State Of The Chocolate – 2011

So this blog is coming up to its second birthday and I was wondering what the state of the chocolate reviews were, what I’ve reviewed most of and if there’s anything I should be doing differently? Whilst playing around with the data I thought you’ll like to see how the reviews are skewed towards the big brands which generate a spot of income and give your thoughts about which brands I should be putting more emphasis on in the future. If you have any recommendations, please email me or just a just leave a comment below (it’s a fair way down there!).

The thing is, it’s all well and good, me doing reviews of an endless stream of obscure dark chocolate bars that you can’t get in this country if people actually want to read about all sorts of chocolates from great chocolatiers that you can either buy in store here or can easily buy online. So what do you want to read about? What should I be spending money to buy? And if you’re interested, I’ve spent nearly £1,400 on buying chocolate to review over these past two years (and am 2 stone heavier for it)! Do you think I eat enough chocolate?

- By Brand -

Well it seems that just over 20% of the reviews that I’ve done are ones that contribute to the upkeep of this blog and pays for the chocolate that I don’t get free. I actually thought it was much larger. The third most reviewed brand – Artisan du Chocolat have never given free chocolate to review, but I still love what they do and try and keep a steady flow of their reviews as they do some really interesting stuff.

Zotter themselves and Chocolate Cafe have been as generous as they are friendly, I’ve bought some and they’ve given me, but again, I’d love to keep buying more, but Paul keeps giving me stuff to review (I’ll work out when his days off are and sneak in and buy some stuff).

- By Country -

This data isn’t as accurate as I’d like. I’ve still got loads of double checking here. I stupidly included countries where I’ve bought chocolate from and where it’s made as well as where the cacao originates. But you can tell that France doesn’t actually grow cacao, but that’s where I’ve bought a load of bars from, as well as Belgium. Venezuela is ranked high as I love Chuao and Porcelana and feel the finest cacao is grown here (in most cases), although I’ve tried some awesome Bolivian chocolate and the Ben Tre from Vietnam was similarly fantastic.

What I’d suggest is that people don’t be prejudiced about the origin of chocolate, just try it and see what you like. If you find chocolate that you don’t like then you’ve increased your knowledge, but don’t prejudge other chocolate bars from the same country of origin.

- Dark Chocolate Reviews -

As a child I was always told that the darker the chocolate or the higher the cacao content if you want to be accurate, the better the chocolate will be. Well I’ve tried the 99% Noir Infini from Michel Cluziel and I didn’t like it – it was far too bitter for my liking. Over time, I’ve bought more and more dark chocolate around the 70% to 75% level and I just feel this is my mark. The 85% Amatller Ecuador was lovely, as well as the Divine 85%.

In terms of my favourite brands, It seems that Paul A. Young and Pralus are the two brands with the most top scores whilst Amano, Pierre Hermé, Chapon, Friis Holm and Geert Vercruysse do well. The brands I seemingly don’t like are Prestat, Schmerlings, Nestle, Caderel, Sainsbury’s and Orion.

- By Flavour -

It’s pretty obvious that I love chilli chocolate, but what’s shocked me is the number of caramel reviews I’ve done. When I first started reviewing chocolate I couldn’t stand caramel chocolate, but over time I’ve come to love it.

Also I can see that I’ve also gone out to try a great number of citrus chocolate, which I generally love. Apart from the Lindt Tarte Citron Meringue which was naff.

- By Rating -

Quite often I think that I over score chocolate, but although the vast majority are rated over 50%, I do produce negative reviews too. In general, most of what I review, and buy can be seen as being very good. Interestingly 5 of the 11 chocolate creations that are rating in the top category I’ve bought myself – there others were kindly sent for review.

Is there any bias? Well, I’d probably say there is. I wouldn’t buy naff chocolate as much as chocolate I expect to love and people wouldn’t normally send chocolate that they’d expect me to rate poorly.

- By Type -

I definitely have a preference for chocolate with nearly two-thirds of the bars I’ve reviewed being of that type and only reviewed 22 chocolate creations that were white chocolate. I’ve got a few in my stash to review, but I generally can’t bring myself to buy it when more often than not, I just won’t like it.

- Overview -

The burning question for me has always been whether or not I should review more mass-market chocolate or keep mainly to fine chocolate? There’s more traffic in the Cadbury and Nestle stuff, but, to be honest, I’m not going to subject my body to endless steams of rubbish chocolate just to increase the number of visitors here. I love fine chocolate, and I think I’ll concentrate on that. Would you agree?

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