What distinguishes gourmet pralines from regular chocolates?
Taste and price (better and higher). And oh, I guess also nutritional impact (which is bad bad bad). Ah, the benefits of cream and butter; Gregg Easterbrook calls Belgian pralines “depth charges.” • What goes into good chocolate? As a general rule of thumb, good chocolate should have a high percentage of cocoa. Chantal Coady feels 55-75% to be a good number. Of this, some 30% should be cocoa butter. Most of the remaining 25% or so of the bar consists of sugar. The cocoa content of lower quality chocolate will be “cut” with extra sugar, and cocoa solids will be replaced with other milk solids and vegetable fats. When looking for good chocolate, Coady recommends to start first with dark chocolate. Of these, she ranks Valrhona’s Grand Cru as among the best. With regards to milk chocolate, Coady also gives kudos to Valrhona for their bars (in particular, their Jivara Lactée). She also likes Lindt milk chocolate. Valrhona is a French producer, while Lindt is Swiss. Other good brands are El
