"World's most exclusive chocolate bar"?

That's the headline of this report in the Telegraph.

Hotel Chocolat, the grower, manufacturer and retailer of desirable cocoa-based confections, is about to launch what is pitched as the most exclusive bar of chocolate in the world.

Their Rabot Estate Marcial 70 per cent dark comes not just from a single estate - their own plot in St Lucia - but from one area or "cote" of that estate. The label also specifies not only the year of harvest, the temperature and time of roasting and the duration of the refining process, but also the name of the chocolatier in charge - Olivier Nicod, if you wish to make a note.

This is the most extreme example yet of chocolate specialisation, which has seen manufacturers calling ever-greater attention to the origin, strength and other credentials of their product.

. . .

The aim is to take premium chocolate in the same direction as fine wine, to encourage consumers to develop greater knowledge so that they will be prepared to spend more money on the best examples. Such exclusive items often produce healthy profit margins.

There's more at the link.

I've never considered chocolate to be equivalent to wine in terms of vintage or area of origin.  I'm not sure whether I want to see this sort of marketing push succeed . . . if it does, it'll add a whole new smorgasbord of snobbery to already-ghastly gastronomes!





Peter