Chocolate

My FIL was a schoolboy in Neuchatel in the 10's/20's and he and the other little boys would hang out of the train windows on their way to school in the mornings and smell the wonderful aroma of the chocolate! Nearly 50 years on and I am a student at Neuchatel university - and doing the same! (no calories that way!)

I was invited to a chocolate tasting given by a local chocolatier. (Yes, we have such things, even oop North).
I would never have believed there could have been such subtle differences of flavour between the various estates.
I never eat milk chocolate now, it's got to be at least 85% cocoa solids. <goes off in search of the Green & Blacks>

If you join Hotel Chocolat/chocs,co.uk, you get a 10% discount card for the shops. The one in the Trafford Centre is too close to home!

I still have 2 boxes of chocolates in the fridge left over from Christmas! I usually eat 3 or 4 at the weekend (chocolates not boxes!) and then I forget about them until the following weekend. Crisps on the other hand disappear at a rate of knots!!!!

https://twitter.com/darksugars try this link

dinnerispoured.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/dark-sugars-brick-lanes--chocolate-shop/

If you are lucky enough to be near this shop..go in, taste, buy and enjoy! It's exquisite! better than most chocolate you have tasted..more subtle and less sickly than most!

Hotel Chocolate for me, nothing else compares! Plus they give a free taster as you browse their selections

Interesting article Whenim. It's years since I've seen anyone eat sweet milky chocolate, but it's certainly true that there are a numberof independent chocolate makers appearing. One is Charlotte's Chocolates in Buxton which is superb, and the Hotel Chocolate shops have a wonderful range. My friend Sophie is MD of Divine Chocolate - a fairly traded company - and she reports that sales of their dark chocolate are growing rapidly.

Several British chocolatiers/manufacturers and owners of British cocoa plantations mentioned here, in this article about the growth in popularity of healthier dark chocolate (no milk, little sugar). British tastes are changing to influence the demand for good quality chocolate.

www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Ingredients/The-dark-star-rises

I got a Hotel Chocolat Easter Rabbit puzzle from DH ..It's ears and part of its body are already gone

feetle - lol - which is why English chocolate does not have the right to be called 'chocolat' here- just too much fat, including the dreaded and rain-forest destructive palm oil, and sugar, and too little cocoa beans.

Feetle, there was research on a programme last night about chocolate, and I think one of the bars was Green and Black's 70%. You had to eat a 100g.bar to get enough flavonols for health.
The only one that gave you enough flavonols without making you fat was Tesco Ecuadorian, I think. But the scientist said it might be different next week. You only needed two squares of that one.
I like Green and Blacks, because it's usually organic, which means it doesn't have the 30 pesticides that are in non-organic chocolate.

I have bought boxes of truffles from these people as presents - because I was once bought a box and they were gorgeous, but very expensive.

www.chocolategourmet.co.uk/Default.aspx

And if like my mother you only like hard centres, then Fortnum&Mason are the only company left to make hard centred chocolates only.

feetle, I don't normally like milk chocolate, but your description of it as 'cocoa flavoured lard' has probably put me off for good. Well done!

I do like mint...

Has anyone ever bought chocolates destined for the arab market by mistake? Maltesers, for example. I bought some in a garage once, they had bought them from a wholesalers and they were far sweeter than ours, they were gross.

Yes, jingl, I do understand that. In fact I found some in DS's room recently, left from xmas. I was very good and didn't touch it, which was just as well because he had left it there on purpose! It was a good job that DBH hadn't found it first. DS is one of those annoying people who take a month to eat an Easter egg. It takes me three days, and DBH three minutes.

At the weekend I discovered a real treat in Lidl - Dark Chocolate Spanish Turon with whole almonds. So that was my 'Easter Egg' and I dare not weigh myself. Ever again!

(That was to janerowena btw)

I would only "use up" son's chocolate if he left it in his room here for a ridiculously long time. Can't be expected to hold out forever can I?

Aldi's Choceur chilli chocolate, dirt cheap, and Hotel Chocolat rocky road slab, ridiculously expensive.....both equally more-ish!

I enjoy Green & Black 70% - but I can make a bar last!

Milk chocolate makes me think of cocoa flavoured lard...

My DD bought me a box of Lindt Lindor chocolates, they are fantastic!!! Trouble is , when they've gone, I might be tempted to buy more!

Lindt dark chocolate with chilli is rather moreish.

I haven't had any Lindt for ages, maybe I should give it another go.

So, would you steal borrow someone else's chocolate egg, jingl? I have a friend who regularly eats all of her son's chocolate, he resorted to hiding it under his mattress but she still found it! I just never dreamt that DBH would take mine, so I know he must have been feeling really desperate! It did rather shock me.

Just cannot eat very sweet and 'fatty' chocolate these days. Our favourite is Lindt, dark 70% with a touch of sea-salt. The salt actually really emphasises the lovely bitterness- wonderful. Just 2 squares every evening, slowly - wow.