My family and I don’t tend to eat much chocolate for the simple reason that caffeine is so incredibly addictive and who needs more strain on already stressed out adrenals in this crazy day and age?
When we go out to a movie as a family, however, I usually make an exception and pick up a bit of quality chocolate for us to nibble and enjoy during the show.
Have any of you noticed that good quality chocolate is getting increasingly hard to find these days?
My husband and I first started to notice that American chocolate was going to the dogs about 20 years ago. Upscale American chocolates like Russell Stover, Godiva and others started to add artificial ingredients and cheapened the quality of the chocolate with milk powder, vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter and even artificial flavors!
To avoid these cheap imitation chocolates, we started to buy chocolate only at a small British shop where we could procure European chocolates like Cadbury’s (only made in the UK – the USA Cadbury’s was bad quality), Lindt and others.
Now it seems the European chocolates have followed suit and gone downhill in quality as well. At our recent family movie outing just last week, my husband could not find a single brand of European chocolate at our local Fresh Market that was free of additives, artificial flavors or rancid vegetable oils.
It seems our only choice for decent chocolate now is at the health food store. Organic brands have so far held the line on cheapening their product. Starbucks used to have quality chocolate as well but I haven’t checked the ingredients list there in a while as I don’t drink coffee and so don’t shop there very often if ever.
I’ve found that even if a brand is ok one day, it might not be the next so frequent checking and rechecking of ingredient labels is necessary to ensure that quality is still intact.
What chocolate brands are you using these days? If you have discovered a brand that is free of garbage ingredients and doesn’t include soya lecithin, please post about it in the comments section.
Since I only eat chocolate now and then, I insist that my chocolate experience be a quality one!
Where Oh Where Has All the Decent Chocolate Gone? – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/48AsqyR
Green and Black is the best I can find without ordering online. So it’s a rare treat.
Theo organic fair trade ultimate dark 85% cacao. Ingredients-cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, ground vanilla bean.
Alter Eco is an organic fair trade chocolate made in Switzerland. It doesn’t contain soy lecithin, cocoa liquor, milk powder, vegetable oil, or artificial flavors.
Michel Cluizel is another great chocolate. It’s from France. It’s isn’t organic, but doesn’t contain soy lecithin, cocoa liquor, milk powder, vegetable oil, or artificial flavors.
Valhrona is a French chocolate that’s good too. Sometimes it has lecithin, but none of the other junk.
Forgot to mention, Whole Foods carries Alter Eco and Michel Cluizel. Trader Joe’s carries Valhrona at the registers.
Cocolo premium organic is fair trade, soy free, dairy free and sweetened with rapadura. I must say that their milk chocolate is the best I have EVER tasted! It does contain milk but still quite natural and guilt free
yup! I have my very own recipe that is divine w/ raw peanut butter in ’em!
I used to get Green and Blacks, but they now use milk powder. Then I tried Theo, which is good but not organic and just ok flavor. No questionable ingredients at least. My current fav is E. Guittard. They have many varieties but the one I get is Quetzalcoatl 72% cacao mass: Cacao beans, pure cane sugar, soya lecithin, vanilla beans. Yes, soy and not organic, but those are my compromises for outstanding-tasting chocolate. I get it at a local grocery, but I think Whole Foods carries it as well.
Theo’s says it is organic?
I am living in the UK via the US military and Cadbury UK has MSG and not that nice IMO. I don’t really care for chocolate but when I do. I go for this… http://www.riverford.co.uk/sacrewell/shop/chocolate_treats/dark_chocolate_100g/
One word: DAGOBA.
chocolove milk is to die for!