Winning Swiss Chocolates</b></div><div>In the milk category, <b>Lindt </b>retains the number one position for the third year running with familiarly delicious caramel flavors. In the darks category, the small family run chocolateir Gilgen was a stand out winner. <b>Gilgen</b>'s creamy "home-made chocolate" was dramatically popular, beating <b>Callier</b>, <b>Lindt</b>, <b>Teuscher</b> and <b>Bachman</b>, all swiss makers themselves which placed 2nd through 5th respectively. <b>Callier</b>, the oldest Chocolate maker in switzerland, won the super dark category in a decisive victory with their Sublime bar, which was the least contravertial (lowest standard deviation) chocolate on the table- everyone loved it. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Other Tasty Chocolate Makers</b></div><div>While Swiss chocolate dominates the winnings, several other chocolates are worth noting. <b>Haigh's Chocolates</b> of Australia performed very well, taking 2nd place in super dark and 6th place in dark making them the best non-Swiss chocolate in each category. <b>Eco+</b>, a disount milk chocolate sold in French grocery stores also performed very well, taking 3rd place in that category. <b>Divine</b> retained it's position as 5th in the milk chocolate category but was stripped of it's winning rank in super dark- a bevy of imported Chocolates knocked Divine down to 16th place overall. It's all realative though- Divine still got very high ratings, and compared only against chocolates bought in the US it takes 2nd place. The most delicious chocolate aquired in the USA was also made in the USA: <b>Amano Chocolates</b>' Montanya bar from Orem, UT. We'll have to see how they perform against <b>Guittard </b>in next year's tasting, as Guittard has historically taken the top marks amoung the American chocolates. </div><div><br /></div><div>Several new chocolates in the milk category are noteworthy- the <b>Lake Champlain </b>Milk chocolate pretty popular- mostly amoung boys. <b>Neuhaus</b>, the famous Belgian maker also received good scores for their milk chocolate- that one was more popular amoung the ladies. <b>Valhrona </b>also deserves a special note this year, (not for their regular bars, which had only average performance)- Valhrona is the first maker to produce an Organic chocolate which most people really liked.</div><div><br /></div><div>We had three chocolates in the milk category that were marketed as dark chocolates, but since Milk was a main ingredient they were officially classified as milk chocolates. Of these, <b>Alter Eco Fairtraide</b>'s "Dark Chocolate Velvet Touch of Milk" bar and <b>Goya</b>'s "Dark chocolate" bar both did very well, placing 2nd and 4th places respectively. The third dark milk, Sarotti, didn't do very well over all, but all three chocolates received top marks from super-dark chocolate fans. In fact, these three chocolates were the most popular "milks" amoung the milk haters- which calls their overall ranking into question. If we remove these dark milks, Neuhaus and Valrhona (Organic) move up to 4th and 5th places, respectively.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Some Interesting Correlations</b></div><div>The chocolate with the most sugar per gram and also the most cholesterol was <b>Ikea</b>'s<b> </b>Milk bar, which did surprisingly well, ranking 10th in milks. This was also the cheapest chocolate on the table at 99 cents per 100g bar. This year there was a slight correlation between chocolate and price- a negative one ;). This was probably skewed by the high price and horrible quality of the Hawaiian Chocolates. After three years of data on price correlations, we can safely say price is no indication of chocolate quality. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Whittaker</b>'s Dark Chocolate from New Zealand was the saltiest chocolate on the table. People with a sweet tooth really loved it, wheras people whose scores had a negative correlation to sugar content absolutely hated it. Other "sugar dimorphic" chocolates included <b>Spruengli</b>'s Trinitario de Santo Domingo (sweet-toothers love it) and Nestle Club Extra-Fine 70% (low-sugar fans loved it). There was a high correlation between sugar content and chocolate score- allmost all the high-sugar chocolates were ranked between 2.5 and 3.5, suggesting that you if you add enough sugar to your chocolate it will always come out "good enough," but you can never make a really delicious chocolate by adding more sugar. This was likewise the case with Chocolates low in saturated fat- they are always "good but not great." </div><div><br /></div><div>Chocolates with no cholesterol and no additives performed better, in general. Chocolates performed by companies over 50yrs old performed the best. No chocoloate over 80% received good ratings, even when only looking at the reviews of super dark chocolate fans. As we keep seeing, it's just hard to make chocolate that dark with a good taste and melt. </div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, Europe beat out America once again, but that contest could be summed up as "Switzerland vs Anyone Else"- there's just no competition. One very striking result of this tasting is correlation with bean source. The two largest growing regions for Cocoa beans are Africa and South/Central America. With very high confidence we can say that chocolates with South/Central American beans outperform chocolates made from African beans. Though, while the beans made in South/Central America produce delicious chocolate, we've seen that the chocolate bars made there are universally unpleasant. </div><div><br /></div><div>Under the heading of interesting but not delicious we have a few chocolates of note. Amadei's Toscano Black Bar from Italy was the most contravertial chocolate, and also the the most sexually dimorphic chocolate- girls thought it was OK, but boys really hated it. The highest calorie chocolate was the Amano's Milk Chocolate bar, which performed poorly this year as it did last year. This lead me to investigate if, as we've seen with Sharffen Berger, artisan chocolate makers either good at dark or milk but not both. The verdict is still out but the correlation looks more like "American milk isn't very good" then anything else. The worst chocolates on the table were unmistakably the Theo Organic bars, which were hated by almost everyone and described as "acid bitter death."</div><div><br /></div><div><b>What to Buy</b></div><div>We can conclude from this tasting a straightforward approach to choosing tasty chocolate. Buy swiss chocolate, preferably from a company at least 50 years old, that sources their beans in Central or South America, with low sugar, high saturated fat, no artificial additives and a cacao content of 25-30% for milk chocolate, 45-50% for dark, or 70% for super dark. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>A note on data integrity</b></div><div>We threw a little surprise in this year's tasting- 4 chocolates appeared twice on the table. Out of ~1700 tastings, 120 were duplicates. We noticed something interesting... only 47% of the time did the same chocolate receive the same score by the same person. Almost all of these (95%) were one-off's (a 2 and a 3 was most common). Which means that, in general, your score is only good to within +/-1. What about the overall data quality then? Well, it actually seems to mostly average out across all the tasters. For example, the overlapping chocolates received ranks of 1st/6th and 5th/7th in the milks category, with a very small difference in normalized score. What I take away from that is not to read the absolute rankings as gold truth on "which is the best chocolate?" but instead to use the rankings as a more general guide for which chocolates are likely to be tasty. We've already seen over the years that, with the exception of Lindt, chocolate quality seems to fluctuate from year to year anyway. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Thank You</b></div><div>A big thanks to Madleina for the Swiss chocolates, Jan for the German chocolates, and Cecile for the French chocolates. This International tasting was only possible because they purchased and carried home almost 10lbs of Chocolate. Thanks also to all of our 42 testers, who not only braved a torrential thunderstorm to get here, but also faced the far more intimidating challenge of 85 heaping plates of chocolate. Thanks also to Amano Chocolate for donating chocolate for this tasting- we enjoyed it. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Further Information</b></div><div>Do you care about the math? Are you curious how some of your favorite chocolates performed? Want to see how your scores measured up against everyone elses? <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/2010ChocolateTastingResults.xls">Here's the complete anonymized* dataset. </a></div><div><br /></div><div>* If you tasted chocolates and you'd like to know which anonymous taster you were (e.g. to see your sugar correlation or other information from the person-profiling analysis), email me. </div><div><br /></div>Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-91292104824247701462009-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:002010-04-21T09:28:27.859-07:002009 Chocolate TastingDivine was the big winner in this year's chocolate tasting party, with their dark chocolate standing out as the clear winner across all categories, and their milk chocolate placing 4th in that category. This UK- and Germany-based chocolate maker was one of the pioneers of free-trade chocolate in 1998, and is still owned by the co-op of Ghanaian farmers who harvest the chocolate on small 4-5 acre plots of land. At only $1.59 for a 45g bar from Lunardis in Los Gatos, it's also the least expensive artisan chocolate we sampled.<br /><br />In a repeat of our previous tasting (in 2007), Lindt dominated the milk chocolate category, however they seem to be slipping in the dark and super dark categories (5th and 8th places, respectively). E. Guittard preformed well, as you would expect from the supplier to See's Candies, with their Tsartana taking first place in the dark category (2nd overall). Michel Cluizel, Ritter Sport, and Valhrona continued to preform well this year, with Valhrona improving to 3rd place overall. Of the chocolates we hadn't tried before, six chocolates made top marks this year: Café Tasse (from Belgium), New Tree (founded 2001 in Belgium), Caffarel (from Italy), Chuao (founded 2002 near San Diego), Cost Plus World Market's (generic) 72%, and Godiva (yes, really).<br /><br />Only three of the new artisan chocolate makers had very good chocolates: Divine, New Tree, and Chuao. Many of the artisan chocolates we tried were terrible, with San Francisco's TCHO (founded 2008) standing out as the overall worst chocolates on the table. The other new San Francisco chocolate, Recchuiti (founded 1997) was mediocre, but no one hated it. TCHO was the second most expensive chocolate ($5 for a small 60g bar), while Amano (founded 2006 in Utah) was the most expensive at $7 for 56g (it was just OK). Theo Organic (founded Seattle 2006) was unpleasantly petroleum flavored and generally unpopular, confirming our results from 2007 which suggest that organic chocolate always tastes terrible. L.A. Burdick's chocolate, a favorite of Bostonians since it's founding in New Hampshire in 1984, was a letdown with only average ratings.<br /><br />Of the other chocolates we tried, Trader Joe's and Moonstruck (from Oregon) were above average performers with most people at least liking them and several loving them. Hachez (from Germany) was a disaster with rancid butter flavors. Endangered Species Chocolate revealed it's inconsistent quality. The winning Jaguar bar from 2007 was described as "licking the bottom of a chalky shoe," this time around, whereas their Chimpanzee bar, a mediocre performer in 2007, placed 6th in darks this year with "friendly caramel notes." Hershey's was predictably dreadful, and sadly now that they have moved Scharffen Berger production to their large Illinois installation, those formerly delicious chocolates are now mediocre.<br /><br />We had 54 chocolates, 44 people who filled out tasting sheets, with roughly 30-35 ratings per type of chocolate, for a whopping 1798 individual pieces of chocolate tasted, considered, and rated. Thanks everyone for participating in our chocolate extravaganza!<div><br /></div><b>Top 5 Chocolates per category:<br /></b><br /><b>Milk</b><br />Lindt Excellence Extra Creamy Milk<br />Ritter Sport Alpine Milk Chocolate<br />Caffarel Puro Cioccolato Latte<br />Divine Milk Chocolate<br />Lindt Classic Recipe Milk Chocolate<br /><br /><div><b>Dark<br /></b>E. Guittard Tsartana<br />Café Tasse Chocolat Fin Artisanal Noir<br />Michel Cluizel Plantation Maralumi<br />Godiva Chocoiste Solid Dark Chocolate<br />Lindt Swiss Bittersweet Fine Dark Chocolate<br /><br /></div><div><b>Super Dark<br /></b>Divine 70% Dark Chocolate<br />Valrhona e Noir Amer 71% Cacao</div><div>New Tree Pleasure Fine Belgian Dark Chocolate<br />World Market 72% Cacao<br />Chuao Todasana 74% Cacao</div><div><br /><b>Do you care about the math?</b> Take a look at the raw (anonymized) data from the tasting: <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/Chocolate-Results-2009.xls">Complete Results (xls)</a><br /><br />Chocolates are ranked with a combination of quality and consistency. We score by normalized rating (within each category), and further sort by standard deviation, number of top scores, number of above average scores, and number of people who didn't hate the chocolate. Divine was the only standout winner, with 5 star ratings from a third of the tasters.<br /><br />Most chocolates were pretty consistently loved, hated, or deemed "just ok" by the crowd. Our most controversial chocolate (Lindt Swiss Bittersweet) received mostly 3's and 4's, with only 5 people deviating on either side of the bell curve. Almost all chocolates had a standard deviation of less then 1.<br /><br /></div><div><b>Thank You!<br /></b>Many thanks to everyone who participated in this blind tasting, to all the people who showed up early to chop up chocolate, and to everyone who helped me computerize the chocolate forms. You all rock!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/chocolate2009.html">(this is a re-post of the results) </a></div>Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339849537391183178.post-58917303341656422802007-02-28T12:00:00.000-08:002010-04-21T09:18:18.219-07:002007 Chocolate TastingLindt was the big winner in this year's chocolate tasting, taking the first place in all categories, as well as top ratings for most consistently excellent chocolate. The Lindt Excellence 70% and Single Origin Ecuador 75% were hugely popular with intense, complex, fruity flavors. In the superdark category, the American Jaguar bar takes the award for best black chocolate; at 88% cacao this bar stands out with rich, long flavor, the only popular bar darker then Lindt 75%. The Russian chocolate, Krokunov, was a surprise upstart in the superdark category, with many fans of milder chocolates finding it smooth, creamy, and sweet. Ritter Sport also deserves a special callout for consistent excellence in the dark chocolate category, with sweet, milky flavors. Blanxart Dark Chocolate was a surprise to many who thought they had tastes at the extremes; it was most popular among the die-hard superdark chocoholics and the sugar-loving milk fans, with a smooth and very sweet vanilla flavor.<br /><br />Scharffen Berger Dark Chocolates earned consistently good to excellent ratings, with their limited-edition chocolates taking high marks. The Scharffen Berger Milk takes the award for most controversial chocolate, with fans lauding it's complex caramel flavors, and critics complaining of disgusting burnt flavors. Of course, all the biggest battles took place on the milk chocolate table, with Lindt the only uncontestedly tasty milk chocolate. Guittard remains the only high-volume American chocolate manufacturer to put out a popular chocolate; their highly-rated milk chocolate is used to make See's Candies. The Belgian milk chocolate by Callebaut received high marks despite controversial reviews, with some tasters loving the smooth, creamy melt, and others finding it too sweet and milky. The sugar and caramel taste of the Milka bar was a big hit with milk chocolate fans, who loved the familiar German chocolate. To no one's surprise, Hershey's Milk Chocolate was a waxy disappointment, though the new Hershey's Special Dark received slightly better reviews, perhaps since it's milk-based ingredients and 45% cacao rating classified it as a milk chocolate.<br /><br />Michel Cluizel and Sharffen Berger were the only expensive chocolates to earn top marks (bars cost between $6 and $8); most chocolates were $4/bar or less, with Lindt Swiss Bittersweet being the most economically delicious chocolate at only $2/bar. Surprisingly, most of the popular chocolates were the easiest to come by, and are available in several local stores as well as online.<br /><br /><b>Basic Statistics</b><br />Tasting Date 2/25/2007<br />Number of People Participating 38<br />Number of Sheets turned in 64 (across milk/dark/superdark)<br />Number of Chocolate Ratings 913<br />Average Ratings/Chocolate 11<br /><br /><b>Chocolates:<br /></b>Milk Chocolates (up to 45% Cacao) 26<br />Dark Chocolates (45%-70% Cacao) 27<br />Super Dark Chocolates (70%+ Cacao) 30<br />Total Number of Chocolates 83<br /><div><br /></div><div>Chocolates from 37 Manufacturers: Lindt , Perugina , Nirvana , Lotte , Cadbury , Bloomsberry & Co. , Milka , Droste , Ghirardelli , Hershey , Blanxart , Chocolatour , Guylian , Green & Black's , Nacional de Chocolates , Bernard Callebaut , E. Guittard , Vintage Plantations , Valrhona , El Ray , Scharffen Berger , Oliver , La Dominicana , Ritter Sport , Dagoba Organic Chocolate , Michel Cluizel , Lindt , Isis Chocolates , Valor , A. Korkunov , Endangered Species Chocolate , Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates , Terra Nostra , Chocolat Weiss , Moser-Roth , Schwarze Herrren Sholokade , and Venchi .<br /><br /><b>Top 5 Popular Chocolates per category (in order):<br /></b><br /><b>Superdark</b><br />Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa<br />Lindt Origins Ecuador 75%<br />A. Korkunov Dark Chocolate<br />Endangered Species Chocolate Jaguar Bar: Extreme Dark Chocolate<br />Scharffen Berger Las Islas<br /><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Dark<br /></b>Lindt Swiss Bittersweet<br />Droste Barettini Bittersweet Chocolate<br />Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate<br />Blanxart Dark Chcolate<br />Michel Cluizel Plantation Maralumi<br /><br /></div><div><b>Milk<br /></b>Lindt Swiss Classic Milk Chocolate<br />Milka Alpenmilch<br />Chocolatour Java 2005 33%<br />E. Guittard Orinoco<br />Bernard Callebaut Milk Chocolate<br /><br /></div><div><b>Consistently Excellent Chocolates: (High ratings, low standard deviation)<br /></b>Lindt Swiss Classic Milk Chocolate<br />Lindt Swiss Bittersweet<br />Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate<br />Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa<br />Lindt Origins Ecuador 75%<br /><br /></div><div><b>Most Contraversial Chocolates:<br /></b>Scharffen Berger Extra Rich Milk<br />Bernard Callebaut Milk Chocolate<br />Endangered Species Chocolate Chimpanzee Bar: Supreme Dark Chocolate<br />Lindt Excellence 99% Cocoa<br />Blanxart Milk Chocolate<br /><br /></div><div><b>Least Popular Chocolates (beginning with worst)<br /></b>Vintage Plantations 100% Dark 2006 Harvest<br />Vintage Plantations 90% Dark<br />Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates Organic Bittersweet Chocolate Bar<br />Hershey Milk Chocolate<br />Dagoba Organic Chocolate Eclipse 87%</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Do you care about the math?</b></div><div><a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/chocolate-tasting-results.xls">Download the XLS spreadsheet of the Complete Chocolate Data!</a></div><div><br /></div><b>Chocolates are measured by two means:</b><br /><ul><li>overall average score by all tasters</li><li>number of tasters who gave a chocolate top marks</li></ul>These numbers are combined for the final score. Average deviation is used to measure consistancy/contraversiality. The score each chocolate receives is normalized across each sheet.<br /><br /><div><b>Thank you</b></div><div>Many thanks to the 38 people who participated in this blind tasting, to all the people who showed up early to chop up 83 varieties of chocolate, and to Anton who helped me computerize all 64 chocolate forms including comments.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.mit.edu/~crobson/chocolate/chocolate2007.html">(this is a re-post of the results)</a> </div>Christine & Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05778198124294903494noreply@blogger.com