?

All of it, obviously.

I like Sainsbury’s fair trade Belgian dark chocolate. 2 squares do the trick.

Green & Blacks 85% dark chocolate. I prescribe at least 5cm3/day.

only works with a good glass of red…

Two to four pieces of Lindt with hazlenuts for me washed down with half a bottle of Shiraz.

Stress relief from chocolate? Think your barking up the wrong tree mate. Even if you ate 5 bars of lindt 99%, I reckon you’d be better off talking to Jim Beam!

2 pieces seem to have the same effect on me as a strong coffee. So a whole bar could be an issue!

For the majority of dark chocolate on the market (whilst it has “beneficial” properties towards health) the resultant process it has to endure to end up as Cacoa reduces the natural antioxidants by 70%-80%, At the moment i’m using (ie-experimenting 😀 ) with a variety of dark chocolate from our supplier (callebaut) called Aticoa (catchy….huh 🙄 )that reduces this figure to 20%, from independant data it appears that just 8g-10g of this chocolate per day will supply over 100% of the recommended intake of antioxidants – whether this is just marketing bullshit i remain to be convinced but as they are a Billion£+ company i doubt they’d not do the research beforehand.

I’m also working (alright…..buggering about really 😀 ) with single estate/plantation Porcelana cocoa beans – these are the premier league of cocoa and a poor analogy could be made with the very top quality champagne grapes, if you don’t know how to treat them then you should leave well alone but if you get it right then it’s worth it, if you have to ask how much a bar? – you can’t afford it.

And as for dark chocolate cacao content? – it has to be at least 70%, no more than 85% otherwise the bitterness is hard to distinguish from the aroma and taste.

This is an important debate I’m having with Mrs Kryton. She’s totally against a post work pint / brandy (her dad was alchoholic) so on mentioning it as a crutch to reduce my stress levels, I mention dark chocolate of course (Lindt in the fridge).

One wonders if there is some formulae to measure amount/stress reduction. Various mags say is reduces stress and is healthy – but how much and why?

Glad someone agrees me that the one-upmanship with cacao content is silly.

I love 70%, I eat 85% cos it’s got less sugar in it 🙂

Kryton

Do you not have a pussy or an old dog that you can stroke ?

Pets are very good for stress reduction.

Not as cheap as chocolate thoughbut 🙂

Kryton

Do you not have a pussy or an old dog that you can stroke ?

I don’t like dogs and we have two kids – that should answer both your questions?

or staying with the nautical theme we stared with….

Or if you’d stroked the old dog then you wouldn’t have had two kids… sorry 8)

Am still ploughing through several bars of black Moser Roth from hols

I don’t seem to be leave the kitchen without a piece of this at present. Available from a Lidl near you:

A large bar of dairy milk everyday, keeps Mrs Smith pretty much stress free not sure about dark though!!!!Although she`s given it up for lent and moved on to a large bag of marshmallows with no adverse effects!!!

Just noticed this on the BBC website regarding Cocoa content, if i’m being honest and with my 6yr+ experience of working with the stuff from so called mass market (but way better than that cadbury’s/nestle’s shite) chocolate with 37% cocoa content right up to single estate/ single grower micro plantation with 90% Cocoa content i say there is a happy medium bout the 75% to 85% Cocoa content mark, anything stronger whilst it can be used in certain procedures to develop a blend or used sparingly in a dark ganache to great effect but for those who express a liking for a solid bar of 100% Cocoa or such like is generally a case of the emperors new clothes or as i prefer to call it a “w@nk-up oneship” for those who profess to a preference for it over a more rounded and developed milder, more flavoursome lower cocoa content that melts in the mouth without granulation.

Hotel chocolat are a quality brand (one of our competitors) but they are very-very adapt at marketing to their customer base who are extraordinary snobs of the highest order and wouldn’t notice a decent bar of chocolate if it smacked them round their fat arses – they are more interested in having the correct labels on show etc, we could quite easily come out with a 100% cocoa content bar t’morn but it would taste extremely bitter and be a purely marketing or fashion led thing – sorry, not doing it – if it tastes like shite then it is shite.

I love 70%, I eat 85% cos it’s got less sugar in it

+1

Lots. I’m addicted to the Lindt or Hotel Chocolat chilli ones.

You cannot beat Cadburys dairy milk.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21847447

Sightly annoyed because the Lindt I have in the fridge refers to the use of “blended cocoa beans”…