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Are you eating chocolate right now? Do you want to be? The best chocolates —from lacquered, hand-painted bonbons to single-origin, small batch bars—are a mere click away.
The Bars
jcocoThis Seattle chocolatier made me question my commitment to dark chocolate. I did not expect mango plantain milk chocolate (flecked with crunchy bits of plantain chips) and cayenne Veracruz orange white chocolate (salty with just the right amount of heat) to be my favorites in their ten-bar sampler set , but here we are! Every day an opportunity for growth! For every three ounces of chocolate sold, jcoco donates the cost of a meal to partner food banks in Washington, California, and New York, so do a good deed and buy in bulk.
Dutch chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely is something of a contradiction. On the one hand, their zany 1960s circus packaging screams “Hey, our brand is wacky !” On the other, their mission is dead serious: end child labor and slavery in the chocolate supply chain. The cacao in their bars, which at a whopping 6.35 ounces are enormous compared to most of the other bars on this list, is responsibly and transparently sourced from cooperatives in Ghana and Ivory Coast. I chopped up their milk caramel sea salt bar and folded it into Claire Saffitz’s Malted “Forever” Brownies (a very good idea) and hid their dark milk pretzel toffee bar from my partner (I apologize, Margaret). For Valentine’s Day, check out the milk chocolate bar shot through with freeze-dried raspberries and beads of rose fudge.
Raak a
Most chocolate is made by roasting fermented cacao beans, but Raaka’s single-origin bars are entirely unroasted. This makes for a brighter, fruitier chocolate—think about the difference between a lightly roasted coffee and dark French roast—that lets the raw ingredients shine.
M adhu Chocolate
This Austin bean-to-bar company mashes up Columbian chocolate with South Asian flavors like vanilla fennel, saffron milk, and masala chai.
Omnom Chocol ate
Each offering from this Icelandic bean-to-bar company comes wrapped in paper patterned with a different animal—unicorns for the Caramel + Milk , swans for the Lakkrís + Raspberry (a licorice lover ’s dream), and aggro crows for the charcoal-hued Black N’ Burnt Barley , which tastes like boricha and is every bit as metal as it sounds.
Alter E co
Alter Eco’s chocolate is good—you’ll find their Brown Butter bars stashed all around my house—but their commitment to sustainable farming practices is what makes this my go-to grocery store choice. Their recently launched foundation is helping cacao cooperatives in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic transition to a system of regenerative agroforestry, so that farming can be part of a diverse forest ecosystem rather than driving its destruction.
Casa Bosques' hoja santa bar, a collaboration with chef Elena Reygadas
Once you see the packaging on Casa Bosques single-origin bars, it will come as no surprise that founder Rafael Prieto’s day job is running a design studio. The core collection includes collaborations with Mexican culinary luminaries like Elena Reygadas and Enrique Olvera , and upcoming flavors from their limited-edition Laboratorio series include Parmigiano Reggiano and castile flower with pistachio.
The Bonbons and Truffles
Formosa ChocolatesOakland-based psychiatrist-turned-chocolatier Kimberly Yang crafts artful, brightly colored bonbons that are almost too pretty to eat. The blood orange speculoos truffle features layers of citrusy ganache and hazelnut praliné studded with those buttery spiced cookies you get when you fly Delta. The coffee caramel, which looks like a cappuccino cup for dolls, has a perfectly bitter edge thanks to Taiwanese coffee and sugar that’s just on this side of burnt.
La Maison du Chocolat
It doesn’t get classier than La Maison du Chocolat, whose ganaches, pralinés, and truffles have been hand-crafted on the outskirts of Paris since 1977. Their heart-shaped Valentine’s Day gift box , featuring assorted chocolates nestled in chocolate dragées the size of baby peas, is a big step up from a Whitman’s sampler.
Midunu Chocolates
Ghana-born, New York–raised Selassie Atadika lived in 41 African countries during her time working for UNICEF as a child protection officer and emergency specialist. Now, she’s paying tribute to the diverse flavors of the continent through her truffles, which come in flavors like Cape Malay curry, Ethiopian berbere , and Moroccan mint tea and are made from single origin Ghanian cacao by an all female team of chocolatiers.
Delysia Chocolatier
In the hands of someone less skilled, green chili queso or chicken fried steak truffles would be gimmicky at best and downright disgusting at worst. But Austin chocolatier Nicole Patel manages to pull it off, concocting savory-sweet truffles that are more than just novelty. Her Taste of the South collection includes both more traditional options like mint julep and banana pudding as well as a Frito pie truffle, which features a corn chip center and a cheese, chive, and ghost pepper ganache that did not come to play.
V esta Chocolate
New Jersey–based spouses Roger Rodriguez and Julia Choi Rodriguez create single-origin bars, vegan barks, and “functional” white chocolate bars made with superfoods and antioxidant-rich ingredients like Diaspora Co. turmeric . But the bonbons are really where it’s at. Their limited-edition flavors for Valentine’s Day include milk and honey, champagne, and spiced maca.
Stick With Me Sweets' box of 24 bonbons, all of them mine
Photo by Evan SungThese are the chocolates that haunt my dreams. Everything that Susanna Yoon and her team make is exquisite, from the shiny, jewel-like bonbons to the Betterfinger bars which, unlike Bart Simpson’s candy bar of choice, don’t get stuck in your teeth. The bonbon collections come disguised in a box that looks like a book—handy if you decide you’re not in a sharing mood.
Ex quisito Chocolates
While many of Carolina Quijano’s single-origin chocolate bars are simple by design, made with only cacao and unrefined cane sugar to highlight the chocolate’s terroir, her bonbons and barks nod to the company’s home in Miami’s Little Havana, incorporating flavors like plantain and locally grown guava. There are also, crucially, chocolate coated potato chips.
The Others
“Chocolatier” and “nutritional health counselor” may not seem like professions that go hand-in-hand, but Baltimore-based Jinji Fraser has carved out an extremely delicious niche. Her confections may be free of dairy, gluten, and refined sugar, but you won’t miss them. The chocolate-covered, peanut butter ganache–filled Turkish figs are absolute mad genius sorcery.
Andre’s Confiserie Suiss e
This third-generation, family-run confectioner in Kansas City makes old people chocolates, and I mean that in the best possible way. Their chocolate-enrobed orange peels, roasted almonds, and marzipan sticks are absolute classics that need no improvement.
Che Fico Giandu ja
San Francisco’s Che Fico (one of BA’s top 10 restaurants of 2018 ) does wonderful things with chocolate—like this chocolate budino with candied walnuts that we lost our minds over. But if you don’t want to bust out the Silpat and make caramel, Che Fico’s gianduja is the instant chocolate fix you need. What is it? Nutella, more or less, but made with really good chocolate from Guittard and no palm oil. Spread it on toast slicked with salted butter, fold it into Rice Krispie treats , or, if you are me, eat it right off the spoon.
Source : food
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