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!
Mast Brothers
Raaka Chocolate
Madecasse Chocolate
Lagusta’s Luscious
Fine & Raw Chocolate
Wher can I find Hageland dark chocolate candy bars…now that Walmart has quit selling them?
Hageland is the absolute best chocolate! I called the only phone number I could find, it was an import company in San Diego, CA. The man I spoke with said he has received calls about this product. Unfortunately, they are only the company used to import for businesses that import products. Walmart was the only American company to import Hageland Chocolate and they show that Walmart has ceased to import this product. He knows of no other company in America that is planning on importing Hageland. I am not a happy camper.
Definitely buy organic and/or fair trade chocolate. Yes, it will be higher quality, but also, both labels require labor standards for the chocolate’s production. And that will guarantee that you won’t be buying chocolate produced with child slave labor. Another way to avoid slave labor chocolate is to stick with products whose beans did not originally come from Ghana or Ivory Coast. Might be easier to just look for the organic or fair trade label. This page lists some ethically produced chocolate companies:
Don’t know if anyone mentioned http://www.themeadows.com/, as I didn’t want to read them all. But have a hankie ready as you will drool!
Oops, wrong url.
Try atthemeadow.com
Does anyboby know of an independant chocolate manufacturer in the USA. Please send
me the name , location amd contact number.I woiuld be most grateful. Regards, Albert
I would suggest you Santa Barbara Chocolate company from California, they make chocolate since 92 and their chocolate is pure organic without addities. Check out their website, they make lot of chocolate couvertures and flavours. And I love the fact that they offer free shipping.
I’ve tried a billion different chocolate brands — many that are listed above. Bonneterre’s chocolate is the best. Purest ingredients, bio, and nice chocolate smooth taste, and not too sugary. . I usually get the 80, 85, or 90%. Found only in natural food stores here in Luxembourg. Maybe Whole Foods in the USA carries?
See’s Candy of California. Really old company. Traditional methods… no ingredients listed but they stick to butter I believe. NO high fructose corn syrup. Hope it helps!
http://www.sees.com/index.cfm/about_us
Chocolate is something I’ll never give up, and like Sarah and many other people here, I eat it regularly but sparingly. I’d rather spend a little more on good chocolate than eat Hershey’s or other public-traded brands any day. I love Equal Exchange, Endangered Species, Theo, and also Dagoba (we make various desserts at home with it and use it in pancakes, etc.). One I’ve recently discovered is called Good Cacao and it is fabulous. Everything in it is certified organic. Depending on what flavor you get, there are different ingredients like Organic raw Madagascar vanilla beans, Organic raw Madagascar cinnamon, or Organic Ginger root oil, or Organic Meyer Lemon Zest. My current bar is the Lemon Ginger.
I always buy the Endangered Species chocolate at my local kroger store in the natural food section. It contains quality ingredients free of additives. Sad, to here that Europe’s choc is now going down the drain, hope Belgian is still doing it right.
Chocolate is definitely my weakness.