A Trader Joe's employee said the 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate was their best seller. Well, if you like this Belgium chocolate, you don't really like chocolate. Try a comparable SCHARFFEN BERGER and there simply is no comparison.

It is hard to trash chocolate, but this is headed to waste.



Yuck, is the only fitting expression.

When in Las Vegas, stop by the little Bouchon Bakery in the Venetian. The Bouchon Bakery is a Thomas Keller creation (The French Laundry) and when you have sampled the baked goods you will understand why he has such an incredible reputation--not everyone can afford his restaurants. Since we are about chocolate and wine, and you are not going to have wine at a small bakery, let us tell you to have a Bouchon at the bakery. It looks like a chocolate brownie and tastes like one, only perfect. Perfect is not easy. Also, try the Red Velvet cupcake. Red Velvet cakes are really chocolate, so we feel comfortable in making the suggestion, and it is indescribable.

The internet being the beautiful tool it is, we found a recipe if you are not able to find your way to the bakery: Bouchon Bakery Bouchon recipe

In English, a bouchon is a cork, which explains why this brownie is shaped like a cork.

It was a really small piece of dark chocolate. Orange Intense is what the packaging read. It was labeled appropriately.

As one who finds Lindt chocolates to be so-so at times, I was surprised by this perfect little piece of chocolate orange delight. This was the best orange flavored chocolate I have ever encountered. Yes, my experience with orange infused dark chocolate is limited, but this tiny piece of perfection hit the spot.

Surprises are not always welcome, but the wonderful ones that caress the taste buds are a gift.

Yes, the purpose is to grab the attention of the impulse buyer when checking out but when you are a chocolate lover who has a weakness for mint flavored anything, what can you do but obey?

Ghirardelli had an Intense Dark Mint Bliss (60% cacao) offering and Lindt had an Excellence Intense Mint Dark Extra Fine (% cocoa?). The Ghirardelli tasted chocolaty with a hint of mint. The Lindt tasted minty with a hint of not so dark chocolate.

Ghirardelli wins this one because the chocolate was better, but there is no doubt a better mint chocolate exists. The hunting continues... Maybe an Andes...

To speak for all chocolate lovers, there is something you should know if you are going to give chocolate as a gift: Do not waste time giving a chocolate lover cheap chocolate.

A true chocolate lover is not too interested in a Hershey's Kiss, or a Hershey's Bar or most any other standard chocolate fare consumed by the masses. A chocolate lover love's quality chocolate, something a bit refined--Scharffen Berger, for example.

Yes, we know Scharffen Berger is owned by Hershey's--perhaps it is there way of atoning for the rest of that stuff they make and call chocolate.

So, if you are going to give a gift of chocolate to a chocolate lover, make sure it is quality chocolate. If not, just send a card.

If you receive the cheap chocolate as a gift, say thank you and give it to charity--it is not worth the insult to your refined senses.

If you like chocolate, you most likely love truffles, and if you love truffles, you have to go to San Francisco.

San Francisco is the home of XOX Truffles, who make the best truffles, period.

A little experiment was conducted. Two chocoholics go to XOX Truffles and have the truffles of their lives, which are the dark chocolate, lemon and raspberry. "They could not have been that good," they say to each other, and spend the rest of the afternoon eating other truffles. Hands down, all other truffles are droppings when you have had XOX Truffles, though the quest for something as good better continues.

Go to XOX Truffles, or you can try ordering them on-line.