Submitted by johnmcboston t3_z2emtw in boston
Anyone know a good location to get some block chocolate? I'd like to make some Bark again for Christmas. Last year I ended up just melting down chocolate chips. Hoping to up the quality a bit this year and get some quality block Dark and White chocolate. Most grocery stores don't seem to carry such. Any good ideas?
Trader Joes chocolate uses too much coconut oil. It really ruins it for me. But it is easy on your budget, and they always have plenty in stock.
Saw a display of block chocolate at Arlington Whole Foods today. Not sure about quality
Make sure that it’s sweetened
hehe - indeed. not looking for baking chocolate.
Whole Foods has blocks of both sweetened and unsweetened chocolate. It’s on the pricier side though.
As an accidental current owner of a block of completely unsweetened whole foods chocolate i’d recommend reading the label closely.
The block chocolate in the Specialty section at Whole Foods is Callebaut. Good stuff!
Local chocolatier Taza, Somerville based, sells bulk chocolate, very expensive. I'm not a huge fan of the texture of their bars, but that's just me. No question it is high quality. If you like a certain brand, search for their website and order in bulk if they have it available. (e.g. you can buy 35 lbs of Ghirardelli from the website for around $7.20 a lb; Valhrona has a wide selection for higher than that, some in bar form, some not; Lindt sells not quite 1/2 lb bars for a little over $5).
Otherwise here's a Serious Eats article about good chocolate bars, many of which I have seen at Whole Foods or other higher-end stores like Pemberton Farms or Cardullo's in Cambridge.
>https://www.seriouseats.com/baking-with-chocolate
Cool article - thanks. Agree Taza wouldn't do well for Bark. I'll check out those stores as well - thanks
Restaurant Depot used to have some
Marty's Fine Wines in Newton in the gourmet food section.
Whole Foods at Fresh Pond and River St. usually has some this time of year. Lately I've been using the Guittard chocolate for all my seasonal candy. It's expensive, but darker than most and better than Ghirardelli to my taste. They sell their chocolate chips and baking chocolate at WFM. They also used to carry Valrhona but I am not sure if they still do.
That's what I ended up using last year (I love Guittard chips for cookies). Wasn't the worst, just hoping for something different this time. We'll see what I can find.
Sometimes they have the big blocks in a display basket in the cheese or deli section rather than in the baking aisle. It's just big chunks of unbranded baking chocolate wrapped in plastic wrap with a deli sticker slapped on it.
We get ours from Restaurant Depot but you need a membership for that. Last I checked, the Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge (near fresh pond, not the tiny Kendall one) sells the same block chocolate as Restaurant Depot. It's great quality but especially from Formaggio it's expensive. I would give them a call.
Ink Block wholefoods
Really? Never seen anything like that in their baking section...
It’s at the end of the aisle toward the backend of the store. They usually have Valhrona (sp?), which I’d definitely recommend. I see a few others have recommended it and it really is the best you can get. I worked for a chocolate maker (burdicks) for many years and we used valhrona.
Its over by the cheese counter a display. Near champagne facing the vitamin section.
Whole Foods
Traders joes
There's a Läderach in the Pru but it's fairly expensive. Fantastic chocolate though
UndercoverPages t1_ixgdyhh wrote
Let me suggest a couple of budget options.
Trader Joe's Pound Plus chocolate bars are 17.6 oz and cost $4.99. They have milk chocolate and dark chocolate, but no white chocolate that I've seen.
You might also want to look into melting wafers. You can find them in the baking aisle of the supermarket. They are designed to be melted and reformed. They are usually used for fruit, like chocolate covered strawberries. However, they would work for bark as well. Ghirardelli makes them in dark, milk and white and they sell for about $5 for a 10 oz bag.