words katie reedy & rachel read

To be a chocoholic, all you need is a sweet tooth. But to be a chocolate connoisseur, you'll need a lot more than just a craving for confectionery.

Chocolate has been inspiring raptures ever since Spanish conquistadors mixed the original cacao drink of the Aztec and Mayan Indians in Central and South America with another New World treat: sugar. Then, the rich bitter cacao drink took on a new dimension: it became sweet and light, perfect for just about anything.

But after decades of super-sweet and milky confections, recent trends have fought back in favour of the rich, dark original. These days, chocolate experts advocate a return to cacao, for taste and health. Like wine, chocolate has been re-discovered as a luxury that might also be good for you. In 2003, the American Medical Association announced findings that antioxidants in dark chocolate fight cancer and can actually lower blood pressure. Chocolate fans were overjoyed that their guilty pleasure might have legitimate benefits – but don't think that you can eat chocolate with abandon. Milk chocolate, with its higher proportion of cocoa butter and milk, and white chocolate, which is made without distilled cacao, simply don’t have the benefits of their pure dark cousin.

Dark chocolate is also famously purported to be an aphrodisiac but according to The Chocolate Connoisseur: For Everyone with a Passion by Chloe Doutre-Roussel, the rumour that chocolate inspires lust is a myth. Don’t get too down-hearted, though – chocolate contains feel-good chemicals (endorphins and serotonins) that lessen pain, decrease stress and act as anti-depressants – potentially making you feel like you are in love, if only for a fleeting blissful moment. This effect, called “eudaimonia”, is one of the scientifically verified effects of the delectable substance.

But beyond any benefits to body and mind, dark chocolate is uniquely delicious. Some experts note hundreds of subtle flavours in one piece of dark chocolate – and the purer the chocolate, the more robust the overall impression.

Hong Kong has its own creator and producer of luxurious chocolates in VERO. This chocolatier’s space in Fenwick Pier defies description – not a café, not a lounge, not a shop – it’s an experience, where you can see chefs making chocolates by hand while sipping on a magical and unusual cup of dark hot chocolate. While big international brands (La Maison du Chocolat, Jean Paul Hevin) are sprouting up in Hong Kong and the likes of Lindt and Green & Black’s can now be picked up at your local Taste, there is only one VERO and their chocolates are produced entirely on-site. Their chocolatiers’ efforts have more in common with art than food, creating a spring/summer and autumn/winter collection each year of just five chocolates carefully selected to showcase a range of textures, tastes and traditions, with some specially designed to appeal to Asian palates (featuring fruits like the Chinese tangerine).

If you’re looking to become a chocolate connoisseur, numerous not-for-profit websites, like seventypercent.com and chocolateguild.com, will help you on the path to enlightenment while Roger Chan, co-founder and director of VERO, is so passionate about the stuff, he will happily sit down and chat cacao with you. Here are a few tips to set you on your way…

Percentage

When deciding on chocolate, check the percentage of pure cacao in the ingredients. Most countries require the percentage to be marked on the packaging, so it should be easy to determine the purity of the chocolate, although whether the percentage includes cocoa butter is often a point of debate.

Chocolate with no additional ingredients whatsoever (100%), or that with over 70% cacao, is often considered too bitter and has traditionally been sold as ‘cooking chocolate’. However, in recent years, consumers have become more inquisitive and educated about what makes ‘good’ chocolate and cacao percentages have been turned into a marketing tool, designed to create competitive one-upmanship between both brands and buyers. Basically, the higher the percentage of pure cacao, the fewer the other ingredients – and less sugar means the chocolate may be conventionally less palatable.

Seventy percent is globally considered the benchmark for the most palatable dark chocolate (VERO’s signature dark chocolate comes in at 70%) and it is generally assumed that dark chocolate with a lower cacao percentage is of inferior quality.

Down one level, semi-sweet chocolate ranges between 62% and 52% cacao and tends to be smoother and melt more easily whilst milk chocolate generally contains between 36% and 46% cacao. But before you get caught up in cacao competitiveness – the deliciousness of any chocolate depends entirely on the mouth of the taster, regardless of percentage!

Raw Materials

Chan says that ‘chocolate is like a fruit. Like grapes and wine, where arguably the best grapes come from France, the best cacao comes from South American equatorial countries, with Venezuela the top of the tree.’ Once you know the origin of the beans used to make your chocolate, check their type. Dark chocolate most commonly comes from criollo, forastero or trinitario beans. Criollo cacao beans originate in Latin America, are aromatic and generally less bitter than other types. They are considered the most sophisticated and are hence the most expensive beans. Forastero beans are commonly used in general chocolate production as they are easier to grow and more common around the world than the criollo variety. Trinitario beans are a hybrid of the criollo and forastero varieties.

It is also worth checking whether your chocolate is made with cocoa butter (the most expensive and arguably best type of fat for chocolate) or a cheaper alternative, like vegetable fat (most likely found in mass-produced chocolate bars). Similarly, the type of sugar – sugar cane is the most expensive, fake and artificial sugars are cheaper – and whether genuine vanilla or the substitute vanillin is used can affect the taste. Chan advocates that you always check the label for the quality of the raw ingredients: ‘Percentage is important but subjective to the individual’s taste, the quality of the ingredients is not.’

National Origin

Common belief holds that Belgian and Swiss chocolates are particularly fine – some of the most famous chocolate manufacturers in the world, including Lindt & Sprungli, Guylian, Godiva and Leonidas originate in Belgium and Switzerland, some with historical lineages going back hundreds of years. However, Martin Christy (editor of seventypercent.com) describes this as a highly successful marketing ploy on the part of those pesky continental chocolatiers and Chan confirms that where chocolate is produced is essentially meaningless - it is the ingredients that count. If someone tells you that the ingredients in your chocolate are actually from Belgium or Switzerland (we wish them luck trying to grow cocoa plantations in that weather!) – run for the hills (or the Alps, as the case may be)!

It is also worth considering whether imported brands are really the best option when buying chocolates locally. What has been done to preserve the chocolates over the lengthy process of transport and shipping? Using milk powder substitutes rather than the traditional cream is one option and quality undoubtedly suffers; you may be happier buying local chocolates made on-site and sold within 24 hours of being created.

Where to Buy Quality Chocolate:
Made in Hong Kong:

VERO
This season’s collection includes a caramel that uses pink salt from the Himalayan mountains while VERO’s premium Sparks bars will take you back to days on the school bus chewing on popping candy.
Their chocolates can also be bought from Pacific Place Lane Crawford, Admiralty.
1/F, Fenwick Pier, 1 Lung King Road, Wan Chai
2559 5882
www.verochocolates.com

Chocolate Therapy @ Mandarin Cake Shop
Designed by executive pastry chef Yves Matthey and executive chef Uwe Opocensky, the Mandarin’s chocolates come in 40 different flavours arranged into 11 ‘families’ – MOrbits are chocolate-filled hemispheres designed to look like moons orbiting a planet.
The Mandarin Oriental, 5 Connaught Road, Central
2825 4008
www.mandarinoriental.com

Gourmet House
With their factory in Chai Wan, Gourmet House are suppliers to five-star hotels, airlines, restaurants and clubs and they are the only Hong Kong manufacturer of cocoa bean dragee – real cocoa beans coated in chocolate of various percentages.
2898 2220, info@gourmethouse.com.hk
www.gourmethouse.com.hk

Agnès b Délices
Designed in France, handmade in HK, their cacao comes from all the finest locations. including Venezuela, Madagascar and Ecuador.
Fashion Walk and Times Square, Causeway Bay; apm, Kwun Tong; Gateway and Sun Arcade, Tsim Sha Tsui; ifc mall, Central
www.agnesb-delices.com

Famous Names:

La Maison du Chocolat
Pacific Place, Admiralty; Elements, Kowloon.
www.lamaisonduchocolat.com

Jean-Paul Hévin
Ocean Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui; Times Square, Causeway Bay
www.jphevin.com

Leonidas
6 shops in HK, including Megabox, Kowloon; Seiyu, Shatin; Maritime Square, Tsing Yi
www.leonidas.com.hk

Godiva
14 shops in HK, including New Town Plaza, Shatin; Langham Place, Mong Kok; City Plaza, Tai Koo Sing
www.godiva.hk

See’s Candies
Elements, Kowloon; Festival Walk, Kowloon; The Landmark, Central
www.sees.com