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dorchadas
I was going to write a story about the chocolate store that we went to in River North before it closed, while schoolpsychnerd was in grad school and we wanted the occasional treat that was delicious but still at mass-market prices. Occasionally I'd meet her there after an evening class or, when I got a job, after work. We'd get sundaes and eat them together, walk past the horse carriages that carry touristspeople on rides in River North, and then go back to our apartment.
But it turns out that I'm misremembering and that was a Ghirardelli. Oops.
However, I do still have a story about Godiva. In the shopping district around the intersecttion of Shijō-dōri and Kawaramachi-dōri in Kyōto, there's a Godiva store.schoolpsychnerd and I went to Kyōto seven times in the three years that we lived in Japan, and once we discovered the existence of that Godiva store, we'd go there every time we were in Kyōto. It was a tradition, like going to Maharaja. I wonder if it's still there--we didn't go last time we were in Kyōto, and every time we went we were in the only people in the store.
The packaging is really dull, I think.
I know that we have a tendency to go for smaller producers here in Darker than Black. Chocolatiers who produce chocolate in small batches, every bean certified from tree to bar. Godiva doesn't get much space. But it turns out, it's very good and I remember why we always went to Godiva in Kyōto.
As one might expect from a chocolate bar that prominently indicates salt as its selling point, the Godiva sea salt chocolate tasted like sea salt. Every bite had a delicious and evenly-distributed amount of salt, tempering the sweetness of only 50% cacao and letting the chocolate coat the throat in a way that I can still taste now, half an hour after I ate it. That kind of lingering aftertaste is one of my favorite things about good chocolate, because it means the chocolate lasts. Eating a chocolate bar takes only a few moments, but when the taste sticks with you? That's value.
The salt might also be the reason I didn't find this as sweet as I might. 50% isn't much cacao compared to what I usually eat, but it didn't taste that much sweeter. And the aftertaste is more salt than chocolate, so the advertised part is the part that remains. Yum!
Broken again, but still delicious.
schoolpsychnerd's Opinion
schoolpsychnerd was in grad school and we wanted the occasional treat that was delicious but still at mass-market prices. Occasionally I'd meet her there after an evening class or, when I got a job, after work. We'd get sundaes and eat them together, walk past the horse carriages that carry But it turns out that I'm misremembering and that was a Ghirardelli. Oops.
However, I do still have a story about Godiva. In the shopping district around the intersecttion of Shijō-dōri and Kawaramachi-dōri in Kyōto, there's a Godiva store.
schoolpsychnerd and I went to Kyōto seven times in the three years that we lived in Japan, and once we discovered the existence of that Godiva store, we'd go there every time we were in Kyōto. It was a tradition, like going to Maharaja. I wonder if it's still there--we didn't go last time we were in Kyōto, and every time we went we were in the only people in the store. I know that we have a tendency to go for smaller producers here in Darker than Black. Chocolatiers who produce chocolate in small batches, every bean certified from tree to bar. Godiva doesn't get much space. But it turns out, it's very good and I remember why we always went to Godiva in Kyōto.
As one might expect from a chocolate bar that prominently indicates salt as its selling point, the Godiva sea salt chocolate tasted like sea salt. Every bite had a delicious and evenly-distributed amount of salt, tempering the sweetness of only 50% cacao and letting the chocolate coat the throat in a way that I can still taste now, half an hour after I ate it. That kind of lingering aftertaste is one of my favorite things about good chocolate, because it means the chocolate lasts. Eating a chocolate bar takes only a few moments, but when the taste sticks with you? That's value.
The salt might also be the reason I didn't find this as sweet as I might. 50% isn't much cacao compared to what I usually eat, but it didn't taste that much sweeter. And the aftertaste is more salt than chocolate, so the advertised part is the part that remains. Yum!
schoolpsychnerd's OpinionThis chocolate was a bit sweeter than our usual dark chocolate but it was excellent. I remember when Godiva was only sold at department stores and was the the height of luxury that my dad would buy for my mom for Valentine's Day, maybe Mother's Day or her birthday too. It's funny to think I can get them at Walgreens now... And this is still delicious. The salt to sweet ratio was perfect and there is something to be said for the lighter dark chocolate smoothness. I'd eat it again!I have a hard time even imagining that, but my mind was blown when my father told me that when he was growing up he didn't have a microwave, so maybe I just lack the proper imagination. Fortunately, much like microwaves, chocolate is now democratized and we got this at the grocery store.
