To try and reduce the amount of time I spend in this chocolate-purchasing conundrum, I also took a break from making recipes in Death by Chocolate to conduct a taste test of well-known chocolate brands, from Bakers on up to Scharffen Berger. The results were surprising, at least to me, a firm believer in the virtues of Valrhona (the chocolate snob's preferred brand for baking).
Taste test overview
Objective: Find the best-tasting chocolate for the best price
Test plan: Using only brands that can be found in most grocery stores, a nutrition doctor* and I conducted a chocolate taste test with multiple participants of diverse age and appreciation of all things derived from the cocoa bean.** This test was conducted in a sterile, climate-controlled laboratory.***
*and friend, Kristin
**i.e. our family members
***i.e. my friend’s kitchen; swigs of milk taken between bites
Brands (from cheapest to most expensive):
· Bakers ($)
· Nestle ($)
· Trader Joe's ($$)
· Unique Origin ($$)
· Ghirardelli ($$)
· Lindt ($$$)
· Valrhona ($$$)
· Scharffen Berger ($$$)
Cocoa concentration: It was hard to get consistent concentrations across all brands (since not all brands make chocolates with the same amounts of pure cocoa), so we aimed for a 60-70% concentration. (Ahem - as you can see, the test was highly scientific, and with little room for error.)
Test participants: 6, ranging in age from 6 to 40 and in affinity for chocolate from "Take it or leave it" to "There's no such thing as too much chocolate."
Test process: Participants were blindfolded and given a small chunk of chocolate from each brand, in a random order. Between each piece, participants either drank milk or water (depending on their preference, although I highly recommend milk or another creamy beverage/food if you're going to try this at home; there's a reason water and chocolate should, as a rule, never be combined).
Participants then rated each piece of chocolate on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the best), evaluating primarily taste, but also texture.
Results: Although clearly this test was highly scientific and error-free, it was still difficult to evaluate which chocolate brand came out on top: we didn't really get a landslide winner. Surprisingly, though, Valrhona, which is known to be among the best, if not THE best, brand, was not consistently among the top picks.
Instead, Trader Joe's Swiss Chocolate and Scharffen Berger garnered the highest overall scores and averaged the highest across all brands. (Note: Trader Joe’s Swiss Chocolate is was NOT their Pound of Chocolate bar, but rather their finer product, which has a yellow wrapper and usually can be found at the checkout stations).
Here are the detailed results. I'll let you draw your own conclusions now.
Results:
