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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: N. American vs European chocolate
Message-ID: <358@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Nov-83 19:24:55 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.358
Posted: Tue Nov 15 19:24:55 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Nov-83 08:13:08 EST
References: <2642@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 33

I must wholeheartedly agree with Peter Rowley's comments on the nature
of American vs. European chocolate.  Me, I'm a truffles fanatic, but
I'll settle for *real* bittersweet (or extra dry) chocolate in a pinch.
(Sandra Boynton, greeting card designer and world's foremost authority on
chocolate, said in her book "Chocolate, The Consuming Passion" that "truffles
are the ultimate chocolate experience" or something like that.)
Almost all American chocolate is designed for consumers of breakfast cereals:
full of flashy names and designs and loaded with sugar.  (Even the supposedly
superior chocolate from Godiva is guilty of this.)   For me, the only
mass marketed chocolate really worth pursuing is Tobler (especially
extra dry), Perugina (their coffee creams and truffles are beyond description),
and Ghirardelli, which believe it or not is an American chocolate (alas,
available only in the immediate San Francisco area). If you want real truffles,
you have to go to Switzerland (or Italy), or a place that imports them, but the
best chocolate truffles made in America are also from the San Francisco area.
Chocolate Heaven (on Pier 39) sells these incredible truffles, coated with dark
chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder, and filled with truffle fillings
made with kahlua/amaretto/grand-marnier/chocolate/espresso/mocha/etc.
(Is anyone else out there having phenylethylamine-theobromide withdrawal
attacks at this very moment?)

Please don't flame at me about how "Mama Glutz's Fresh Home Made Chocolates
from West Useless, North Dakota" are the best in the land.  Usually, these are
gooey disgusting "candies" with nuts and caramel (YECCH!) and who knows what
else.  If you thought I've been dogmatic in other newsgroups, just try
flaming at me about my tastes in chocolate.  Are there any other serious
chocolate connoisseurs (chocoholics) on the net with equally snobbish opinions
on what the chocolate experience was meant to be?  (Truffles, bittersweet
chocolate, chocolate cheesecake, fudge brownies, chocolate chip cookies with
many large bittersweet chips, and chocolate mousse in order of preference.
Did I leave anything out???)

				Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr