Ah do you have good taste - these are my two favo(u)rite places, and I long to return (it has been a few years now).

May I suggest for your tasting pleasures: Sheer Bliss's Pomegranate with Dark Chocolate Chips. IT COMES IN NEAT METAL CANS-at better food stores.

sheerblissicecream.com

So much for the taste test.....
 

I'm afraid my good intentions for taste comparing the Godiva and Double Rainbow ice cream fell apart in a typically chocoholic sort of way......;) I can't seem to not have some for dessert every night......I've decided the Double Rainbow is very delicious, but I'm not sure the texture is the same as Glacier Ice Cream-I'll just have to get back there to refresh my memory.

Ah well, I'll just have to try the Sheer Bliss (or Godiva) NEXT time...The metal containers are VERY cool looking. After all, Pomegranate is an amazingly healthful fruit. ;)

Earlier in the thread I noticed a post about Lindt Excellence 85% cacao bars. I was amazed to find them and Ritter Sport at Target over the weekend. Yum!

The February 2007 issue of Vogue (U.S. Edition) has an excellent article by Jeffrey Steingarten re: chocolate. Unfortunately, the article does not appear online.
After many taste tests conducted with the co-founder of Scharffen Berger, the author concluded that these were the world's finest:
Eclat Chocolate (liquid caramels)
Enstrom's (almond toffee)
Guido Gobino (Tourinot Ginadujotto)
La Maison du Chcolate
L.A. Burdick
Pralus ("Pyramide" Chocolate Square stack)
Recchiuti (Burgundy Box)
Valerie

I recommend the article for all chocolate lovers. Title of article is "Dark Victory."

A chocolate taste test at another Conde Nast publication:

http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/fe.../tfp_chocolate

This is coming a bit late as I assume Costco only had their Neuhaus chocolates for the holidays, but I just did a side-by-side comparison of the Costco Neuhaus and the regular Neuhaus (thank you lala :) ) - most definitely the same.

My favorite gelato place, Ciao Bello in San Francisco's Ferry Building had three fine chocolate gelatos and I was trying to determine the differences between them, but they were all delicious. There were Scharfenberger, Valrhona, and Nero. I think they got darker as it went. I'd say the Valrhona was the best, but all exquisite.

That is a toughie! I would give the slight edge to the Swiss.

Oh, I absolutely love Sharffen Berger chocolate company in Berkeley. You can take a tour- it smells so good there. The chocolate is divine, too.

The best chocolate
 

The best chocolate I have ever tasted to date is in St. Maarten (dutch side) at a store called The Belgian Chocolate Shop in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten.

Phillipsburg is a major shopping area and the store will typically have a line streaming out of the door. When I was there in November, I just got in line because I wanted chocolate, but after tasting it, I can understand why I was waiting an hour to get it.

They will (apparantly) ship your chocolate to your cruise ship (I wasn't on one) and they do ship to the US. It wasn't cheap, but even my husband who isn't huge on sweets said it was "pretty incredible tasting".

I am partial to lindt. I found a wonderful gelateria in Firenze, Italy right near where they play the football game once a year.

My latest favorite is Knipschildt.

Beautiful packaging envelopes lovely truffles.

$15 for a box of 9 at Whole Foods. They also have boxes of 4.

What attracted me was that they use heavy cream instead of the usual milk powder.

yum. time to go grab some from my stash...

Just discovered just about one of the very best: German-will post exact name and website.

My favorite truffles by far are those from our local chocolatier, Joseph Schmidt. The store is not too far from my office, or at least it is worth the trip. The amaretto is the best in both white and dark chocolate. I have a feeling I'll be going there very soon now.

Please try:

Leysieffer.de
Have one at the Haupbahnhoff in Frankfurt.
They only seem to sell them in their own stores.

Am I the only one ready to contest this?!

For the chocolate quality (known around the world) and price (great value compared to high-end chocolatiers in the US and even neighboring France), I love my trips to BRU. (And as if that weren't enough, I prefer the people and the size of BRU to CDG.)

Don't know if I've posted this before, but Elizabeth was one of our top picks on the trip to BRU last spring (and new to me), and Wittamer was great as always.

I love this stuff...it's so awesome! ^

My latest fav bar ... Vosges Red Fire ... mmmm ... must stop eating this ... :o

Available at cost plus.

The combination of flavors scare me. :p

Me, I'm still a BRU/CDG girl. I did not agree with Steingarten at all. I think that la maison is going downhill and frankly, I'm very much becoming a big fan of Patrick Roger and Jean Charles Rochoux.

I'm really enjoying reading what david lebovitz has to say about chocolate.

After thinking about your excellent points, our problems with BRO ch:
1-It seems to prefer the creamy insides,
2-thus make it less healthy,
3-city is full of ch. sellers who sell very low quality stuff to tourist.

That said, we got some excellent Belgian dark chocolate in Germany.

That is so yummy! :)

I get the stuff at MUC.

Oh, yes, there is indeed some crap chocolate in the tourist shops... I largely took recommendations from people I knew from Belgium and did some experimentation on my own, but I think you can often get a pretty good idea of a shop by looking at it.

Had an incredible chocolate jalapeno ice cream last year at Janus in Tucson...

Tourist trap.

They do have good food (the best in AZ, sort of a southwestern nouvelle French cuisine, and better than you find in Scottsdale for that matter). The restaurant is called Janos and is in the Westin La Paloma (but not affiliated with the hotel though you can charge it to your room). They also have an excellent desert wine selection, many available by the glass, which is rare in US restaurants. Also make a chocolate souffle, but that is average and not exceptional like their jalapeno ice cream (I'd forgotten about that, thanks for reminding me).

That sounds amazing......

It truly was/is. And as number_6 mentioned, the restaurant is on premise at the Westin La Paloma, which sometimes has excellent rates.

So one could combine a mattress run with a chocolate run ;)

...as long as there are no other types of “runs” involved, this sounds good.

Not even a 5K to burn off the chocolate? ;)

They have a super ch place in the main Bahnhoff in Frankfurt.

It's OK. By the standards of this thread it is merely ok, a bit above average but not worth a special trip.

Neuhaus truffles & cream chocolates
Leonidas milk chocolates
Texas snowballs from Puddin' Hill in Greenville, TX
Lindt milk chocolate truffles

for flourless chocolate cake and the best brownies, i suggest the recipes from cooksillustrated.com.

Ohh goodie, I get to talk about chocolate! Finally. Okay, so I also don't consider myself a chocoholic, but I sure love it. The best chocolate I've ever had was at my sister's wedding. They imported these truffles from Italy. each one hand made. They were to die for.You literally felt like you had to be left alone with them, because you couldn't help but moan! They melted in your mouth, they were covered with powdered cocoa, oh man. I can't go on...I want one now.

Glacier still rules....
 

Well, finally got a chance to get back to Boulder for ice cream briefly. Glacier still makes the best truly chocolate-y ice cream I've had. The color alone is shades darker than most brands even dream about. They also have a Valhrona chocolate sorbet and a Schokinag gelato. I know that some chocoholics actually don't even like chocolate ice cream because it really isn't chocolate-y enough, but this one is.

Also, I picked up one of the Costco spring Belgian chocolate assortments a while back and recently got a recall letter from Costco & Gudrun chocolates. Apparently they had a temperature issue with some part of the February order (I think this is why they disappeared from the stores for several weeks.) and had some boxes with sugar bloom, which is of course harmless. My box was just fine, but they offered a return regardless if I'd wanted it.

What's the point of going on and on about how good those chocolates were and you experienced a foodorgasm? I'm practically dripping saliva on my laptop! Please find out the name of those chocolates and where we can get them!!! :)

Extraordinary chockies (as well they might, at E67 a kilo)
yesterday at Borzeix-Besse in Treignac (another one at
Limoges). Extremely smooth darks based on raw materials
bought of Valrhona and then (I'm told) subjected to the
light touch of the local chocolate genius. This weekend
we'll compare with Maison du Chocolat in the big city.

While I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting CDG or BRU (which just means I have that to look forward to!), I can recommend an incredibly rich chocolate dessert at a restaurant. It's a soutnerh/southeastern chain called Don Pablos - mexican texan type food, you know, fajitas and such.

They have a dessert called the chocolate volcano.

Their description: "Nothing can save you from the enticing richness of the chocolate cinnamon cake surrounded by a pool of molten, chocolate butter sauce, topped with premium vanilla bean ice cream"

My description: "orgasm on a plate"

The cinnamon cake and vanilla ice cream cut the sheer richness of the chocolate sauce so that you can stand the intensity of it. Such a wondrous combination. I drool even thinking of it.

It may not be as highbrow as many of those mentioned here, but it is an incredible experience :)

I am on it!!! :)