180px-MOZARTkugeln“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept. chocolate will revive you. But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?” — Marquise de Sevigne

Do you usually bring a fruitcake as a gift to the Christmas party? This year make some changes in your holiday list  and include new  inexpensive, healthy and elegant gifts–a collection of the best gourmet chocolates from around the world. I am sure, your family members, friends and hosts of the holiday parties never expected to have it for Christmas or New Year, but would love to have it. Give them a collection of the best gourmet chocolates that are known worldwide for centuries.

Many famous actors, writers and other personalities are big fans of the  fine chocolate. They consider it one of the must-to-have everyday healthy foods, giving energy, vigor and a feeling of joy.

  • “My favorite thing in the world is a box of fine European chocolate which is, for sure, better than sex,” thinks Alicia Silverstone.
  • Sharon Stone declares, ” I’m a chocolate fiend, but only dark chocolate.”
  • John Travolta said once, “I probably have some sort of chocolate five times a week. There’s definitely a change it does to the chemistry of the body. It’s my favorite feeling. I live for it.”
  • “Biochermically, love is just like eating large amounts of chocolate,” these words came out from Al Pacino playing John Milton in the Devil’s Advocate.
  • “What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate,” confessed Katherine Hepburn
  • Sandra Bullock has her own opinion about how chocolate is important in your life, especually for women. She said,  ”Chocolate is the greatest gift to women ever created, next to the likes of Paul Newman and Gene Kelly. It’s something that should be had on a daily basic.”

According to Baron Justin von Liebig, “Chocolate Is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficient restorer of exhausted power. ” So, restore somebody else’s exhausted power, give them hope for the best New Year ahead, inspiration and a smile.

Buy good quality, dark chocolate for yourself and give it as an elegant gift. You can put together this fine ’collection” for $$5-10-$15-$20-$25. It depends of how much you want to spend. As Sandra Boynton, a children’s author, said, “the greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and by Shakespeare. Neither knew of chocolate. The Swiss are known for nonviolence. They are also known for superb chocolate.”

The source of chocolate, the seeds of the cacao (cocoa) tree are known and used by many different cultures. First, in prehistoric Central America, then in Mayan and Aztec civilization, then around the world “the chocolate news” were spread by the great colonial powers. But we know that cocoa beans are an important part in gastronomie, in  religious ceremonies, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, medical practice, economic development, farming, and social history.

Here is the List of 24  holiday bittersweet gifts–fine chocolates. I chose the best chocolates, containing not less than 60% of cocoa. The reason for that is simple: the higher percent of cocoa is in chocolate, the smaller percent of sugar it has. So why you don’t  gain weight by eating even five times per week this kind of chocolate. Isn’t sound healthy to you? Read my previous post about the benefits of eating fine, dark chocolate.

  1. Ghana De Choco, Theo Chocolate (84% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). This company is only one roaster of organic coffee beans in the U.S. Fair Trade Certified cocoa beans are the source of this organic chocolate.
  2. Cavalier Belgian Chocolate, 55% Cocoa, Bitter. It is produced from 1996 by a young and dynamic family company in the heart of Flanders and became a leader of dietetic chocolates for consumes looking for healthier and still delicious chocolates.
  3. Valrhona Chuao, and Carabe,65% Cocoa, Extra Bitter; Valrhona Le Noir Amer, 71% Cocoa, Extra Bitter — famous with chefs around the world, ir was founded by M.Guironnet, a pastry chef from the Rhone Valley in 1924. Today ist is a supplier of high quality raw chocolate.
  4. Bonnat Madagascar, Puerto Cabello, Cote d’Ivoire, Hacienda El Rosario, Trinite, 75% Cocoa, Extra Bitter Bonnat is a story of a family’s long love affair with chocolate which began in 1884 in France.
  5. Chocolove, Rich Dark 65% Cocoa), Extra Strong Dark (77% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Strong Dark (70% Cocoa, Extra Sweet). This full-bodied chocolate comes in delicate balance of lightly toasted cocoa to enhance the character of the cocoa itself.
  6. Cote d’Or, Noir de Noir Intense 70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Sensations Brut (86 % Cocoa, Extra Bitter). Cote d’Or is one of the oldest chocolate bar brands with a legacy of delicious Belgian chocolate produced in many varieties from 1870. The brand was named after the “Gold Coast” (today is known as Ghana) where a portion of selected cocoa beans come from.
  7. Dagoba, New Moon Chocolate (74% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Eclipse Chocolate (87% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Conacado Organic Chocolate (73% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Dark Chocolate (59% Cocoa, Semisweet). Dagoba Organic Chocolate was founded in 2000 by alchemist Frederick Schilling with the mission to create the purest, most exquisite chocolate by combining ancient principles and modern methods. As a result, the company offers new. organic and exotic products and helps to create a better world through organic, sustainable, ethical trading and eco-friendly manufacturing practices.
  8. Divine, Darkly Divine Chocolate (70% Cocoa, Bitter Sweet) made from cocoa beans grown in Ghana since the mid of 19th century by Good Cocoa farmers company. Their motto is “pa, pa, pa” which means “the best of the best.”
  9. Dolfin, Noir Bitter (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Noir Extra Bitter (88% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). Founded by Michael and jean-Francois Poncelet in 1989, the brothers produce about 220 tonnes of  fine chocolate in the best Belgian tradition. Their top-of-the range bars and Neopolitan chocolate squares are offered in prestigious emporioums in London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and other capitals of the world.
  10. Domori, Puertomar (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Puertofino & Porcelana (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Grand Blend No.1 (78% Cocoa, Extra Bitter) Domori was founded on the peninsula Paria in Venezuela with a poetic vision of chocolate and innovation in new ways of presenting high quality chocolate to their consumers.
  11. El Rey, Apamate (74% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Mijao Dark Chocolate & Gran Saman Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter) For centuriee, manufactures of Swiss, French and Belgian chocolate have blended diferent cacao beans coming from different parts of the world. The best flavor comes from beans like Venezuelian Criollo and Trintario blended with basic beans from Africa. Blending is a time-honored tradition by chocolate makers, but El Rey doesn’t blend different beans. From, 1929 its chocolates made from 100% Venezuelian cacao, the most aromatic and flavorful in the world.
  12. Feodora Grand’Or 75% Cocoa, Bitter Sweet Made by one of the top chocolatiers in Germany, this natural product has intense flavor thanks to the best selected cocoa beans which are twice rolled, real Bourbon Vanilla, and a 72-hour long special production method giving chocolate its incredible smoothness.
  13. Galler, Chocolate Noir Bitter (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter) and Chocolate Noir Extra Bitter (85% Cocoa, Extra Bitter) coming from Liege, Belgium. This chocolate factory founded by jean Galler in 1976 in the backroom of his father’s pastry shop. Today Galler makes its unigue artisanal Prailine-filled bars with so exquisite taste that in 1994 Jean Galler became the official Belgian Royal Warrant Holder for his chocolate products.
  14. Giraudi, Cumarebo (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Fondente (80% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Riobamba (91% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Acarigua (100% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). Giraudu is a family’s passion to produce fine chocolates as an art. This is what makes their products so unique.
  15. Green & Black’s, Dark (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). This company has been a pioneer in the organic and fair trade chocolate industry. Craig Sams, founder of Whole Earth, one of the first organic food companies, and his wife, environment columnist for The Times, and confirmed chocoholic, Josephine Fairley teamed up and made the world’s first organic, high quality, bittersweet dark chocolate.   It tastes so good that it became popular with many chocolate fans who started buying it daily.
  16. L’Artisan du Chocolat, Dominican Republic, Venezuala and New Guinea (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Tanzania (75% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). Even these products sound French, they are made by hand in Atelier near London from the finest natural raw ingredients. Use of artisan rather than mass production techniques is a guarantee here that you get extraordinary chocolates.
  17. Lindt, Excellence Bitter (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), Excellence Extra Bitter (85% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). This name is familiar to all consumers, even not chocolate lovers. Started in the second half of the 18th century, the Swiss chocolate pioneers had a hard way to go and prove that chocolate is a great product. It took chocolate  innovators from the Tessin just a few decades to  experiment, produce and promote Swiss chocolates which gained popularity and reputation with millions of fans around the world up to the present time.
  18. Weiss Chocolate (85% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). This company was founded is Saint-Etienne in France in 1882 ands sacredly keeps alive a century tradition of making high quality French chocolate.
  19. Valor Gourmet Chocolate (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter) was born in 1881 and still keeps its reputation as fine chocolate.
  20. Villars is also fine chocolate made by Wilheim Kaiser chocolate factory in Fribourg from 1901.
  21. Michel Cluizel, Amer 60 percent, Ilha Toma (65%, Extra Bitter), 1er Cru d’Hacienda “Concepcion” ( 66% Cocoa, Extra Bitter), 1er Cru d’Hacienda (67% Cocoa, Extra Bitter) ”Los Ancones, Chocolate Grand Amer (85% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). Michel Gluizel company was founded in 1948 in the south of Normandy. At first I was thinking why this French family owned business gives their products a “blend” of French-Spanish names, than I understood , the company have close connections with plantations aal around the world, including Venezuela, Ghana, Sumatra, Java, and the Ivory Coast. Using ingredients from these countries they blend them (as the names of the products) into decent quality chocolate bars, avoiding to use soya lecithin, as other manufacturers do.
  22. Pralus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Sao Tome, Venezuela, Indonesia, Madagascar, Ghana, all have 75% Cocoa and Extra Bitter. Founder of this company, Francois Pralus, dedicated his business to the artisan production of fine chocolates made with the best cocoa beans from Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
  23. Scharffen Berger, Extra Bitter, Porcelana, Bitter (70% Cocoa, Extra Bitter)Two long-time friends Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger founded their company, and in 1997 made their first batch in the South San Francisco factory. It was so delicious that even Julia Child loved it.
  24. Slitti Gran Cacao (73% Cocoa, Extra Bitter). Since 1969 the Slitti family has been known for its excellence in coffee products, but recently they created exceptional chocolates with 45%, 51%, 62% and 70% Cocoa to please the lovers of dark chocolate.

You can buy these chocolate online at http://www.worldwidechocolate.com and other fine or organic foods Internet sites, and give a Christmas or New Year’s gift of the gourmet chocolate to people you love and wish them the best.

References: http://finedarkchocolate.com