Back in May, I spent a long weekend in Belgium with my friends Jason and Martin. The mission: drink beer, eat fine food and acquire fine chocolate. I am pleased to report that the mission was a success, and I posted photographic evidence of all the beers were able to sample as we skipped from Antwerp to Brugge to Brussels. At some point I plan to post a more detailed recap of the trip, but I felt compelled to write a quick post because I just finished savoring three of the finest dark-chocolate bars I’ve had in a long time. All three were single-origin bars from Pierre Marcolini, and each was delicious and possessed its own distinctive flavor. I really enjoy the fact that single-origin bars have brought the discussion of terroir to the world of chocolate. I also had some truly excellent chocolate at Neuhaus and Wittamer, but Pierre Marcolini’s pure dark chocolate gets my nod on the basis of just plain unadulterated chocolate. Wittamer probably wins the day if you are interested in truffles and being distracted by other ingredients in your chocolate, which I certainly enjoy as well, but I lean more often towards the purism of a simple bar of dark chocolate.
July 31, 2008