The trend of super-premium chocolate has been creeping up on me in the last few months, but as yet, I hadn't poked my toe into that puzzling water. My reluctance had something to do with the fact that I suspect the distinctions between chocolate terroirs, or whatever the correct word for the differing tastes of regional cocao beans might be, is a little too subtle for my clumsy palate. If I have trouble with wine (in peevish moments, I think that people who claim to taste things like leather in wine are making things up to amuse themselves, somewhat like people who claim to discern meaning in modern art - in both cases, I realize the fault is in me), and I do, then I didn't see how I could taste the presumably minute differences between chocolates.

Anyway, I went to Chocolate Bar NYC last night, on the way to Bleeker Street for some cheese (is Bleeker Street the best street for food in Manhattan? It certainly has a claim). I had worked up an appetite on my walk from midtown, where I live, so I sat on the pavement on a side street and ate the 3 oz. bar on the spot, since the cafe area of the shop was far too cool looking for me to be comfortable in.

The 72% cocoa bar was good chocolate, no doubt. It broke with a satisfying crisp snap, rather than the dull thud of crap chocolate (snap a Hershey's and listen), and the taste was of astringent comfort. Is it better chocolate than the better than half price equivalent from the Swiss company Lindt? Probably so. But right now, due to my own inadequacy, and my familiarity with the taste of Lindt, it would probably fail the Pepsi challenge. I can accept that, I suppose, but I think the better path is probably to educate myself with a few more bars of premium chocolate, working up to the relatively new 99% (almost inedible, I hear) chocolates that have come on the market. At the very least, it'll be pleasant work.