I was in the natural foods store last week, buying a load of oatmeal, when I noticed some chocolate sitting near the register.
Upon asking the owner about them, I noted that his pupils dilated. He got a distinctly mellow look on his face. He pointed out that there were versions with less cocoa content, but he recommended the 70% and 77% cocoa versions. Prescription-strength, so to speak.
I got a few bars. Now I know why his pupils dilated.
It’s really, really good stuff–mellow, smoooooth, and not sugary.
Chocolove . . . dark 70% and extra strong dark 77%. Bliss.
If you’re dieting and restricting your chocolate intake, this might be just the thing for you. It’s very satisfying, so you don’t have to eat a whole pound of it to get high. Just a little square does it.
Out of curiosity I once bought some chocolate in a french supermarket that was 95%!!!
It was revolting! Seriously bitter, not a trace of sweetnes. It had a dry powdery texture. I have heard talk of 98%.
We used it to make “chocolate wine”, sounds strange and it is but worth trying…
I can’t remember the exact quatities but it’s something like this:
empty a bottle of Port into a saucepan,
add half a teaspoon of cornflour, mixed with a little Port,
crumble in 4oz? 100g? of chocolate 80%+ is best.
Sugar if required, if you use 98% chocolate sugar isrequied.
Slowly heat the mixture until the chocolate desolves and serve.
The effect is like being wrapped in a Port dipped chocolate flavoured electric backet ( only without electricution, never dip electrical goods in liquids, even Port)
It’s said to be an eighteenth century recipe.
hey Lamby - does that chocolate have any milk, whey, sodium caseinate, etc. in it? I’m always on the lookout for new chocolate for Nate, and since he’s allergic to milk, we have to be very picky in what we get.
That’s why he gets chocolate chip cookies made with Ghiardelli chips!!!
The big health thing with chocolate is to get the polyphenols in it. To get the good stuff it has to be a minimum 70% real chocolate from cocao. Its surprising when you start looking to find how little that is sold as chocolate has this much real chocolate in it. You are more likely to see this sold as semi-sweet/dark chocolate or as baker’s chocolate, and not as milk chocolate. As you approach higher levels of chocolate, the amount of sweeteners/fillers decreases, and it gets really unpalatable. You wouldn’t want to eat it straight, but use it to prepare your own chocolate perversions.
I keep reading stuff saying how unhealthy milk chocolate is for you versus the dark chocolate, but haven’t found anything definitive. Any references by the better informed appreciated.
If you look at a store such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or any gourmet or health food type food store you should be able to find brands such as Green & Blacks, and others which label the choco %.
Most of those types are dairy free.
We also like a brand called Endangered Species choc. bars, and they come in many varieties–some with milk, some not.
I can’t remember the brand, but one of the natural food lines makes a “milk” chocolate bar which is actually made with rice milk. No dairy, etc.
I think the only time you really have to watch out for casein appearing in “non-dairy” items is in the soy cheeses, where they use casein to make it melty, so it’s really not dairy free.
Mmmm…I absolutely love that stuff. And you’re right, just a little goes a very long way, especially when you eat it while drinking a glass of good red wine
Tragically Izz, either of those things alone (chocolate, red wine) is the makings for me to wake up with a whopping headache–do you think the two together might cancel each other out?
This is interesting. I searched a couple of places for articles about dark chocolate and I learned that not only is dark chocolate better than milk chocolate (which I knew), they advise avoiding drinking milk after eating dark chocolate because the milk interferes with absorption of antioxidants. I didn’t know that - it kinda stinks because I love a glass of milk with my chocolate. Oh well.
Dark Chocolate Is Healthy Chocolate Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate – but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk – is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy’s National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.
“Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate … and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate.”
Translation: Say “Dark, please,” when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don’t even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word “moderate” as you nibble.
Dark chocolate boosts antioxidant levels
Researchers in Scotland and Italy looked at the body’s absorption of an antioxidant found in cocoa, called epicatechin, and a type of flavonoid.
Dark chocolate contains about twice the amount of flavonoids as milk chocolate, so 12 healthy volunteers were given either 100 grams of plain chocolate or 200 grams of milk chocolate. Some were also given 200 ml of milk to drink in the double-blind experiment. The levels of antioxidant in their blood plasma were tested after one, two and four hours.
Maximum benefit
“Those volunteers who had dark chocolate had a 20 per cent increase in antioxidants in their plasma,” says Alan Crozier, one of the team at the University of Glasgow. “But those who had milk chocolate, or milk with their dark chocolate, showed no increase in epicatechin plasma levels,”
Four hours after eating the chocolate, all the volunteers’ blood antioxidant levels had returned to normal. To gain the maximum potential benefits from chocolate, Crozier suggests it may be advisable to refrain from milk products during that period.
I have read that chocolate also binds with the calcium in milk, decreasing the amount of calcium available to the body from milk, so the negative aspects seem to reinforce each other both ways.
Green and Blacks is the dog’s danglies of choc. The plain is superb but the milk is also very good - much more chocolatey and smooth than those cheap Cadburys abominations which are over-sweet, cocoa-flavoured grease in comparison. And Green and Blacks is fair-trade too!
Good choc goes very well with single malt whisky. I don’t give a monkey’s about antioxidants when I’m devouring chocolate - I’ll just have a mug of green tea after the choc and whisky. Let’s live a little!
Mmm… dark chocolate… If it’s not at least 70% cocoa (and Fair Trade) I don’t want it. Between 70% and 90% is good. I once tried 99%, but it was too bitter for casual nibbling. There are lots of good brands out there, but you have to watch out for stores trying to sell outdated, stale stuff.
I like dark and milk chocolate and I can get my calcium another time. Chocolate is too good to worry about. RN just get your antioxidants some other way. If you like to drink milk with your chocolate you should do it! Let’s live a little, like Steve says. I’m not using health reasons for an excuse to eat it! Chocolate is sacred.
Amen to that. As the house-husband around here I have to be able to provide Green and Black’s on demand, point-blank, no argument, at moments of crisis. The fact that I always fill the demand explains why my voice is still low-pitched.
Seriously, I have made a good study of it. As to health effects, migraines were a problem when I hit my late 30s - but a daily dose of feverfew keeps these totally at bay. Haven’t had a migraine in years. I stay away from tea or coffee derived caffeine and my blood pressure stays in the safe range, except when some individuals start checking on me to find out where their flutes are going to be shipped, contacting me on weekend mornings after a hard week of flute mining…
As to Chocolate or Cacao, my favorites are by Michel Cluizel, Santander and Pralus/Claudio Corallo. As to good sources of info, see www.xocoatl.org as well as www.chocosphere.com
Many of the dark chocolates lack preservatives thus their shelf life is pretty short. Combined with this are stores that know nothing about storing this particular item and keep it in the cooler. Instead it should be handled like wine. The result is that many of the artisan chocolates found in grocery store chains are past their prime, if not downright nasty with rancidity.
My favorite bars:
Cesars - a tapas bar on Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley (not a chocolate)
Brut de Sao Tome by Claudio Corallo and marketed by Pralus - search the web for “Claudio Corallo Jurassic Chocolate” for a BBC article on this chocolate
Santander 65% - a Colombian single origin bar that when fresh, tastes just like how brownies smell when fresh out of the oven, but more so. They have a blend they are test marketing that has pieces of fried passion fruit in it - another favorite item. Both flavors use entirely different taste receptors thus you get to savor each separately yet simultaneously.
Cluizel 99% - this is almost pure Cacao mass. One friend called this the Neutron Star of chocolates, with enough density to warp gravity around it. A small amount goes a long way. My wife Nancy had some once at 3 AM on a long road trip - by 4 AM she had the kitchen remodel all planned in her head. This should be classified as a controlled substance.
Cluizel 60-85% blends and single origins. Chocosphere carries their entire line.
For those in the Seattle area, the Elevated Ice Cream shop in Port Townsend carries an excellent (and well stored) selection of these.
Ooooo! Feverfew! Mmmmmm! Tell us more! How much, exactly? And what brand?
. . . drooling over the descriptions of that chocolate . . .
Have I mentioned what delightful flutes those are? That boxwood you made for me is the most delicious thing. It doesn’t “play,” exactly. It’s more like the sound blooms out of it, with the most wonderful textures and exquisite colors . . .
RN just get your antioxidants some other way. If you like to drink milk with your chocolate you should do it! Let’s live a little, like Steve says. I’m not using health reasons for an excuse to eat it! Chocolate is sacred.