Food

I recently purchased a bar of Amedei Porcelana chocolate. Fog City News sells them for $11 here in San Francisco. When a bar of chocolate is individually numbered in a limited edition, you know it is going to be expensive… There are two reasons why boutique chocolates bars made in small quantities are better than mass-produced ones.

The first one is they don’t adulterate the cocoa butter with vegetable fats (a.k.a. margarine). The European Union yielded to British lobbying efforts and allowed this indefensible practice. Not that chocolate is the only product that legendarily taste-impaired nation tampers with. I lived in London in 1982, and remember my horror at finding out that vanilla “ice cream” included such fine ingredients as fish oil…

The second one is that big manufacturers like Nestle, Kraft Jacobs Suchard, Cadbury or Lindt produce such large volumes they can only retain cocoa varietals that are also grown in large quantities in industrial scale plantations, just as McDonald’s uses standardized potatoes grown to order. Furthermore, several varieties are usually blended for homogeneity, at the expense of character (echoes of the debate between proponents of blended vs. single malt Scotch whiskey). Smaller companies or smaller production runs do not have these constraints and can purchase high-quality cocoa beans that are grown in small quantities.

Venezuelan Criollo cocoa is widely considered the finest variety. It is not as strong (some may say harsh) as Forestero varieties, but has much more refined and complex flavor. It also has poor yields, making it unsuitable for the mass market. Porcelana is the most genetically pure variety of Criollo, and like the others, has mild but incredibly subtle aromas, without the aggressive acidity of some.

I find self-proclaimed connoisseur reviews that speak breathlessly of “fantastic tangy flavor, that evolves through wine and blue cheese to almost too sharp citrus” faintly ridiculous at best, and more than a little unappealing in how they are obviously patterned on wine snobs. That said, Porcelana is definitely a superlative chocolate. I don’t think I will be feasting regularly on it, due to the price, but it is certainly worth trying on special occasions.

This morning, while walking to work, I noticed a brand new Richart Chocolates shop on Sutter street. Apparently it opened a month ago.

Richart is a Paris chocolatier who pioneered ornately decorated chocolate palets (their byline used to be “Richart - Art et Chocolat”) with daring combinations of tastes.

They are as overpriced as in Paris, but make for a classy gift (many French companies send out Richart chocolates around Christmas as corporate gifts).

Update (2013-04-20):

They closed some time ago.

Berkeley-based chocolatier Scharffen-Berger finally yielded to customer demand and introduced milk chocolate to their line, much to the gnashing of teeth of dark chocolate snobs nationwide, no doubt. According to the salesman at Fog City News, where I bought my bar, it has been available for two weeks now, even though the company’s own website apparently makes no mention of it.

It has a high cocoa content (41%), and has the brand’s distinctive rich flavor and long finish, although I find it a little bit too sweet. My preferred brand of premium milk chocolate remains Michel Cluizel, with their amazing 50% Java cocoa milk chocolate bars.

I bought lunch from a store in the newly renovated San Francisco Ferry Building. The Ferry Building is one of San Francisco’s landmarks, but it had fallen on hard times after being cut off from the city by the Embarcadero expressway (which was demolished after sustaining severe damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake).

The Ferry Building is home to a Farmer’s Market and a gastronomic food court. Interestingly enough, the building was reopened with little fanfare in June of this year, and the shops have been slowly opening. The economic melt-down of the Bay Area probably has a lot to do with the low-key approach, but it makes it hard to figure when the food court will be completely operational (the lunch options there are still limited). There are a number of interesting organic and gourmet food shops, however, and I think it is already worth visiting even if not all shops are in place yet.

Researchers have found that chocolate (the drinkable form) was produced by ancient Mayans 2600 years ago, over a millennium earlier than previously thought.

This is far earlier than coffee, or any other hot drink. Only beer and wine have been devised earlier.

Source: The Economist (subscribers only) reporting on an article in Nature.

Now if only chocolate drinking places were as commonplace as they are in Spain or Vienna, serving that divine nectar rather than the insipid caffeinated swill people inexplicably seem to favor…

In my opinion, the best drinking cocoa is Scharffen-Berger, because it is not processed with harsh alkali like Dutch-style cocoa. The Dutch brands Droste and Van Houten nevertheless produce quite acceptable cocoa, specially in Europe where Scharffen-Berger is not commonly available. And if you want the ultimate liquid chocolate indulgence, try either Viennese-style Rumpelmayer “Angelina” hot chocolate from Paris or the drinking chocolate available in bottles from La Maison du Chocolat or Valrhona.

Update (2002-09-19): A funny quote about the (recently failed) takeover battle for Hershey “Chocolates” (sic), from The Economist:

In the end, the resistance of the people of Hershey may not be enough to stop their company being snatched from under their noses. After all, if the taste of Hershey’s chocolate—which, legend has it, is made with sour milk—is not enough to put off the bidders, what is?

Update (2007-11-23):

The earliest known date for cocoa cultivation has been pushed back another half millennium, to 1100 BC.

Update (2013-04-21):

Hersheey’s took over Sharffen-Berger and ruined it. If you want good drinking chocolate, get the Guittard “Grand Cacao”.