Meanwhile, as I await their response, I was hoping (as is usual in the FT community!) that someone had actually seen their product in a shop outside of Turkey and could provide a little more information.

http://www.e-royce.com/

Moonstruck started here in Portland. They've had a good local following for years. I thought they were great when I first had it, but it's been a while since I had their chocolate, and I've had the opportunity to try more kinds since then. Maybe I'll pick some up here and see what I think these days. (oh, darn, an excuse for eating chocolate...) I know that they do make a lot of effort to get it right and even make their employees go to a kind of "chocolate school" to learn how it's made when they start working there....

Just tried some Belgian dark chocolate.
It was a lot sweeter than I expected (having expected to get most of the typical bitterness of the darkest chocolates).

So much for choosing something fairly dark so that it's hard to eat too much at once! This one is sweet enough for anyone.

[Edit to add: 51% sugar, 46% cocoa - and that is just how it tastes.]

After picking up a few tablets of Amedei at FCO, just found another brand, readily available here in SIN: Michel Cluizel. Awesome Cru chocolates. I particularly love the (dark) Madagscar cru.

His daughter runs his store in Paris and its really nice as well. Their pralines are very good.

201, rue Saint-Honor�
75001 PARIS

Good thing you can get his bars here at our local (swish) grocery store.

lala

Miss you by three weeks. Need some advice? I'll email you when I return (before you leave).

Thanks for the info. The store just opened last weekend and I have not been out that way in quite a while. Of course I will have to stop in and sample next time I am in that part of town.

Lalala, you can pave the chocolate trail.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of it once you've tried it.

Anyone who loves chocolate might greatly enjoy the story on chocolate in South America and Dagoba in the Oct. 29 issue of The New Yorker. Unfortunately, it was not online when I last checked. Great article though ...and thanks to a special FTer who gave it to me.

Also, a week or two ago I visited Mikel Cluizel's only US shop in Manhattan and had one of the wine and alcohol pairings. It was really a nice treat. I had about 10 different tastes of chocolate - ranging from milk chocolate, which is really not my preference; through various darks up to the 99 percent. I would have thought the 99 percent inedible, but it worked quite well with the El Tesoro Paradiso Tequila. I got to chose three spirits to taste the chocolates with and opted for the Caol Ila 18-year-old single malt, the Mallo Cuvee Saint-Jacquez 2002 Gewurztraminer and the El Tesoro Paradiso. Great way to spend an hour ...and drop quite a bit of cash, both on the tasting and in the shop.

I'd heard about the "Mo's Bacon Bar" by Vosges in Chowhound, along with Vosges' predilection for sweet/salty/savory chocolate combinations. Being a lover of all things chocolate and all things pig, I found the culprit here in BOS (low-dairy milk chocolate, applewood smoked bacon, alderwood smoked salt).

O M G !

Just heavenly. Innocent slightly milky chocolate with the smoky notes and unctuousness of the bacon, and the salt notes married with all nicely. Try a sip of your favorite brown liquor with this (I suggest a single malt whisky or a smokier gold rum like Mount Gay) for after-dinner bliss.

Next try from Vosges is the white chocolate with kalamata olives...and I saw a dark chocolate with chiles that I'll try after that

Love the one with chilis ... and the kalamata olive bar isn't bad though not an addiction for me...tastes like raisins in white chocolate actually ...

I saw this at the check-out counter at Zabars in NYC. I think it was priced at $4.75

Yeah, the Vosges fire bar is a lot of fun. And Michel Cluizel's
noir infini is one of the most toothsome things I've ever tasted;
El Tesoro sounds like a great combo.