chocolate. Chocolate. CHOCOLATE!!!

[Bruce Wayne]

We have a thread on chocolate covered bacon, a Golden Era chocolate factory, & chocolate & whiskey. Yet we do not have a Chocoholics Anonymous thread. So I decieded to start one. I am planning on making this three minute brownie tomorrow to see if it is any good.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

My old man & I have been working on one of these for a while.

http://www.heavychocolate.com/index.asp

 

[Chainsaw]

10 pounds of chocalate?

Aw man! That is too good. Bruce buddy, how big is the carton of milk that goes with it?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Aw man! That is too good. Bruce buddy, how big is the carton of milk that goes with it?

Imagine a 55 gallon drum & you are close. lol

 

[Chainsaw]

Too bad it wasn't swish.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Wow! That's some chocolate bar. Very tempted right now to order a gourmet dark. Would make a great Christmas gift also.

 

[HepKitty]

wow that's quite the chocolate bar. I gotta admit though my favorite brand is Alpia and it's nowhere to be found here in Idaho. can get Rittersport and sometimes Milka which are good but alpia is the best. when I was in Germany in the summer they had these awesome filled bars, like peppermint, lemon, coffee... all to die for of course. ohoh and don't forget it's a museum, and I went there when I lived in Koeln

http://www.schokoladenmuseum.de/

de-lish!


btw how was the brownie in a mug?

 

[Diamondback]

Oh, great... teasing someone who mainlines caffeine with talk about chocolate...

STEP AWAY FROM THE GOOD STUFF AND NOBODY GETS HURT! Especially since I was prevented from getting my Ghirardelli fix in Vegas at Christmas... and the foul mood has been noticeable ever since.

 

[Tomasso]

I was prevented from getting my Ghirardelli fix in Vegas at Christmas...

My neighborhood Ghirardelli shop gives free samples of one of their products EVERY day. :essen:

 

[LordBest]

I might have to try that three minute brownie. Tomorrow.
I agree there is a dearth of chocolate orientated discussion on the Lounge, though I posted this a while back about one of Australia's premiere Golden Era chocolatiers, Ernest Hillier:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=46979

 

[Puzzicato]

In the slightly unlikely surroundings of Kingsgrove, in Sydney, there is an amazing chocolatier who has what she calls a salon de thé - if you go, try the cointreau caramel, the English Country Garden and if possible a slice of the rose & raspberry cake.

 

[AmateisGal]

Ah....chocolate. I cannot go a single day without it. My favorite is Dove Dark.

 

[Fletch]

What is the "golden era approach" to chocolate?

I'm thinking it was a rather subtle flavor in most people's lives - that there were few chocoholics, because the opportunity to become one wasn't there.

Most Americans, anyway, had never had dark chocolate until 1939, when Hershey's began popularizing Toll House Cookies.

Some big band musician wrote about "living on fried chicken and Hershey bars" on the road, so they weren't a great luxury at 5c, but they would have been the one big choco-rush available.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Baker's Baking Chocolate, eaten straight out of the box. Now *that's* chocolate.

As for Golden Era chocolate, pretty much all of the classic candy-bar brands were in place by the turn of the thirties, and it was also common for bars to be devoted to popular celebrities of the moment. Lindbergh had his own candy bar, as did Amos and Andy (the latter being a vanilla wafer covered in chocolate. Ha ha.)

"Gourmet" chocolate wasn't something average person knew much about, but there were plenty of regional brands of fancy chocolates aside from the common Brach's and Whitman's and Russell Stover stuff. New Englanders swore by Lowney's -- if your fella gave you any other brand for Valentines' day, he was a piker.

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

My favorite candy maker is Sees, which seems to be prevalent in the western half of the US, unless you find it in an airport kiosk. I grew up on their chocolates (primarily the milk or dark chocolate bordeaux - has a sort of maple brown sugar filling to it), and these days get a few when I make journies out west.

I like hersheys milk chocolate as part of a smore (yum), but a few work buddies had introduced me to their dark chocolate line several years ago (squares, as well as sticks). I already enjoyed dark chocolate, but loved the varieties with dried fruits and nuts (cranberry and macadamia ). I happened upon a brand at Whole Foods whose name I unfortunately do not remember, but they have a variety of dark chocolates (60% cacao and up) with ingredients mixed in that add a surprising kick (ground chili peppers, chicory coffee, etc).

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

My neighborhood Ghirardelli shop gives free samples of one of their products EVERY day. :essen:

Same here...got one in the Downtown Disney area. Love the samples.

 

[Tomasso]

During the Golden Era in America......

.....There were plenty of Mom and Pop candy makers that specialized in European style chocolates. They were generally located in major urban centers where there were large concentrations of European immigrants. Not as prevalent as bakeries, delis, butchers, etc..... but they were around. When I was growing up in the 60s/70s my folks would lament their closings. Here's the lone survivor from Chicago's north side, where back in the day there were more than a half dozen.

 

[Diamondback]

In the Seattle area, Boehm's in Issaquah is pretty good as an illustration of the mom-n-pop/family-op.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

As for Golden Era chocolate, pretty much all of the classic candy-bar brands were in place by the turn of the thirties, and it was also common for bars to be devoted to popular celebrities of the moment. Lindbergh had his own candy bar, as did Amos and Andy (the latter being a vanilla wafer covered in chocolate. Ha ha.)

You just made me think of a candy/chocolate bar from the mid 90's called the Andretti bar. I don't remember what was in it, but I remember that I enjoyed it.

 

[Smithy]

I've got a soft spot for Norwegian Freia Melke Sjokolade, NZ Whittakers Hazelnut Slabs, those Lindor thingies in the red box, and Lindt dark chocolate.