Not too long ago I was a bittersweet chocolate snob. I would only eat
chocolate bars with a very high percentage of cacao, the higher the
better. But I've discovered some milk chocolate recently that I really
love. If you only eat high percentage cacao, I urge you to try some of
the more exquisite milk chocolates on the market. They may surprise
you. They certainly surprised me.
Milk chocolate has milk
powder or condensed milk as an ingredient and generally has much lower
percentages of cacao. Having tasted lots of chocolate, I am still very
fussy about what I like and what I don't like. Regardless of the cacao
content, good chocolate has to have clean flavors, it can't be too
sweet, too salty or overwhelmed by flavorings such as vanilla. It
should melt smoothly without a hint of graininess. It should be so good
that even a little bit satisfies.
When it comes to milk chocolate, I highly recommend each of these bars:
Scharffen Berger Milk Almond
Sea Salted Almonds & Milk Chocolate
41% cacao, 3. ounces $4.95
If
you like nuts with your chocolate, this is the bar for you. It's
perfectly balanced with just a little crunch of nuts, not big chunks.
The salt is barely perceptible, which is to my liking. If offers
luscious caramel notes and is rich and creamy.
This bar feels most like an everyday bar. It's like a Hershey bar with almonds, but all grown up and way, way more satisfying.
Scharffen
Berger is now owned by Hershey and unfortunately I have no idea where
the cacao beans come from. Scharffen Berger has always promoted the
idea of blends rather than single origin bars, though they do sometimes
put out limited edition bars from time to time that are single origin.
Valrhona Tanariva
33% cacao, 2.5 ounces, $5.99
The
Tanariva proves even a bar with very low cacao content can be rich and
complex. It is very smooth, like all Valrhona chocolate, but also has
some acid to it and so it doesn't seem terribly sweet, just milky,
creamy and with a bit of citrus as well. Valrhona uses exceptionally
high quality beans, in this case they are from Madagascar.
Don't
compare this with a dark chocolate bar, just enjoy it for what it is. I
think it may be the best bar with only 33% cacao. It has a lot going
on.
The bar comes in an innovative form, with asymmetrical
breaking lines intended to make it easier to break and share. I am
finding the Valrhona "tasting" bars available in more and more shops
these days.
Original Beans Esmeraldas Milk Bar with Fleur de Sel
42% cacao,3.57 ounces, $11.95
This
bar is an indulgence. It is perfectly suited for gift giving but you
might just want to be the recipient. I don't detect any salt at all,
just heightened chocolate intensity. It has lots of dark toffee notes,
a lovely buttery texture and flavor. It has an extremely long finish
and amazing depth. It's conched for 50 hours, from Arriba beans that
come from Ecuador (interestingly I tried another Arriba bar from
another manufacturer and I didn't like it at all).
The
founders of Original Beans are committed to sustainability and each bar
carries a tracking number so you can learn more about the conservation
efforts at the rainforest where the beans for your bar originated. The
price is higher than most bars, but for every bar your buy the company
plants a tree in the region of the bean's origin to replenish and
protect the areas where the cacao beans grow. It's also a much bigger
bar than the others.
Amy Sherman is a San Francisco–based writer, recipe developer, restaurant reviewer and all around culinary enthusiast. She blogs for Epicurious , Bay Area Bites and Cooking with Amy .