"chocolate taste test" news and stories

What happens when you get a world-renowned pastry chef and chocolatier to do a taste test with mass-produced chocolate bars? New York Magazine got François Payard to participate in a blind tasting of 14 nationally available chocolates. And while this test isn't completely recent, having taken place over a year ago, it's still interesting to see how your own personal preferences stack up to those of a pro.

The candy bars tasted were Dove Milk Chocolate, Hershey's Milk Chocolate, Caramello, Ferro Rocher, Nestle Crunch, York Peppermint Patties, Junior Mints, Snickers, Baci, Cadbury Dairy Milk, M&Ms (a rather obvious entry, easily identified), Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Toblerone and Kit Kats.

While a few garnered a "terrible" rating, like Hershey's and Ferro Rocher, Payard liked Dove, Caramello, Nestle Crunch and Snicker's. I still like Junior Mints and York Peppermint Patties, whether they have an "artificial" quality or not. Payard's favorite was the Baci, which he deemed to be "the most delicious" of all the chocolates he tasted. How did your favorite do?

[Thanks Anna!]

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The Seattle PI held an informal bakeoff that pitted three types of chocolate against each other in a recipe for chocolate decadence cookies, which are so rich, they're basically brownies in cookie form. They used Nestle's Tollhouse chocolate chips, Baker's Chocolate and expensive Sharffen Berger chocolate.

Both the Nestle Tollhouse cookie and the Baker's beat out the high-end chocolate cookie.

Unfortunately, the whole article is approached with what sounds like complete disdain for anything other than the Sharffen Berger chocolate, which is a shame. The fact that it didn't win doesn't mean that the palates of the taste testers weren't sophisticated enough to like expensive chocolates over less expensive chocolates; it means that the testers didn't think Sharffen Berger in particular stacked up. Many people who love chocolate, even very dark chocolates, don't like the unusually bitter notes that are found in the SB chocolates. And for a cookie that has decadence in the name, very few people are going to prefer something that actually tastes bitter (not just bittersweet) over something that tastes rich, chocolaty and sweet.

All in all, the Sharffen Berger cookies were probably still very good, but this little bakeoff just reaffirms the fact that it doesn't really matter what kind of chocolate you use for baking. Save your expensive chocolate for eating on its own.

The Decadence Cookie recipe can be found here.

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