Some chocolates are so exceptional that the memory of that first taste lingers long after the last bite. Among my most memorable encounters is Bare Bones’ 68% Salted Dominican—a modest bar whose complex flavors seem to play on the palate for hours. Then there's Pralus’ Barre Infernale (orange), a robust chocolate brick with a delightfully dark, jammy orange center. Neuhaus’s nougatine and fresh vanilla cream Caprice, savored after a period of strict dietary restraint, felt like a moment of pure bliss.
Zotter’s Plum Brandy was my introduction to filled chocolate bars—intended as a single bite, it quickly became the whole bar, devoured with python-like enthusiasm on an Oxford Street pavement. And Sur Alfajores’ 70% original—a thick chocolate coating over an orangey biscake with dulce de leche—tastes like the ultimate wagon wheel.