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Dark Chocolate Recommendations

I found some sugar free marshmallows in Morrisons the other day, so they exist. As for dark chocolate I prefer the 75%+ type. Lindt is good, but again Morrisons do there own and it's not too bitter.
 
I've just come back from holiday in Iceland and in the smallest supermarkets in little villages I was amazed to find several ranges of chocolate made using stevia that I had never seen in UK. I tried Balance dark chocolate with orange and it was very edible. They did a range of other flavours too. However having done a Google search I can only find the brand at Holland & Barrett and then only in milk and ordinary dark chocolate.
 
Hotel Chocolat sells 3 varieties of 99% pure chocolate. So strong you need only a tiny scrap. £3.95. They will give you samples to help you choose. Just don't get distracted before you get to the counter.....
Jane
 
Dr oetker extra fine dark chocolate 72% cocoa from morrisons. It's a cooking chocolate, but delish. Comes in lots of small thick squares, just right for popping one square in and letting it melt away. It's usually cheaper than the others and with all the same ingredients.
 
I've remembered that aldi sell a range of chocolate sweetened with stevia, and with different additions - seeds, frozen raspberries etc. About £1.35 a bar I think and really quite pleasant, especially if you want chocolate with bits in.
 
I enjoy a square of very dark chocolate occasionally but the best I've had this year was some amazingly delicious hand-made, raw 90% no sugar chocolate which I found in Seville in January and which I eked out to last 3 months (honest!) Now kicking myself that I didn't bring back a lot more. Not very helpful, I know, but there is definitely good stuff out there...
 
Chocolate.

Great information in this thread about the choices available in our local retail outlets.

But I feel we are missing something.
I just don't get it.
Why do we consider Chocolate a treat?

Perhaps we need to contemplate this phenomena.
It's affordable. It satisfies a need. It's easy to digest.
So we might even like to consider calling it a 'food'?

You see, treats conjure up (feast and famine, rewards and presents.... ).
Addictions even?

After all Chocolate contains the basics - cocoa and fat.
The other additives, salt, sugars, flavourings etc. are just to make it palatable, appealing to the senses and of course marketable.

We all know it contains essentials that certainly hit 'the feel good factor''; and that's not only the sugar.

Climbers use it.

It's sustainance.

Pure Energy.

It's portable.

It's affordable.

As consumers we have labelling to guide us.
To check if it has been adulterated.
So that we know what we are getting.

So once we change our mindset and call it a Food.
We will start thinking differently.
Then we can start selecting by personal preference what it can do for us?

PS. Did you know that with global consumption of chocolate on the rise, due in part to improving economies in countries like China and India, it is being sought as a luxury good?
No?
That can only mean one thing for manufacturers.
Mass production and dilution.
Making a little go a long way.
 
FionaFlaherty said:
Chocolate.

Great information in this thread about the choices available in our local retail outlets.

But I feel we are missing something.
I just don't get it.
Why do we consider Chocolate a treat?

Perhaps we need to contemplate this phenomena.
It's affordable. It satisfies a need. It's easy to digest.
So we might even like to consider calling it a 'food'?

You see, treats conjure up (feast and famine, rewards and presents.... ).
Addictions even?

After all Chocolate contains the basics - cocoa and fat.
The other additives, salt, sugars, flavourings etc. are just to make it palatable, appealing to the senses and of course marketable.

We all know it contains essentials that certainly hit 'the feel good factor''; and that's not only the sugar.

Climbers use it.

It's sustainance.

Pure Energy.

It's portable.

It's affordable.

As consumers we have labelling to guide us.
To check if it has been adulterated.
So that we know what we are getting.

So once we change our mindset and call it a Food.
We will start thinking differently.
Then we can start selecting by personal preference what it can do for us?

PS. Did you know that with global consumption of chocolate on the rise, due in part to improving economies in countries like China and India, it is being sought as a luxury good?
No?
That can only mean one thing for manufacturers.
Mass production and dilution.
Making a little go a long way.
Click to expand...

I don't need to change my attitude to chocolate. I love it. :D Nothing wrong with that! lol.

I saw a tv programme once about the love of chocolate, and it discussed the different taste levels, the combo of fat and creaminess, etc. and it pointed out tht while normal foods probably have 2-3 different 'flavours', chocolate can have about 300! And that there are very few such foods/drinks with such complexity. I vaguely remember certain complex cheeses and fine wine being mentioned as comparators. Plus all the endorphine release issues.

Made perfect sense to me.

Besides, I eat 2-4 squares of it a day. Max. When you get to the hardcore 70+%s it is hard to overload, and intensely satisfying. So am very happy continuing with my present attitude of toe curling decadent delight every time I treat myself to such unadulterated pleasure. :hilarious: (especially considering all the enjoyable food that I no longer eat, in order to maintain my bg levels on target).
 
Peggysue21 said:
I have Epilepsy and Diabetes- would Moser Roth help
me
Click to expand...
Hi Peggy and welcome to the forum! To answer your question: it really depends. Moser Roth is just my personal favourite - in terms of taste and price!

There's a lot of evidence to suggest that these dramatically decreasing carbohydrate and sugar intake has beneficial effects for both epilepsy and diabetes (notably: weight loss, decreased seizure activity and decreased insulin resistance). Any 70%+ cocoa chocolate is a better option than standard chocolate - just be careful that you check the nutritional values to make sure there's not too many hidden carbs.

You can read a ton about the benefits low carb/ketogenic diet has for epilepsy here: https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/ketogenic-diet#.Vw4dw5MrKFU and the benefits it has for diabetes here: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/low-carb-diabetes-diet.html

If you're interested in finding out how you can go about low carbing, feel free to check out our 10-week low carb program at http://www.diabetes.co.uk/lowcarb :)
 
I use the Aldi 85% and then melt it, together with some coconut butter to bring down the % carb content and also add nuts/seeds or a combination so that it doesn't spike my blood sugar.You may need to experiment to find out what works best for you. I then place it on a cling film covered dish and put it in the fridge to set.

I also keep in a pack of the small bars for when the urge takes me
 
For flavour I'd recommend Willie's chocolate - either 180g pure chocolate block (cacao), or sugared flavoured bars - or Valrhona 250g dark chocolate bar for cooking, around 80%. If you're in Edinburgh, Coco make delicious chocolate bars with unusual flavours. If I can't get those or want something cheaper, Divine's 70% 100g bar is good; I use it for baking.

I mainly use Willie's 180g blocks because they taste great and I can control the sugar content. I use it in chocolate cooking, adding sugar to reduce the concentration, or hot chocolate - 50g with 150ml water makes hot chocolate, 5g of carbohydrate.

I flavour the water first by boiling it with a little chilli but you could use cinammon, sliced fresh ginger or whatever you like. You can sweeten it too but I like it black, like coffee with a very intense taste.

You can add a little raw chocolate to stews, especially game.

Eating raw chocolate - put a little on your tongue and allow it to warm and melt slowly; you'll get the taste with less bitterness.
 
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FionaFlaherty said:
So once we change our mindset and call it a Food.
We will start thinking differently.
Then we can start selecting by personal preference what it can do for us?

.
Click to expand...

It's still a food 'treat' for T2 diabetics though since we can only have one or two squares at a time. I define a 'food' as something that doesn't need to be rationed if I am hungry.
 
I discovered this 85% dark chocolate only have 3.9g of natural sugar in 100g (whole pack is 150g, so less than 6g of sugar for whole pack!). More importantly,It doesnt taste like those 85/90% dark chocolate on market as they added sugar substitute, which makes it tastes close to normal chocolate but with a bit of bitter kick. Highly recommend to give it a try!! I always have a pack of this at home and in office! My colleauges start getting this chocolate now!!
 

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noblehead said:
Aldi do a nice 85% Dark Chocolate under the brand name Moser Roth, each pack contains 5 individual bars that contains 4g of carbs each.

If you want something sweet then Lidl do a 70% Dark Chocolate with Caramel, the brand name is J.D Gross and each square of chololate has 5g of carbs (they are quite big squares), it's very moreish so do be warned :)
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@noblhead Hi, Steve here, really like how you pointed out the carbs per chunk, I'll do the same in future, as it will help newbies like me when out shopping for that little something, we all seem to like but like you say...not to get carried away! Thanks for this.Steve
 
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