Re: Chocolate makers vs. chocolatiers

Farrel wrote:
>>     Well I buy stuff from retailers and even Trader Joe's has it own
>> factory which
>> was recently moved leading to supply problems.  Maybe TJ's factory just
>> makes
>> the bars but I think it may be working on the chocolate production as
well.
>> Last I heard it was in Belgium though.
>>     
>
> I have no knowledge, but would be very surprised if Trader Joe made
> their own chocolate. I would strongly presume that they have
> contracted with a Belgian chocolate maker to produce bars under the
> Trader Joe name. Incidentally, their chocolate is wonderful and on a
> price per gram basis is darn darn cheap. I once did an interesting
> comparsion of regular Hershey bar (60 g or so) vs Lindt bar vs Barry
> Callebaut broken up into 500g blocks by Whole Foods and Trader Joe
> slab (about 250g). The last two were so much cheaper (per gram) and
> Trader Joe's was phenomenally cheap. But then with so much chocolate
> in the house one just eats more chocolate. That invevitably costs more
> money and more time. The time is need to exercise to burn the energy
> content off. I have no chocolate satiety center in my brain.
>   
    If I could not limit myself to an ounce or less of chocolate
per day I would have to quit eating it.  Usually I hold myself
to a third of an ounce and a tablespoon of cocoa in my drink
in the morning.  Of course once a month I chop up a couple
of ounces of chocolate, and with 6 tablespoons of cocoa and
3 of chocolate bits make my infamous rice muffins with
walnuts and cranberries.  6 muffins that is and I freeze them
to eat over the next couple of weeks.

    I do love my chocolate but moderation in all things but
recipes.

	later
	bliss -- C  O C O A  Powered... (at california dot com)

-- 
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
 It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
 the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
 It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
	--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.