Miscellaneous Chocolates

Tweaking old basses, but no new builds (yet); in the meantime, some new chocolates to report:

Although I am a committed dark chocolate fan, my taste tends to stop at around 80%, where it can start to get rather bitter (I still have a bit of a Tcho 100%, which is essentially inedible). To my surprise I have tried and really liked this Lindt 85%; it's pretty smooth and still just sweet enough. The dark flavor is very substantial, and discourages eating too many squares at a sitting (2 to 4 are quite sufficient).

I have just spent a few days in NYC, and tried to find some legit dark drinking chocolates, which are surprisingly easy to find throughout the city, albiet at a high price. The first one tried, also coming up #1 on Yelp and a couple other websites, was at Mariebelle Fine Chocolates on Broom St. They had a 65% and a 70%; I tried them both and opted for the 70% because it did not contain extra milk, although the ingredients lifted milk in the mix. It was pretty bitter and strong, and I had to add a packet of sugar to help get it down. The buzz did remained for a couple of hours, and I'll have multiple opportunities to adjust the mixture at home with the bag of mix I purchased ($7 for the large hot chocolate, $21 for the mix).

The next day, walking to the subway from The Met Museum, I stumbled upon Maidon du Chocolate. They also had two drinking chocolates, one darker than the other, and I again went with the darkest, which was also very strong, albiet slightly more palatable than the day before (at $9 for the cup). Neither were as thick as Florentine drinking chocolates, but slightly thicker than Berkely's Bittesweet Cafe.

I also found a new chocolate bar, this Cidarella 65% dark with sea salt. A bit thinner than most bars (only 3oz), it turned out to be quite nice. I bit harder than others (but maybe also because it's COLD here) it had a nice dark flavor and a good amour of salt. I even got busted by a Metropolitan Museum of Art docent when I got caught breaking off a piece in a gallery, but what goes better than this while viewing art?

Both NYC drinking chocolates were very serious, adult drinks, but I admit I find West Coast chocolate and chocolate drinks to be not necessarily sweeter, but smoother and a bit more palatable.