Well, this is one thread i can't believe i missed out on for this long..

My favorite childhood chocolate experience:
Growing up in rural SD on a farm is VERY cold in the winter...(think -30 below, + windchill = -50 below or more!! seriously!). Not to mention while living in a 100+ year-old farmhouse with only a wood-burning stove for heat. (not lying, and I am only 25 years old...!) SOOO.... a favorite trick of my mom's to get some peace and quiet time from 5 kids was to tell us to go outside and play in the snow while she made us hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. To this day, I have never had better hot chocolate than hers... cooked in a pan on the stove with condensed milk, chocolate powder, sugar, and topped with marshmallows or whipped cream, plus flaky biscuit cinnamon rolls... mmmmmm!!!!

One of the best recent chocolate experiences I had was when my boss brought some leftover cake to work for us, and after i tried it i had to find out where it was from!! It melted right in my mouth like fudge!! I found out it was from Marigold's Cafe & Bakery in Colorado Springs, and it was the best, beautiful to look at and even better to eat: a dark chocolate double-layer cake with fluffy chocolate cream in the center, like whipped cream, and was coated in a thin velvety milk chocolate shell, topped with the same melt-in-your-mouth chocolate shavings!!!
Definitely super, but i could only eat a small piece as it was pretty rich.
The best cake I have ever had, by far!

Also, I have found -only at Safeway, so far- some really excellent dark chocolate hot cocoa mix, the brand escapes me at the moment, however!

And BTW, I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but I've discovered that I've become a bit of a "chocolate snob" after trying so many different kinds... I no longer even look at Hershey's kisses or M&M's (unless desperate ) !!
i guess it's like, why waste my time (and the calories) on anything less than divine chocolate!