Customer Reviews

The Chocolate Companion

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you love chocolate - and I do love chocolate - then this book is a must have!!!

It highlights the finest chocolates from around the world!!! It includes addresses, phone numbers and histories of the most reknowned chocolatiers!!!

And if I never have the opportunity to taste some of these chocolates in this life - at least I'll have the chance to sample them through the savory descriptions in the 'tasting notes' - not quite the same - but delicious in it's own right!!!

This book covers the map, litterally. Anywhere in the world they have chocolate, Chantal Coady has been there and tasted them and here she gives your her astute biased opinion with pictures of the maker's actual chocolate bonbons. Does it get better than this? You can learn a lot from the little guide and come out way ahead on your chocolate connoiseurship.

Some of you may know that I run a group called The Chocolate Cult where we specialize in reviews of products and all forms of culture related to Chocolate. I got this book wanting to see if someone else was doing something similar. Not quite and the book falls flat on a few fronts.

The photos are very lovely in this book and I liked that Chantal Coady covered chocolates from around Europe with some in America, one in South America, one from Canada, and a European company with a Japanese shop. At first this might seem like variety but I've seen many chocolate competitions and we've reviewed products from a wider range of locations in our short time around. Give this is supposed to be a connoisseur's guide, perhaps it is simply a matter that other areas have yet to product this level of chocolate.

However, that would be acceptable if all of these companies received 4 or 5 stars yet we have many 3 star and even a few 2 star listed companies. But what does this rating system mean? It is unclear and the listing for them may give titles but we are never told the criteria for judgement. One problem with the judgements is that this book is supposed to be by Chantal Coady, herself a chocolatier, yet her shop is one of those listed. Granted she doesn't review it but doesn't that seem like a conflict of interest?

The process of reviewing is very vague. At times Coady discusses what arrived, the packaging, and several of the sense yet at other times this information or part of it is missing. It is not clear how she got these chocolates. Did she purchase them or were they given to her by the chocolatiers wishing to be in the book? Without that information how can we judge how unbiased her reviews may be?

The introductory sections are great because they provide a good brief history of chocolate and some facts about chocolate that are clearly written. The photos are color and well placed; you can almost feel and smell the chocolate. The advice for tasting chocolate is good but I'd say you should use water not wine because then you cannot have conflicting flavors.

This item was not quite what I thought it was. The online description was a bit vague.