Ok, so I am curious about the opinions of the denizens of this group on which country makes the best chocolate. I put Italy and France in the header, but if people have a different answer, please say so.

I chose Italy and France because of the number of quality chocolatiers in those countries.

Italy – Domori, Amedei, Slitti, Cuba Venchi

France – Michel Cluizel, Valrhona, Pralus, Bonnat

Mike (restin’ on my laurels and my hardys too)

um, are u serious?! but u r right> it all boils down to these two countries in the end. they seem to make the most chocolate and have the most expertise.

but i say no contest: italia hands down!

france is good in making mass produced chocolate that actually tastes good. i really like what valrhona does and that they got the ball rolling on quality. but they can’t touch amedei, much less domori.

is domori a dark roaster?

i prefer valrhona to amedei too. hope lone will still talk to me ;-)

Prefer whatever you prefer, alex ;-) The ‘thing’ I have with Valrhona is the not necessarily deserved monopoly they have, esp in my country. People tend to believe that Valrhona is the ONLY chocolate of high quality – which is false. But for the world championship, I do like all the four french whereas I am not that fond of Slitti and haven’t really learnt to like Cuba Venchi. But I simply can’t live without Domori’s high percentage bars and Amedei’s Chuao and Porcelana (well, I could try of course …). Taste is the decisive factor for me. As for Valrhona I am not really happy about the fact that they’re using Callebaut’s cocoa butter (and powder?). I like the pure stuff. However, if I was to choose the whole sortiment from these brands, I would actually choose Valrhona over Domori. Domori has this annoying rotten banana flavor in so many bars, makes it difficult to separate them. I prefer fewer bars of higher quality. And as I buy Amedei in bulk format, Amedei wins over Valrhona in terms of expense too.

“Man cannot live by chocolate alone – but woman can.” (Unknown)