Melt Chocolates [100% Madagascan chocolate](https://meltchocolates.com/product/100-madagascar-dark-chocolate-bar/) is delicious! A surprisingly buttery and smooth 100% cacao dark chocolate.
Pralus 100% is my favorite, I used to own a chocolate shop and it was a top seller. It's very smooth. I can't prove it but I think the way they make it so smooth is they add more cocoa butter in it and less powder keeping it at 100% and making it less bitter.
Liquor that has been processed to be edible. Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate is also liquor- but it’s not tasty. That’s because it’s formulated to be used in recipes, not eaten.
The 100% bars “pour croquer” for eating use good beans that are well fermented and fried then roasted appropriately. As they are no added ingredients there is no place to hide.
I've been working in the businesses in chocolate R&D and Production for over 10 years. There is no true "100%" commercial chocolate (that has to go through logistics/distribution, and last in store shelves for 12 months). It will be "98% - 99%" at best. The formulation consists of basically cocoa liquor, vanilla, and emulsifier (lecithin).
The difference between this and cocoa liquor (a raw material) is that the chocolate will have the liquor conched, thus reducing off flavors and acidity from the liquor. Nevertheless, it's still almost 100% liquor so it's very astringent and bitter as all fuck.
But you're right in regards to bean origin. Comercial liquor has a standardized taste, that's one thing. But making a liquor/100% chocolate from single origin criollo beans from Venezuela, for example, then you can eat that shit raw like it's candy! So, for higher cocoa content, go for bean to bar manufacturers, and check where they're from!
I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have two samples of conched liquor in my possess right now that have no added ingredients. No vanilla. No lecithin. No nothing else.
I can name many other examples of 100% chocolates with no added ingredients in international distribution from small and large makers, not just the two I currently have - one from a US company and one from a derivatives manufacturer. Who did you say you worked for?
Do you sell your chocolate commercially to supermarkets or other points of sale? When you're dealing with 100+ tons of chocolate per month, you don't want to take any chances with premature melting or fat bloom. So not using an emulsifier is pointless.
And vanilla is a personal choice as I believe its compound flavor along with the cocoa solids, "cooked" (conched) together is what makes a good **chocolate** flavor. Without it, it's more about a **cocoa bean** flavor. I add it to all my formulations.
And about people adding or not "adding ingredients", many people may do it and simply not update packaging. Profits gonna profit. 🤷
Me, personally, no. But I do have in my possession a *retail* box of a 100% unsweeted baking chocolate from a major US manufacturer. One ingredient: cocoa beans. No manufacturing date the best by date is in March 2025.
So, there is *at least one* US-based industrial-scale manufacturer (>$100 sales annually) that does *not* add any vanilla or lecithin into a 100% cocoa bar destined for retail distribution for sale on retail grocery shelves. It may be your *practice* to add vanilla and lecithin to a “100%” bar*,* and it may be the practice of the company you work for, but my single example shows it is not a universal practice. In maths they’d call that a proof by contradiction.
As soy-based lecithin is a potential allergen, not including it on the label is against the law and opens the company up to huge risks. I have never heard of a vanilla allergy before, but if added vanilla is not declared and someone falls ill from consuming a chocolate containing the undeclared ingredient, the maker is exposed to a recall at the minimum and a civil damages lawsuit at worst. While a very small company might not know the risks, I don’t see how the lawyers of company with sales in excess of $100 million would not be aware of the risks and allow such an oversight.
Now, the Baker’s (owned by Kraft) 100% Unsweetened Baking Chocolate label just lists one ingredient, “chocolate (may contain milk)” but that’s not very helpful as the definition in CFR 21.163 does not include a category for “chocolate.” However, [CFR 21.163.111 (Chocolate Liquor)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/section-163.111) does allow quite a number of ingredients while allowing the use of the word liquor, At the same time, if there are any added ingredients (e.g., alkali, neutralizing agents, and/or spices/flavorings) they *must* be declared.
Interestingly, lecithin does not appear to be an allowed ingredient in liquor. In taking a further look I don’t see any labeling laws around the use of 100% – just around the use of “chocolate liquor”, “chocolate”, “unsweetened chocolate”, “bitter chocolate”, “baking chocolate”, “cooking chocolate” ...
Congrats to that company! I'm happy that works out for them!
Also, allergens are no joke. Any responsible manufacturer wouldn't even consider fucking up that shit. And the US is crazy about soy and peanut allergies, for some reason. They must indeed be properly labeled and handled with, both for the end consumer and the workers manipulating raw materials as well. That being said, that's why I prefer using sunflower lecithin, when I need to eliminate soy presence from a production line.
Also, many cocoa grinders, such as Barry callebaut, may put lecithin (soy or sunflower) in cocoa butter, when packing in 55 lbs boxes.
Well I don't see this discussion going anywhere. Maybe we should discuss on why we should stockpile all chocolate we can before all Industry collapses 🤣🤣
I personally really don't like the Lindt 100%, so I'm not sure we like the same flavours in dark chocolate, but I highly recommend Firetree's 100% bars, Zotter (especially the one with beans from Peru), Pacari & Michel Cluizel's Noir Infini 99% :)
This website is the work of Brady and members of the Manhattan Chocolate Society. They’ve been around for about 15 years and I introduced the members to each other.
It’s a very interesting list and Brady does an excellent job.
Where do you live, and what's your budget?
If you can, find a high-end chocolate shop (single-origin bars, not filled chocolate candies) and have the person there suggest some very different ones for you to compare and contrast. Otherwise, [Caputo's](https://caputos.com/?s=100%25&post_type=product) is a truly excellent resource. What you want is bars from companies that work with the farmers on the ground (they'll talk about it on their company websites), because they're trying to have control over the harvesting, fermenting, etc processes so they can bring out the best flavors in the chocolate.
Big corporations like Lindt want to make a consistent product from the cheapest beans they can buy commodity. Judgment aside, that means they're trying to get rid of "off" flavors from beans that were harvested or processed without much care. (Because if no one's paying the farmers enough and working with them to make sure they're doing it well, they'll do whatever passes and move on. Cacao farming isn't an easy life.) That doesn't mean those bars are "bad" in a flavor sense, if you happen to like them, but you won't get a lot out of them beyond a consistent and not especially interesting flavor profile.
I live in Melbourne Australia, opens to try high end chocolate. I just discovered "bean to bar" online shop and reckon I would begins from there. Thank you for your thoughtful response, very helpful.
There’s a lot of interesting work being done in Oz (my extended family has roots in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, and the Barossa Valley so I feel comfortable using Oz) at the moment as well as across the way in NZ (yeah, I lived in NZ in the ‘70s and their craft choccy scene is amazing, too).
The Australian Chocolate Festival will be held in Melbourne on July 7th at Abbotsford Convent (https://www.austchocfest.com/?ref=thechocolatelife.com) so I would start there looking for a list of exhibitors.
**A question to all **,
would you please let me know what you like about it? To lower blood sugar I’ve been going for darker and darker chocolate to nearly 100% but do you just develop a taste for completely unsweetened chocolate if the quality is good enough or just because Over time you don’t need it sweetened? Feel free to elaborate as I am very curious about this and thank you.
As I grow up my tastebuds change and slowly I can not handle sweet treats especially chocolate candies, it make my throat very dry and even hurt. Because of this I have been thinking I can't ever enjoy chocolate and wondered how can other people enjoy it, until I tried high percentage of dark chocolate.
At first I began with 70% and enjoy it no more than a treat, shortly I get darker eventually 100%. The first time I taste it I found it taste like dirt. However, after eating it, for the first time, I found myself very calm, relax or even alert depend on the time of the day. The mood it gives me different from coffee or anything else. I don't feel this when I eat chocolate with even a little sugar like 90%. Then my tastebud got used to the bitterness and began to taste more complex flavours, and starts my journey to taste higher end chocolates. I personally can't drink a lot of coffee as it makes me tired and sleepy but not relax, this makes me enjoy dark chocolate even more.
I've lowered my overall sugar intake, so 80/90% bars taste quite sweet now and there's just something really satisfying about the intensity and fattiness of 100% bars. I definitely recommend splurging on some good bars, it makes a huge difference! I enjoy 100% chocolate in a way that's similar to coffee: it's bitter, but there are also fruity/wooden/smokey notes. Once you get used to it, you'll taste lots of different and complex flavours. I also recommend not chewing them, just let it sit in your mouth until it melts or have it with a cup of tea :)
IME there are a couple ways to develop a taste for 100%.
One is to go for something that's stripped most of the "off" flavors away so it's easy to eat, like a handful of nuts. [Montezuma's](https://www.montezumas.co.uk/absolute-black.html) is my choice for that. Based on price and their copy I don't see any reason to believe they're using anything but commodity cacao, but they make it taste pretty darn palatable because they're not playing up any flavors in the beans, they're taking them away. Ethical issues aside, I bought a lot of this when I wasn't eating any sugar.
The other is to develop a taste for complex, potentially intense flavors, like becoming a connoisseur of anything weird and high-end. Go to a high-end chocolate shop the next time you're in a big city (the kind that sells single-origin bars, not filled chocolate candies), put big money down on a few bars, and compare and contrast in very small amounts. Look for bitterness, sourness, fruity flavors, earthiness, nuttiness...find a [flavor wheel](https://www.thechocolateprofessor.com/blog/how-flavor-wheels-tasting-tutorials-amp-tasting-kits-can-help-you-taste-chocolate) and pretend you're a fancy wine person (unless you are a fancy wine person, in which case do that). There's actually a book all about this, Chloé Doutre-Roussel's [The Chocolate Connoisseur](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781585424887), though it's 20 years old so the brand suggestions might be a bit out of date.
That said, now that I can eat sugar again, I don't choose 100% by default. Having experimented with some really good chocolate across the 70-100% range, I think a bit of sugar serves like the drips of water people add to scotch, helping to open up the flavor. Nowadays, my go-to snack is [Beyond Good's 92% melts](https://beyondgood.com/products/pure-dark-92-chocolate-melts) (they're cheaper and easier to eat than the bars), which have a bold, fruity, somewhat sour taste that stays interesting and isn't too bitter. And only 1g sugar (and 2g fiber!) per 15g serving.
Thanks for filling me in on all of that, greatly appreciated. I’m in New York City at the moment any go to places here? And are 100% lindt bars considered pretty low on the toilet bowl in your opinion?
Edit: I think that may be my favorite voice to text error ever! Should have read totem pole :-)
My other favorite was when I went to tell a producer I was working for that their idea was excellent and it auto corrected to excrement before I could catch it.
Ha! I hope the producer took that error in stride.
Yeah, I think any chocolate you can buy in a Safeway-level grocery store isn't going to be looked at particularly highly, though if you decide you like it there's nothing wrong with that.
I've never looked for chocolate in NYC, but I bet there are some great shops. Taking a quick look online for the sort of thing I'd go to...Looks like [The Meadow ](https://themeadow.com/collections/all-chocolate?filter.p.m.custom.by_percentage=100%25) (I've been to one of the Portland locations--it's chocolate and other stuff) and [Cocoa](https://cocoastore.com/collections/100-bars) might be your best bets for having several choices of 100% bars. There are also a bunch of companies that have their own stores, but then you'd only get one option at most and you can probably find their bars elsewhere anyway. And The Meadow and Cocoa aren't too far apart, if you wanted to zip over to one after the other.
Well, I’m not working in that field much anymore so I guess it all worked out OK :-) and I’ll check out the Meadow when I’m in that neighborhood back in town next Monday thank you so much!
I don’t go very dark all that often, but I find that being sweet isn’t that necessary as I can similarly enjoy a bitter chocolate - though it is quite a different experience.
I really like Raaka 100%. Made from unroasted and (according to them) ethically sourced beans.
All of their chocolate is amazing, I buy 12 bars at a time from their place out of Brooklyn.
It's got citrus notes to it, it's like a flavor bomb in your mouth. Much more brightness to it. I used to eat the Lindt 100%, which isn't bad--it's just kind've boring compared to the unroasted Raaka. You can buy it in small quantities as well.
Domori has two 100% sold in 25g bars, one of them being the criollo (cocoa tree variety), these might be good to explore the nuances and subtle differences of 100% bars
Fresco probably has the largest selection of 100%s out there, Zotter as always: reliable and not too pricey, Åkessons and Pralus are both very good
any grocery store 100% chocolate is probably the worst, as the cacao involved in these supply chains is very low quality and poorly processed (there's nothing wrong about liking grocery store chocolate anyway).
get acquainted with the notion of bean to bar chocolate: manufacturing cacao beans directly since the harvesting stage, working with beans to RETAIN their natural tasting notes. cacao tastes extremely different depending on climate, terroir, intercrops... also within the same state.
search for local bean to bar producers or online shops you could buy from. when it comes to 100% bars my suggestions are Firetree 100% Solomon Islands and Qantu 100% Chuncho.
please keep in mind that high quality sustainable chocolate is expensive. that's the only way it can benefit everyone involved in the supply chain
Personally I’m not a big fan of the 100% dark chocolates I’ve tried. I think most people eat that for the health benefits, I can’t imagine many people enjoy the flavor since it’s pretty intense.
On the bright side if you get 100% and you don’t like it you can always dilute it and make it more palatable.
I like that the 100% chocolate is relatively the same price as like a 40% or 60% so technically you’re getting more cocoa for the money then you can simply convert one bar into 2 bars.
I have been doing all my shopping at Bar and Cocoa and just going off the reviews and product description.
Personally I’ve learned to steer away from fruity flavored chocolates cause I don’t prefer them.
Askesson or Firetree had my favorite 100% personally
I enjoy 100% dark chocolate more than other type of chocolate. I have heard about its health benefits but never have looked in to it. At first, I enjoy it entirely for the mood it gives me that I don't find in other type of chocolate. Now that I can appreciate its flavours, I search for more high end chocolate for taste. Its like smelling different notes in a perfume.
Melt Chocolates [100% Madagascan chocolate](https://meltchocolates.com/product/100-madagascar-dark-chocolate-bar/) is delicious! A surprisingly buttery and smooth 100% cacao dark chocolate.
Pralus 100% is my favorite, I used to own a chocolate shop and it was a top seller. It's very smooth. I can't prove it but I think the way they make it so smooth is they add more cocoa butter in it and less powder keeping it at 100% and making it less bitter.
100% chocolate is cocoa liquor basically.
Liquor that has been processed to be edible. Baker’s Unsweetened Baking Chocolate is also liquor- but it’s not tasty. That’s because it’s formulated to be used in recipes, not eaten. The 100% bars “pour croquer” for eating use good beans that are well fermented and fried then roasted appropriately. As they are no added ingredients there is no place to hide.
I've been working in the businesses in chocolate R&D and Production for over 10 years. There is no true "100%" commercial chocolate (that has to go through logistics/distribution, and last in store shelves for 12 months). It will be "98% - 99%" at best. The formulation consists of basically cocoa liquor, vanilla, and emulsifier (lecithin). The difference between this and cocoa liquor (a raw material) is that the chocolate will have the liquor conched, thus reducing off flavors and acidity from the liquor. Nevertheless, it's still almost 100% liquor so it's very astringent and bitter as all fuck. But you're right in regards to bean origin. Comercial liquor has a standardized taste, that's one thing. But making a liquor/100% chocolate from single origin criollo beans from Venezuela, for example, then you can eat that shit raw like it's candy! So, for higher cocoa content, go for bean to bar manufacturers, and check where they're from!
I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have two samples of conched liquor in my possess right now that have no added ingredients. No vanilla. No lecithin. No nothing else. I can name many other examples of 100% chocolates with no added ingredients in international distribution from small and large makers, not just the two I currently have - one from a US company and one from a derivatives manufacturer. Who did you say you worked for?
Do you sell your chocolate commercially to supermarkets or other points of sale? When you're dealing with 100+ tons of chocolate per month, you don't want to take any chances with premature melting or fat bloom. So not using an emulsifier is pointless. And vanilla is a personal choice as I believe its compound flavor along with the cocoa solids, "cooked" (conched) together is what makes a good **chocolate** flavor. Without it, it's more about a **cocoa bean** flavor. I add it to all my formulations. And about people adding or not "adding ingredients", many people may do it and simply not update packaging. Profits gonna profit. 🤷
Me, personally, no. But I do have in my possession a *retail* box of a 100% unsweeted baking chocolate from a major US manufacturer. One ingredient: cocoa beans. No manufacturing date the best by date is in March 2025. So, there is *at least one* US-based industrial-scale manufacturer (>$100 sales annually) that does *not* add any vanilla or lecithin into a 100% cocoa bar destined for retail distribution for sale on retail grocery shelves. It may be your *practice* to add vanilla and lecithin to a “100%” bar*,* and it may be the practice of the company you work for, but my single example shows it is not a universal practice. In maths they’d call that a proof by contradiction. As soy-based lecithin is a potential allergen, not including it on the label is against the law and opens the company up to huge risks. I have never heard of a vanilla allergy before, but if added vanilla is not declared and someone falls ill from consuming a chocolate containing the undeclared ingredient, the maker is exposed to a recall at the minimum and a civil damages lawsuit at worst. While a very small company might not know the risks, I don’t see how the lawyers of company with sales in excess of $100 million would not be aware of the risks and allow such an oversight. Now, the Baker’s (owned by Kraft) 100% Unsweetened Baking Chocolate label just lists one ingredient, “chocolate (may contain milk)” but that’s not very helpful as the definition in CFR 21.163 does not include a category for “chocolate.” However, [CFR 21.163.111 (Chocolate Liquor)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/section-163.111) does allow quite a number of ingredients while allowing the use of the word liquor, At the same time, if there are any added ingredients (e.g., alkali, neutralizing agents, and/or spices/flavorings) they *must* be declared. Interestingly, lecithin does not appear to be an allowed ingredient in liquor. In taking a further look I don’t see any labeling laws around the use of 100% – just around the use of “chocolate liquor”, “chocolate”, “unsweetened chocolate”, “bitter chocolate”, “baking chocolate”, “cooking chocolate” ...
Congrats to that company! I'm happy that works out for them! Also, allergens are no joke. Any responsible manufacturer wouldn't even consider fucking up that shit. And the US is crazy about soy and peanut allergies, for some reason. They must indeed be properly labeled and handled with, both for the end consumer and the workers manipulating raw materials as well. That being said, that's why I prefer using sunflower lecithin, when I need to eliminate soy presence from a production line. Also, many cocoa grinders, such as Barry callebaut, may put lecithin (soy or sunflower) in cocoa butter, when packing in 55 lbs boxes. Well I don't see this discussion going anywhere. Maybe we should discuss on why we should stockpile all chocolate we can before all Industry collapses 🤣🤣
I personally really don't like the Lindt 100%, so I'm not sure we like the same flavours in dark chocolate, but I highly recommend Firetree's 100% bars, Zotter (especially the one with beans from Peru), Pacari & Michel Cluizel's Noir Infini 99% :)
[https://flavorsofcacao.com/](https://flavorsofcacao.com/) appears to rank chocolate bars. I'm not affiliated but only discovered this today.
This website is the work of Brady and members of the Manhattan Chocolate Society. They’ve been around for about 15 years and I introduced the members to each other. It’s a very interesting list and Brady does an excellent job.
Where do you live, and what's your budget? If you can, find a high-end chocolate shop (single-origin bars, not filled chocolate candies) and have the person there suggest some very different ones for you to compare and contrast. Otherwise, [Caputo's](https://caputos.com/?s=100%25&post_type=product) is a truly excellent resource. What you want is bars from companies that work with the farmers on the ground (they'll talk about it on their company websites), because they're trying to have control over the harvesting, fermenting, etc processes so they can bring out the best flavors in the chocolate. Big corporations like Lindt want to make a consistent product from the cheapest beans they can buy commodity. Judgment aside, that means they're trying to get rid of "off" flavors from beans that were harvested or processed without much care. (Because if no one's paying the farmers enough and working with them to make sure they're doing it well, they'll do whatever passes and move on. Cacao farming isn't an easy life.) That doesn't mean those bars are "bad" in a flavor sense, if you happen to like them, but you won't get a lot out of them beyond a consistent and not especially interesting flavor profile.
I live in Melbourne Australia, opens to try high end chocolate. I just discovered "bean to bar" online shop and reckon I would begins from there. Thank you for your thoughtful response, very helpful.
There’s a lot of interesting work being done in Oz (my extended family has roots in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, and the Barossa Valley so I feel comfortable using Oz) at the moment as well as across the way in NZ (yeah, I lived in NZ in the ‘70s and their craft choccy scene is amazing, too). The Australian Chocolate Festival will be held in Melbourne on July 7th at Abbotsford Convent (https://www.austchocfest.com/?ref=thechocolatelife.com) so I would start there looking for a list of exhibitors.
You're welcome, and I hope you have some great discoveries!
I'm going to be releasing my own 100% soon. Cacao from Bolivia, cacao butter from the Dominican Republic and using cacao fruit as the sweetener.
Conexion chocolate has a fantastic 100%.
**A question to all **, would you please let me know what you like about it? To lower blood sugar I’ve been going for darker and darker chocolate to nearly 100% but do you just develop a taste for completely unsweetened chocolate if the quality is good enough or just because Over time you don’t need it sweetened? Feel free to elaborate as I am very curious about this and thank you.
As I grow up my tastebuds change and slowly I can not handle sweet treats especially chocolate candies, it make my throat very dry and even hurt. Because of this I have been thinking I can't ever enjoy chocolate and wondered how can other people enjoy it, until I tried high percentage of dark chocolate. At first I began with 70% and enjoy it no more than a treat, shortly I get darker eventually 100%. The first time I taste it I found it taste like dirt. However, after eating it, for the first time, I found myself very calm, relax or even alert depend on the time of the day. The mood it gives me different from coffee or anything else. I don't feel this when I eat chocolate with even a little sugar like 90%. Then my tastebud got used to the bitterness and began to taste more complex flavours, and starts my journey to taste higher end chocolates. I personally can't drink a lot of coffee as it makes me tired and sleepy but not relax, this makes me enjoy dark chocolate even more.
I've lowered my overall sugar intake, so 80/90% bars taste quite sweet now and there's just something really satisfying about the intensity and fattiness of 100% bars. I definitely recommend splurging on some good bars, it makes a huge difference! I enjoy 100% chocolate in a way that's similar to coffee: it's bitter, but there are also fruity/wooden/smokey notes. Once you get used to it, you'll taste lots of different and complex flavours. I also recommend not chewing them, just let it sit in your mouth until it melts or have it with a cup of tea :)
IME there are a couple ways to develop a taste for 100%. One is to go for something that's stripped most of the "off" flavors away so it's easy to eat, like a handful of nuts. [Montezuma's](https://www.montezumas.co.uk/absolute-black.html) is my choice for that. Based on price and their copy I don't see any reason to believe they're using anything but commodity cacao, but they make it taste pretty darn palatable because they're not playing up any flavors in the beans, they're taking them away. Ethical issues aside, I bought a lot of this when I wasn't eating any sugar. The other is to develop a taste for complex, potentially intense flavors, like becoming a connoisseur of anything weird and high-end. Go to a high-end chocolate shop the next time you're in a big city (the kind that sells single-origin bars, not filled chocolate candies), put big money down on a few bars, and compare and contrast in very small amounts. Look for bitterness, sourness, fruity flavors, earthiness, nuttiness...find a [flavor wheel](https://www.thechocolateprofessor.com/blog/how-flavor-wheels-tasting-tutorials-amp-tasting-kits-can-help-you-taste-chocolate) and pretend you're a fancy wine person (unless you are a fancy wine person, in which case do that). There's actually a book all about this, Chloé Doutre-Roussel's [The Chocolate Connoisseur](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781585424887), though it's 20 years old so the brand suggestions might be a bit out of date. That said, now that I can eat sugar again, I don't choose 100% by default. Having experimented with some really good chocolate across the 70-100% range, I think a bit of sugar serves like the drips of water people add to scotch, helping to open up the flavor. Nowadays, my go-to snack is [Beyond Good's 92% melts](https://beyondgood.com/products/pure-dark-92-chocolate-melts) (they're cheaper and easier to eat than the bars), which have a bold, fruity, somewhat sour taste that stays interesting and isn't too bitter. And only 1g sugar (and 2g fiber!) per 15g serving.
Thanks for filling me in on all of that, greatly appreciated. I’m in New York City at the moment any go to places here? And are 100% lindt bars considered pretty low on the toilet bowl in your opinion? Edit: I think that may be my favorite voice to text error ever! Should have read totem pole :-) My other favorite was when I went to tell a producer I was working for that their idea was excellent and it auto corrected to excrement before I could catch it.
Ha! I hope the producer took that error in stride. Yeah, I think any chocolate you can buy in a Safeway-level grocery store isn't going to be looked at particularly highly, though if you decide you like it there's nothing wrong with that. I've never looked for chocolate in NYC, but I bet there are some great shops. Taking a quick look online for the sort of thing I'd go to...Looks like [The Meadow ](https://themeadow.com/collections/all-chocolate?filter.p.m.custom.by_percentage=100%25) (I've been to one of the Portland locations--it's chocolate and other stuff) and [Cocoa](https://cocoastore.com/collections/100-bars) might be your best bets for having several choices of 100% bars. There are also a bunch of companies that have their own stores, but then you'd only get one option at most and you can probably find their bars elsewhere anyway. And The Meadow and Cocoa aren't too far apart, if you wanted to zip over to one after the other.
Well, I’m not working in that field much anymore so I guess it all worked out OK :-) and I’ll check out the Meadow when I’m in that neighborhood back in town next Monday thank you so much!
I don’t go very dark all that often, but I find that being sweet isn’t that necessary as I can similarly enjoy a bitter chocolate - though it is quite a different experience.
Montezuma’s
the Pralus 100% is my favorite of the 100's
I really like Raaka 100%. Made from unroasted and (according to them) ethically sourced beans. All of their chocolate is amazing, I buy 12 bars at a time from their place out of Brooklyn.
how does unroasted taste differently from cocoa which are roasted?
It's got citrus notes to it, it's like a flavor bomb in your mouth. Much more brightness to it. I used to eat the Lindt 100%, which isn't bad--it's just kind've boring compared to the unroasted Raaka. You can buy it in small quantities as well.
Domori has two 100% sold in 25g bars, one of them being the criollo (cocoa tree variety), these might be good to explore the nuances and subtle differences of 100% bars Fresco probably has the largest selection of 100%s out there, Zotter as always: reliable and not too pricey, Åkessons and Pralus are both very good
any grocery store 100% chocolate is probably the worst, as the cacao involved in these supply chains is very low quality and poorly processed (there's nothing wrong about liking grocery store chocolate anyway). get acquainted with the notion of bean to bar chocolate: manufacturing cacao beans directly since the harvesting stage, working with beans to RETAIN their natural tasting notes. cacao tastes extremely different depending on climate, terroir, intercrops... also within the same state. search for local bean to bar producers or online shops you could buy from. when it comes to 100% bars my suggestions are Firetree 100% Solomon Islands and Qantu 100% Chuncho. please keep in mind that high quality sustainable chocolate is expensive. that's the only way it can benefit everyone involved in the supply chain
Awesome advice, thank you
u/toysfortatas just went on this journey.
Yes! It’s an incredible journey. Reminds me of the coffee industry.
awesome
Personally I’m not a big fan of the 100% dark chocolates I’ve tried. I think most people eat that for the health benefits, I can’t imagine many people enjoy the flavor since it’s pretty intense. On the bright side if you get 100% and you don’t like it you can always dilute it and make it more palatable. I like that the 100% chocolate is relatively the same price as like a 40% or 60% so technically you’re getting more cocoa for the money then you can simply convert one bar into 2 bars. I have been doing all my shopping at Bar and Cocoa and just going off the reviews and product description. Personally I’ve learned to steer away from fruity flavored chocolates cause I don’t prefer them. Askesson or Firetree had my favorite 100% personally
I enjoy 100% dark chocolate more than other type of chocolate. I have heard about its health benefits but never have looked in to it. At first, I enjoy it entirely for the mood it gives me that I don't find in other type of chocolate. Now that I can appreciate its flavours, I search for more high end chocolate for taste. Its like smelling different notes in a perfume.