16.040 Taste Test: Dark Chocolates

Cycle 16 – Item 40

14 (Fri) February 2025

Post 5,519

Taste Test: Dark Chocolates

3.0

at home

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with IZ

At the mall the other day, I had encountered a selection of imported dark chocolates and purchased one of each with the intention of tasting them together with staff on Valentine’s Day, today.  But I’m stuck at home because of my leg injury (see generally 16.039 Jjuggumi (+ Kodari) Hansang), so I tasted them with IZ.

By coincidence, each brand hailed from a different country (Lindt of Switzerland had 2 entries).

In the caption under each product below, the percentage may refer to cocoa mass, or cocoa solids, or cacao, or dark chocolate, whatever was stated on the packaging (presumably because of every country has different labeling requirements), even though they all mean different things, and so comparisons don’t mean much.

The numbers on calories, sugar content, and price are calculated per 100 grams.

#1 Bouchard Dark Chocolate Napolitains (Belgium) (72%) (511 kcal) (27 g) (4,400 won): slightly bitter, very dry with a whisper of sweetness, crisp aftertaste – love it.

Given general my aversion to anything sweet, I rarely eat chocolate (see for example 14.276 Blancpain (Piaf) Chocolates), but when I do I prefer dark chocolate, which tends to be less sweet than milk chocolate.  On occasion, I enjoy chocolates containing nuts, because of the nuts (see for example 15.200 Nuts & Chews).

#2 Lindt Swiss Dark Chocolate (Switzerland) (49%) (535 kcal) (50 g) (4,500 won): sweet and creamy like regular chocolate but with a strong undercurrent of bitterness – like it a lot but not overly impressed.
#3 Whittaker’s 92% Cocoa Ghana Intense Dark Chocolate (New Zealand) (92%) (531 kcal) (6.4 g) (6,000 won): nice texture, both sweet and bitter, surprisingly little cocoa flavor despite the claim of “92%” cocoa solids; the nutrition labels also refers to “79%” cocoa mass – like it.

My top 3 favorites of the tasting were all bitter, but also sweet.

#4 Lindt Excellence 99% Cocoa Dark Absolute (Switzerland) (99%) (570 kcal) (0.4 g) (13,200 won): extreme cocoa flavor, intensely dry, but worth further exploration – don’t like it, yet, though I see promise.

As far as I could discern, the nutritional values appeared to have little to no correlation with the tasting experience, especially when compared across products.  For example, the Whittaker’s has only 6.4 g of sugar and 92% of cocoa solids, compared to 50 g and 49% for the Lindt Swiss Dark Chocolate, yet they’re both around 530 calories, and their relative sweetness levels didn’t seem too far apart.  The extreme bitterness of the Lindt 99% made sense, but how could it have only 0.4 g of sugar yet more calories than the Lindt Swiss Dark Chocolate?

#5 Ferrero Rocher Dark 55% (Poland) (55%) (610 kcal) (39.6 g) (6,100 won): sweet, barely any trace of bitterness, further softened by ground hazelnuts – okay generally as a confection, but not as dark chocolate.
#6 Hawaiian Host Founder’s Collection Dark Chocolate (USA) (?) (589 kcal) (39.4 g) (12,100 won): way too sweet, no bitterness, more like milk chocolate, profile dominated by macadamia nuts – very pedestrian, disappointing.

The only product that I didn’t like was the Taitau.  If I had tasted it without the Lindt and Whittaker’s for comparison, I would’ve concluded ultra high percentage (+90%) dark chocolates to be inedible and never tried them again.

#7 Taitau Exclusive Selection 99% Extra Dark (Lithuania) (99%) (637 kcal) (1.8 g) (5,000 won): weirdly/artificially creamy, unpleasantly bitter, devoid of any flavor – hate it.

As previously noted in Cycle 2, on the occasion of having dinner with my gay lover on White Day (see 2.068 Chicken Caesar Salad), Valentine’s Day (February 14) is celebrated by women giving gifts of chocolate to men, while men reciprocate to women on White Day (March 14), though I have no idea how and don’t care why the traditions got that way.  Seems like it should go the other way around, as St Valentine was a man, and white seems more feminine (I guess).  Speaking of my gay lover, the current system doesn’t allow for men to give chocolate to men, nor women to women, and certainly nothing for the non-binary folks – maybe Rainbow Day (May 14) should be a thing?  (April 14 is already Black Day, which is actually kinda funny – I will definitely try to celebrate it this year.)

(See all GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

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