I found a Dove Organic Dark Chocolate bar with Spices about 2 months ago. The problem is I can no longer find it. It was WONDERFUL. It was very smooth and had a bit of a hot pepper spice to it. I have emailed Dove asking where I could get it.
I'm new to this site,& I have been reading your comments and would love to try some of the other dark chocolates, but I do not know where to find them as I have never heard of them. I live in Jacksonville Florida, anyone know where I would find any of the good chocolates here?

I have never tasted such rubbish as Hersheys & all the other Waxxy bars that are made in the US. I don't each much, but when I do it's Cadbury's. It seems the problem for years has been that there was never much of a selection & these company's could feed you junk. As you had nothing to compare it to, you didn't know. Same goes for the some of the tasteless beers that's on the shelf.

Gee I figured out the #1 just by going down to the Walgreens and looking at the ingredients and whatnot on the package of all the dark chocolate candies. I need to go work at CR.

@infinitysnake:

No, it's because hershey's has consistently put out a nasty, bitter, gritty, inedible chocolate bar.

Case-in-point. I'd love to see a blind taste test.

I love dark chocolate. The darker the better. Puts milk chocolate to shame.

nice timing,while checking out the conumerist just now, i was eating a couple of pieces of the ghirardelli intense dark.....it rated low according to cr....maybe the tester's tastebuds are shot, 'cause it tasted fine to me.....

They really oughta play the "All Natural" marketing card…

What's not to love about high quality chocolate with a love poem under the wrapper?

I especially love their dark chocolate with ginger and dark chocolate with cherries and chilies.

American chocolate as a whole, though. Generally not good. Some good stuff about though.

Bleh, screw Hershey's. The 65% they're so in love with has milk and milk fat. Not to be a chocolate snob but I really don't consider anything with milk in it to be dark chocolate. I like my chocolate a little bitter and not so sweet. Lindt 85% is my favorite by far.

The products reviewed are mass produced and not very special. My particular favorite is "Golden Tree Kingsbite" produced in Ghana. It's such a pure chocolate that you could let it sit in the sun and it will not melt.

Vosges bars are pretty good. a. korkunov chocolate bars are good. Valrhona are good too. I think some of it boils down to personal tastes. But Hersheys?
How much did they pay CR for the hat tip?

I also agree- Endangered Species is excellent.

An example: I was going to buy a sports car and they evaluated sports cars and downgraded them if they didn't have a back seat. What? Who needs a back seat in a sports car? It was big downgrade, too. The car got high ratings in almost every other category and yet was rated almost last because it didn't have a back seat.

@Troy F.: No, it's because hershey's has consistently put out a nasty, bitter, gritty, inedible chocolate bar.

IMHO,Green and Blacks dark chocolate is the best.

bookmarked for later though :)

Horses for courses

Lake Champlain makes, without question, the best chocolate in the US. Close second is Cocoa Bella. Lake Champlain is available at Whole Foods. I also recommend their 5-star bars. And for all your chocolate (and candy) reading I urge you to read "Candy Freak" by Steve Almond. He goes on a chocolate and candy tour of confectionary Americana. Valo-milk, Goo goo, Spudbars, etc.

@munlawin: Willpower. Sheer, unadulterated willpower.

I break off a "row" of chocolate at a time, which comes in three chunks. The first chunk gets devoured. The second one, I savor, letting it melt on my tongue. The third, I do a combination of the two, savoring it until I MUST bite.

Then, for a few hours, I savor the taste of chocolate still clinging to my mouth (and that stuff clings for HOURS). When I first start craving more, I drink water to stop reminding myself of it, then I snack on something else, preferably healthy. Or I go eat lunch or dinner or whatever.

Only once I can't stand it anymore do I repeat this process.

Done properly, it lasts me about 18 hours.

Purely politics, I know, and chocolate in general is one of the most problematic agricultural products on earth in terms of treatment of labor and the environment, regardless of producer. ... Sorry, I... think about this stuff a lot...

As with a lot of other things, I think the chocolate "afficionados" convince themselves that a commonly available brand like Hershey's is just too pedestrian to possibly be any good at all, let alone comparable to "designer" chocolate.

Valrhona is typically higher-end and very reliable, but so far Amedei from Tuscany is the most astonishing dark chocolate I've ever tasted. Theo, out of Seattle, is a very close second, and much of their stuff is organic and/or fair trade, not to mention free of the usual spate of additives like lecithin and vanilla. Very purist. Bonnat from France is also a winning high-end, additive-free producer.

If you're curious about varietal and hard-to-find chocolate bars, check out Chocosphere.

@marike: For me, it's the gritty texture. Hershey's chocolate always has this texture that reminds me of chewing on sand. It's not evocative of a smooth, repeatable chocolate experience.

I used to hate dark chocolate as a kid. Then one day, 10 years later, I couldn't stand milk chocolate and dark chocolate suddenly tasted soooo good. The only milk chocolate I'll eat is Lindt and it has to be in one of those yummy chocolate balls with the ooooh so yumminess in the center...stick it in the fridge and let it melt in your mouth on a summer day...sooo goooooddddd.

I'm an Endangered Species/Dagoba/Chocolove fan. Actually, the only dark chocolate I don't care for is Hershey's dark chocolates - it's got a peculiar taste that I don't find appealing and only Hershey's dark chocolate has it. Starbucks' dark chocolate isn't bad either, surprisingly, or maybe I was just hungry the day I ate it.

Hershey's? Really? I've tried the Cacao Reserve. MEH. waxy and gritty.

The best chocolate I've ever tasted is the Endangered Species Black Panther bar. It's a sometime treat, and I stretch out that one bar over DAYS, if I can.

That website rates it as "mediocre." Now I have a bunch of hard-to-find chocolate on my "to-try" list.

Joy.

Dark chocolate is nasty and bitter. Give my paltry american pallette milk chocolate anyday.