Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Very well done! Cook's Illustrated did a very similar test under scientific testing rules and came to a similar conclusion. This is the last paragragh in their review: What do we recommend? The more expensive chocolates--Scharffen Berger, Callebaut, Ghirardelli, and Valrhona -- were all well liked and received similar scores. If you are willing to buy in bulk by mail, Callebaut turns out to be a best buy. Of the three mass-market brands (Nestle, Baker's, and Hershey's), Nestle received more positive comments and significantly higher scores. In fact, there were so many negative comments about Baker's and Hershey's that we cannot recommend either chocolate. It's important to remember, though, that chocolate, much like coffee, is a matter of personal preference, so consider each brand in order to find a chocolate that suits your palate. The gamut of flavors runs from "nutty" and "cherry" to "smoky," "earthy," and "spicy."

I love, love, love Guittard chocolate for baking, especially their semi-sweet. If ya wanna get all fancy order their semi sweet, milk and bittersweet and experiment with mixing them. Sooo good! It is slightly less expensive than SB ($12 per lb) and the flavor in my opinion is superior.

For pure chocolate flavor, I like Valrhona chocolate. But my preferred baking chocolate is Scharffen Berger, because of it's amazing chocolate taste and fruitiness. I'm a little biased because I'm from San Francisco and Scharffen Berger is in Berkeley.

Every 6 months, I buy a 2.2 kg box of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate. It's a little cheaper buying in bulk and the chocolate is in approx. 1 oz pieces. I highly recommend taking their chocolate factory tour, if you are in the Bay Area.

Mmmm! I love brownies.

But I have to point out that the fancy baking chocolate you used is dark chocolate and well, being a fan of dark chocolate no other kind of chocolate stands a chance against the dark. And I always use dark in my baking.

I think I'll go home and bake something!

Good to see you here Ree.

Cool. I've now determined that you can write about any topic in an entertaining way. I think someone could ask you to write on a labor and delivery blog about the joys of the episiotomy and you would probably have us rolling in our desk chairs with laughter. And now that I said the "e" word on a food blog, I think I may have just sealed my fate -- I will probably soon be banned.

I have no doubt the super good baker's chocolate would be better... but sheesh. How much money do I have to spend on a sinful (no matter how cheap it is) treat that will soon make its way through my digestive system and land directly on my tush? I'm thinking I probably wouldn't want to make a regular practice of it at all for the sake of my tush... but especially not if I'm going to have to sell my cows in order to do it.

Now if I'm going out to eat, that's another thing... or if I'm receiving it as a gift from the neighbor or if I am being involved in a highly publicized taste test... well, I'd prefer the higher quality any day! Okay... and I guess if I was having someone super dooper special over for dinner... I might go for the gold (and hock all of mine) and get the expensive stuff.

Thanks for the read Ree. You know you are someone's dedicated fan when you join a new website just to make a silly rambling comment...
:^D

I totally agree with Kater.. I too live in a small southern town without a lot of access to fancy schmancy chocolates (and a whole lot of canned and boxed foods!) I do try to get as creative and fresh as possible... but shopping at the piggly wiggly it ain't always possible. My husband is so picky as well that, he'd probably only eat the betty crocker! And absolutely there is no shame in enjoying what you cook with what you have! Necessity is after all the mother of invention... and she's gotta be down here!!