Doesn't the chocolate industry work like other industries eg coffee - the big boys have teams of buyers roaming South America and Africa gobbling up the best quality beans direct from the producer and cornering the market whilst the small fry making chocolate from scratch in their sheds get what's left or buy from specialist middlemen? I can believe that the big boys produce a more uniform and consistent base product but that doesn't make it worse does it? And if they're producing a chocolate for onsale to the professional chocolatiers don't they have a very high quality product aimed at the boutique producers? I'm sure these artisans aren't going into migros and melting down the commercial stuff.
I don't think there's any shame for an artisan to source his raw chocolate from a supplier as long as the product he's using is top notch and made from the finest ingredients. Doesn't the value added come from his skills that go into transforming that into his own creations?
I'm sure there are choco snobs out there who go on about terroir . "My cellar is stocked with only single estate chocolate." Or "Try this chocolate dahling! It's a grand cru from Pierre! He only buys his beans from the villages on the left bank!"
You mean people who care about quality chocolate? Which obviously you don't.
There are two parts here - the skill of a chocolatier in coming up with his truffles or whatever and also the production of the base ingredient from beans. Both are important.
If you can't taste the difference, perhaps you should try tasting some chocolates side-by-side.
For the record, I love British commercial chocolate, especially Cadburys . . . but I do recognise that there are higher quality chocolates that offer longer and more complex tastes.
And that is where Nev is at least partially right. It has been some years, but I remember to have read about exactly that when I was at college. Topic was cognitive psychology. We are all sure that we would immediately identify our favourite brand among others. The reality is that for some basic tastes like milk chocolate, this is simply not true: You are reacting to the color of the package, the shape of the chololate and many other aspects. In a blind testing, where some "basic" chocolates (like milk chocolate) were grated to camouflage the shape of the bar, the testers were not able to find out the difference between the cheap discount milk chocolate and the Lindt-types bars which cost six times the price.
Having said that, I do enjoy the experience from the shop to the package to slowly tasting handmade chocolates myself. I like Sprüngli's truffes du jour.
However, those who go to the trouble of doing some side-by-side tasting, will develop a taste vocabulary. When they come to a blind tasting that will act as support.
Blind tasting in wine is notoriously difficult, but it can still be done. The same's true for chocolate.
I'd be happy for you to present me blind with with some El Rey and some Dairy Milk and ask me to tell which is which.
NB: Grating seems a bit unfair as it's not simply the flavour with chocolate, but also the texture.
Saying that other factors play a role in modifying our perception of taste is fact. However, it's a great leap from that so saying that a mars bar and some posh choc taste the same and that the latter have no value. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
the lowest quality kind (Forastero) accounts for 90% of production since it is more hardy and therefore cheaper to produce i.e. it is a more commercial crop.
therefore, by it's nature, any mass-market chocolate product will use the cheaper kind of beans since not only is Criollo too expensive to fall within the mass-market price point, but also there simply isn't enough of it to supply a mass-market.
as for whether a chocolatier makes his own chocolate - i would be somewhat suspicious of an artisan chocolatier who makes none of his own chocolate. it makes sense to buy some chocolate directly from switzerland after all it is a cost-effective way of getting a good quality base product. but i would imagine that any artisan chocolatier would want to have control over this process. there's a huge difference to the final product - after all the difference between Hershey (which i really don't like) is due to the way it is conched.
EDIT: for those interested here is a virtual tour from harvest to chocolate bar:
Le Carre des Chocolatiers . Not in Zurich, but quite imaginative! I saw a write-up on them here , and having been curious to try ever since. Manor and Globus in Romandie stock them, apparently.
I don't think anyone has mentioned Prestat yet. Their chocolate is gorgeous - especially their champagne truffles and white chocolate with raspberry chunky bars