I recently, browsing al local imported foods shop, I came across chocolate bars from a chocolate maker I had never heard of, “Rausch Platagen Schokolade”. There were a few different varieties with different percentages of cocoa. I got the milk chocolate with 43% cocoa, called Puerto Cabello. The short review: This choc rocks! It was rich and creamy, with a full-bodied chocolate flavor. Not too sugary. Really nice stuff. So I looked up the company, Rausch.

Look for this logo!

As you might have guessed, that’s German. They’re a family-run company based in Berlin, founded in 1918. Each of their products uses cocoa from a single growing region somewhere in the world. Here is a run-down of the chocolate types and regions:

• Nouméa: Papua New Guinea
• Madanga: Madagascar
• Puerto Cabello: Venezuela (this is the milk chocolate I had)
• Guácimo: from Costa Rica
• Amacado: Peru
• El Cuador: Ecuador
• Tobago: Tobago
• Tembadoro: Trinidad

One thing I noticed in this list is that none of their cocoa comes from West Africa, which is where the bulk of the world’s cocoa currently comes from. I wonder why?

Here’s what their website has to say about their relationships with their cocoa growers:

We have the best cocoa farmers of the world as our partners – in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Trinidad, Tobago and Venezuela. We encourage and help them so that they will be able on a long-term basis to plant the best cocoa trees and produce and deliver the best cocoa possible without having to worry about their social situation.

I don’t know how readily available this chocolate is around the country & world, but if you ever see Plantagen Schokolade chocolate in a shop, I highly recommend it. Though I’ve only the  Puerto Cabello so far, I’d bet they’re all pretty good.  I need to get back to that store and pick up some more, along with some of their other chocolate varieties.

Domenico Ghirardelli started his company in the mid 1800s in San Fransisco (though he did have an earlier shop in Peru). You would think this would make Ghirardelli the oldest chocolate maker in America, but it loses out by almost a century to Bakers chocolate (started 1765). In the early days, Ghirardelli sold, believe it or not, mustard (!) along with chocolate. Their original San Fran digs have become a bit of a tourist attraction. I’ve been there, but can remember almost nothing about it (except we had some good chocolate), so I can’t say worth making a special trip.

Although Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. was bought out by Swiss Chocolatier, Lindt in 1998, it still operates with a degree of independence. Like the Dagoba-Hershey’s partnership it’s apparently all about better distribution. Ghirardelli Co. oversees all aspects of production themselves and claim to maintain the highest standards for the quality of the cocoa beans the use. They roast the beans themselves and then grind them to an extremely fine powder.

Ghirardelli Luxe Milk

Like most of the large scale chocolate makers they have a lot of different products: straight chocolate in white, milk, and dark varieties with varying levels cocoa-mass density; chocolate squares with flovored fillings; drinking cocoa, and more. My personal favorite is their plain milk chocolate bar, called “Luxe Milk Chocolate Bar”. This one works well in my secret choco-espresso tastebud tantalizer.

Summary: Good chocolate.

Well, OK, that’s a tad over-stated. They aren’t “the” borg – there are others, too. Seriously, though, I’m really not a fan of Hershey’s chocolate. To my taste it’s always too sweet and lacks creamy richness and cocoa flavor. Oh, sure, I’ve enjoyed a Kiss or two from Hershey, but I swear it was mere sugar lust, without a trace of chocolaty romance. Brief, meaningless flings, having nothing to do with my true feelings for the real, true, chocolate love I now know.

I think I’ve stretched that metaphor to the breaking point, so let’s move on the actual content of this post.

Hersheys, besides the mediocre stuff they’re known for producing – the eponymous Hershey’s Bar, the Kiss, etc., also owns a whole bunch of smaller chocolate makers, including premium organic chocolatier, Dagoba.  As far as I can tell, the corporate behemoth hasn’t harmed Dagoba, its green approach to business, or its precious product in any way. On the contrary, it has given them wider distribution, allowing easier access to great chocolate for all of us. So I guess Hershey’s can’t be all that evil. And besides, they’re resposible for Reeses Peanut Butter Cups…

Dagoba is a chocolatier based in Oregon. the company is, of course, named after the Dagobah System in Star Wars, where Yoda lives. Yoda, being the wisest of the Jedi, was naturally a big chocolate eater, though that fact is omitted from the movies. Actually, I just made that up but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be true, at least in a spiritual sense. According to information provided by the company, Dagoba is Sanskrit for “temple of the gods.” Close enough.

Dagoba makes premium organic chocolate. They also practice fair trade and are eco-friendly and socially responsible in their manufacturing and trade activities. As if that weren’t enough, Dagoba chocolate is also, apparently, certified kosher. So they’ve got you pretty well covered in terms of avoiding chocolate guilt. “Eat more chocolate, save the world”. It works for me…

Dagoba sell a bunch of different types of chocolate, with varying densities of cocoa content. I haven’t tried them all of course (yet!), but I really liked the Roseberry chocolate bar. It has 59% cocoa content, so it’s fairly strong, but not bitter, and it contains dried raspberries and rosehips. Raspberry has long been one of my favorite flavors to combine with chocolate, so this  one was pretty much made for me. If it were just a tiny bit more creamy, and skipped the rose hips in favor of a few more raspberry bits it would be pretty much perfect from my point of view.

I look forward to trying more of the choco on offer from Dagoba. If you have any particular suggestions, please let me know via the comments.