Recommendations for chocolate in the US?

originally posted by Jay Miller:
I'm just obsessing because I haven't had a bagel for 8 months and have about another 1 year 4 months before my braces come off and I'm allowed to have one again.

Wow. I can see how that would get to you.

I love bagels but the good ones are so few and far between that I don't obsess over them. However, if I had to wait 2 years inbetween bites, that would be a different story!
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
I'm just obsessing because I haven't had a bagel for 8 months and have about another 1 year 4 months before my braces come off and I'm allowed to have one again.

Wow. I can see how that would get to you.

I love bagels but the good ones are so few and far between that I don't obsess over them. However, if I had to wait 2 years inbetween bites, that would be a different story!

I don't know of a really good source for bagels in Manhattan - which has probably been beneficial for my waistline. I have a supplier in Airmont that I relied on for my fix.
 
Great coffee (rare) can be wine-like in its complexity of flavor. The Kenya they occasionally serve at Kaffe 1668 comes to mind. I'm told African coffees in general fall into that category most often. But I'm far from an expert.

As with wine, many of those slinging have a preference for higher acid.
 
originally posted by John McIlwain:
If in NYCKee's on Thompson Street. Hand-tempered, filled with lovely fresh flavorings. I don't generally care for chocolate, but these are really beautiful.


Best, John

You're right, their chocolate is really good. Unfortunately due to the Valentines Day demand for chocolate they haven't prepared any macarons recently so I didn't get to try them.

On the other hand I stopped in at the Payard on W. Houston and their coffee macaron is just as good as I remember it and much more conveniently located. They only carry the large size nowadays unfortunately.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by John McIlwain:
If in NYCKee's on Thompson Street. Hand-tempered, filled with lovely fresh flavorings. I don't generally care for chocolate, but these are really beautiful.


Best, John

You're right, their chocolate is really good. Unfortunately due to the Valentines Day demand for chocolate they haven't prepared any macarons recently so I didn't get to try them.

On the other hand I stopped in at the Payard on W. Houston and their coffee macaron is just as good as I remember it and much more conveniently located. They only carry the large size nowadays unfortunately.
Glad you enjoyed them. Any woman who makes chocolates that good AND grows orchids can only be admired.
 
originally posted by JSchwartze:
Say No To MegaHipstersDon't give money to the cartoonish Mast Brothers. Their prices are beyond insane ($92 for ten 2.5 ounce bars, delivered. SAY WHAT?) and they look like hipsters on steroids, or maybe acid. Probably peyote since it's natural, but not really local, which torments them. Google some pictures of them and ask yourself if you want to help underwrite their wardrobes.

Hmmm: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/mast-brothers-chocolate-scandal
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
originally posted by JSchwartze:
Say No To MegaHipstersDon't give money to the cartoonish Mast Brothers. Their prices are beyond insane ($92 for ten 2.5 ounce bars, delivered. SAY WHAT?) and they look like hipsters on steroids, or maybe acid. Probably peyote since it's natural, but not really local, which torments them. Google some pictures of them and ask yourself if you want to help underwrite their wardrobes.

Hmmm: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/mast-brothers-chocolate-scandal

The 4-part investigative story (referenced in the vanity fair article) at dallasfood.org is quite an interesting read.
 
originally posted by mark e:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
originally posted by JSchwartze:
Say No To MegaHipstersDon't give money to the cartoonish Mast Brothers. Their prices are beyond insane ($92 for ten 2.5 ounce bars, delivered. SAY WHAT?) and they look like hipsters on steroids, or maybe acid. Probably peyote since it's natural, but not really local, which torments them. Google some pictures of them and ask yourself if you want to help underwrite their wardrobes.

Hmmm: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/mast-brothers-chocolate-scandal

The 4-part investigative story (referenced in the vanity fair article) at dallasfood.org is quite an interesting read.

The dallasfood stuff is really good.
 
Wow. Crazy stuff about Mast Brothers. Almost enough to make one lose faith.

I love chocolate and love to try new brands. But somehow never got around to them (mainly because of superficial reasons related to their packaging).
 
It happens all the time - coffee roasters outsourcing their roasting, merchants repackaging teas, craft brewers using cocktails of hop pellets, enzymes and spoofy yeasts. Maybe not on the Rudy end of the spectrum but it's a downhill (i.e. easy), lucrative slide from marketing-driven product to plain fraud. Of course it helps that most 'professionals' won't be able to tell the difference in a blind tasting. That's just the way the 'artisan' food movement is, aided and abetted by an entire generation disconnected from food production.

Wine is all that, and worse.

Happy Christmas, y'all.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I like Kee's and I have never liked Mast. I bought one bar and that was more than enough.

Every time I shop there she's like "Ohhhh, this one is broken, I can't sell it, you wanna try it? Really good!"

And damnit, she's usually right. And then I buy more. Savvy business lady who has an entirely justified faith in her product. :)
 
originally posted by Yixin:
It happens all the time - coffee roasters outsourcing their roasting, merchants repackaging teas, craft brewers using cocktails of hop pellets, enzymes and spoofy yeasts. Maybe not on the Rudy end of the spectrum but it's a downhill (i.e. easy), lucrative slide from marketing-driven product to plain fraud. Of course it helps that most 'professionals' won't be able to tell the difference in a blind tasting. That's just the way the 'artisan' food movement is, aided and abetted by an entire generation disconnected from food production.

Wine is all that, and worse.

Happy Christmas, y'all.

Merry Christmas, Pollyanna!
On a serious note, true artisans have always been in the minority, no? Laziness, avarice and/or indifference conspire to reduce the numbers of those who do things purely in the pursuit of quality. 'Twas ever thus, I'm told, hence Sturgeons Law.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Yixin:
It happens all the time - coffee roasters outsourcing their roasting, merchants repackaging teas, craft brewers using cocktails of hop pellets, enzymes and spoofy yeasts. Maybe not on the Rudy end of the spectrum but it's a downhill (i.e. easy), lucrative slide from marketing-driven product to plain fraud. Of course it helps that most 'professionals' won't be able to tell the difference in a blind tasting. That's just the way the 'artisan' food movement is, aided and abetted by an entire generation disconnected from food production.

Wine is all that, and worse.

Happy Christmas, y'all.

There are a lot of over-the-top craft beers being made but using hop pellets isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on style. Also, not sure what you mean by spoofy yeasts in regards to beer. To me, spoof beers would be the basically undrinkable, 14% abv, ultra-hoppy Imperial stouts, double IPAs, and the like, which doesn't really have anything to do with yeast types.
 
Couple of comments on the Mast Brothers:

Slate ran an article back in March that if you read very carefully said essentially the same thing: inferior chocolate, badly made, poorly handled in shipment, nice wrapping though. Mast Chocolate in Slate.

Their claim to be among the first in the US to make bean-to-bar chocolate is completely specious.

There are lots of great bean-2-bar chocolate guys in the US; a short-list of the best would include:
Rogue
Amano
Patric
Arete
Fresco
Dandelion

and I'm sure I forgot a least a dozen, any one of whom makes chocolate that puts the Mast Brothers' products to shame.
 
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