Hard core ch0c

[dianeduane]

Ran across this in passing this morning: a review of the wonderful Lindt 99% "Noirissime" chocolate.

I had a bar of this stuff with me at Anthrocon last year (waves at Sam!), where almost all of those who tasted it pronounced it "Ewwww". I love it, though: perhaps it's just an acquired taste. Definitely, there's no sugar to get in the way. It's like the apotheosis of baking chocolate (though I doubt you'd ever really want to use it for that: a case of the ingredient being, not just too expensive for the purpose, but actively inappropriate for it -- like using good cheese in a Philly cheesesteak).

Apparently it's hard to find in the US? Pity. (I think I got mine at the inestimable Sheridan's Cheesemongers up in Dublin (they also carry Valrhona and other great chocolate names). But our little local SuperValu supermarket also carries the Lindt Noirissime, along with the 85% and various other less exciting stuff.)

(BTW, other reviews of the 99% here at over here at TheNibble.com and seventypercent.com)

Comments

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

i presume you've tried Green & Blacks?

thoughts on Lindt vs G&B?

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

We recently had cause to discover that G&B dark choc variants win out over Lindt equivalents simply by the lack of any dairy at all in the former.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

A few years back, when we still lived in London, I discovered a shop in/near the Bond St tube station that sold a 99% cocoa chocolate bar - can't for the life of me remember the brand, which suggests that it was not a well known name. Lovely stuff. Just letting a small square melt on your tongue... mmmmm....
I introduced my seriously chocaholic niece (age 7) to 91% cocoa chocolate recently, expecting her to go *ewwww*, but she loved it :)

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

It's definitely not to everyone's taste. I liked it but only if I had a tiny sliver; anything larger provoked the "I should like this but I don't" expression.

[zenfrodo.livejournal.com]

I've run across the Lindt 87% bar here in the States, and loved it, though I'm the odd one of my friends for liking such high cacao content. For me, anything under 70% is just not worth it!

You might also want to check out El Rey's Gran Saman chocolate...pure heaven. I'm also partial to Dagoba's Xocatl (dark chocolate with chili spice), though I think they've changed their recipe since Hershey bought them out.

[silent-claws.livejournal.com]

Difficult to find? I'm in Appleton, WI and it's (as well as the 85% and 70%) carried in our local Woodmans, a co-op grocery. >.>

[kellan_the_tabby]

Wow. Highest I've ever eaten in in the 85% range...I'd be willing to try the 99%, but Lord, it might be a little much...

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

Wal-Mart here in MO carries it :D

Tried it, not to my taste but DH enjoys!

[ericcoleman]

I'll have to check, but Target generally has a wide range of Lindt in their candy section

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've only had up to 85% too. I'm eager to try 99% if I can find some, though. I wonder how such a high chocolate percentage would affect the texture, as well as the taste. Physics Today had an article on the science of chocolate-making last year and it discussed how the mouth-feel of chocolate is affected by the properties of the emulsion. They say that the quality of the chocolate goes up as the particle size gets smaller, but they don't mention cacao content directly.

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

*duplicates what other people have been saying*

I've been seeing the higher percentage Lindt bars for the past couple years stateside, and indulging as often as I can. They're lovely, and very much worth the extra price.

[drplokta]

99% is for wimps. Go to Hotel Chocolat here and get a bar of the 100%.

[black13.livejournal.com]

I need to get this for my wife. She's always looking for snacks that have no sugar in it. This would be right up her proverbial alley.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

U.K. chocolate is generally hard to find Over Here. My wife says it's a shame because it's better, having few or none of the agents they add here to prevent it from melting so readily.

And that's from a place only a couple hours from Hershey, Pa., by the way.

[genmaicha.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've had Dagoba's 87% and Endangered Species' 88%, but usually I prefer my dark chocolate in the 50-75% range. I'll have to keep an eye out for this, though, as my roommate is a fiend for Really Dark Chocolate.

[tysolna]

If you're not only into that extra chocolaty goodness but also into strange flavours (very dark with salt, or chili, or pepper, orange or lemon, cinnamon, ginger...) I can recommend a shop in my city, Leysieffer. Excellent stuff...

[ashlupa.livejournal.com]

It's still a bit difficult, although the 85 is almost household and assorted low-90s are easy to find in other brands. What we do have in abundance is Scharffen-Berger 99...

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I love dark chocolate, but there are limits -- and my limit is about 72%. Over that, and you start getting into the "baking chocolate" range, not "eating chocolate".

60% to 72%, though... there's nothing better.

[moonreviews]

I found 99% chocolate in Japan. They just have it in supermarkets there. This is the picture: http://vet.bigbig.com/Selene/Japan/images/eten/meiji-cacao-99.jpg (brand = Meiji) .
I still have 1 bar left -- I want to eat it on a special occasion or find a nice recipe I can use it for, but so far I haven't come across one yet...

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

I'm the same. I like dark chocolate, but not "black" chocolate. And sometimes my taste actually runs more to milk.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

My husband's discovered that those are great eaten with craisins.

[feorag.livejournal.com]

We too have some of the Japanese 99% chocolate mentioned above. Do you want us to obtain a bar to bring to you next time we are at the same convention?

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Oh dear god. A square of 85% has me buzzing all day. This stuff would make me accelerate like Captain Kirk in that episode where the buzzing girl slipped something into his coffee.

[spotweld.livejournal.com]

I'll look around, but I'd swear I've seen that around some of the shops here in CT. Worst case there is a Lindt outlet store at one of the malls I know of.

[azurelunatic]

I've found some nice 99% chocolates at local Japanese markets. I advise my friends that it's "prescription-strength" chocolate, and this makes them proceed with some caution...

[azurelunatic]

Aha! That's the brand I've been finding in Japanese markets in the US. Very good stuff.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

"Wink of an Eye."

That was from memory. If I'd looked it up, I could also tell you the episode number. :)

[zenfrodo.livejournal.com]

wait...rereading your post..."Valrhona" is a REAL BRAND??

The chocolate that stopped an alien terrorist attack is REAL??

Jeebus, you could at least make that mention in the book intro notes!!

*trots off to hunt some down*

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Huh? Oh, yeah, absolutely. :) It was the Caraïbe, wasn't it? Right over here. (http://www.valrhona.com/fr/gpublic/chacchoc/gout/caraibe/caraibe.php3?vlang=A)

[(Anonymous)]

WAAAAH!! No outlets in the US!! WAAAH!!! :weeps:

...and I sense a subplot in the next Wizards book: "Carmela: Intergalactic Chocolate Pusher".

[dduane.livejournal.com]

I think there's a line somewhere in WAW where Kit *is* concerned that the interstellar authorities are going to descend on his sister and cart her off for cocoa-pushing. (I *think*. Maybe it's in AWoM.) Fortunately I suspect she's not extraditable at this point; and the Crossings people, far from having pressed charges of any kind, have dumped a wheelbarrrowfull of shopping vouchers on her head.

...No US outlets at all? Wow. None in Canada?

[zenfrodo.livejournal.com]

Nothing on this side of the ocean. :weeps:

...um...you know...you COULD have a potentially profitable side-business here, yourself...

I don't have the books in front of me (since I'm being sneaky at work :D), but I think it is in AWoM; I don't think Kit was told the details of Carmela & the Crossings Terrorists in WAW, only that she blew six-kinds-of-crap out of them.

[zenfrodo.livejournal.com]

Dagoba's 87% (Eclipse) is a treat, though I hate the Endangered Species brand. Be on the lookout for a brand called El Rey (I found 'em at Whole Foods); their Gran Saman is to DIE for, and has many many happy orgasmic twitches in each bar.

[savageknight.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed reading those reviews! :) I often pick up the 85% one (it's made my stocking stuffer list many times!) but never the 99%. Lucky for me, these bars are readily available at my local grocer (5 minutes away!) so whenever the mood strikes...! :)

Thus it did last night. 99% bars are in the house and ready for consumption! ;)