The Best Things in Life Can Be Pricey

For those of you who had better things to do than read blogs over the holidays, you missed out on the story everyone was linking to: this ten-part expose of the Noka chocolate company. It was a well-done piece, by someone who really knows his chocolate. Apparently there is an important distinction between "chocolate makers" and "chocolatiers." The former actually pick the cacao beans and turn them into chocolate, while the latter will buy basic chocolate ("couverture") from someone else and turn it into truffles or into whatever other form you prefer your dark sinful goodness. A pretty good system, overall; no shame in representing either half of the pipeline, although many manufacturers do serve both functions. Noka is a chocolatier -- one of the most expensive in the world. Hundreds of dollars per pound, minimum. The problem is that Noka pretends to make their own chocolate from scratch, even ...