We all love chocolate, but what do we actually know about it?

Here are some tips and tricks for you to find good chocolate (and keep it).

• The best way to find a real good chocolate is to go to a specialty shop. There are many, but you might have to google them first. In Amsterdam we recommend: Chocolatl
• Do not get stuck on certain percentages. Even if you don’t like dark chocolate, you can easily find a chocolate of more 70% or more without bitter notes.
• Always look on the ingredient list. A chocolate bar should only contain: cocoa (solids and fat), sugar, milk (i.c. of a milk bar), and inclusions in case of an inclusion bar. Sojalecithine is somehow accepted, as well as real vanilla. Everything else is not ok. Usually, the more ingredients, the worse the bar.
• Ask yourself these questions: who has made this chocolate bar? Is it a craft, or industrial chocolate? To make it difficult for you, more industrial chocolate brands are making it look as if it were a craft chocolate. The chocolate maker is mentioned at the back of the packaging.
• Where does the cocoa come from? If it is not mentioned on the packaging, you can assume that it is a blend of different types of beans, from different countries. Popular origins of good cocoa: Peru, Ecuador, Tanzania and Dominican Republic.
• Do not keep your chocolate in the fridge but in a cool, dry, odor-free place in your house. Unless temperatures rise above 23 degrees, then the best place to store your chocolate is in the fridge.