Yes, when it gets above 73% chocolate, it _does_ taste and feel like crayons.

Having said that, yes, Hershey's (made by the chocolatier Hershey, and hence, belonging to or issuing from Hershey, and hence, yes, "Hershey's"--what's the problem?) is crap.

Lindt is great, and so is Lake Champlain.

This slightly interesting piece was a round about way of saying that educated people, many liberal ("politically conscious") are schmucks, insecure assholes who spend most of their waking hours worrying about their status. What else is new? Check out New York magazine sometime, which has "upscale" "achievers" shitting over whether they bought the best stoller for their probably horrible offspring.

If it weren't for fancy dark chocolate, I'd eat no chocolate at all...because I'm allergic to milk, damn it! Not lactose intolerant, but lip-swelling allergic. And even Hershey's Dark (which I loved as a child) has milk in it. The proliferation of high end chocolates means that I have choices, and I don't have to settle for (ugh) carob, or a single kind of health-food chocolate bar. I don't drink wine, so I might as well go high-end on something.

I love dark chocolate. Not because I can taste 400 flavours, but because it's not syrup-y sweet like many milk chocolates on the market. Overly sweet chocolate tends to just taste *sweet*, but not really chocolate-y. I've tried Lindt, Valrhona, Scharffen Berger, Green and Black, Jacques Torres, Garrison, etc. Why? Because I like it. Not because I think I'm "better" for trying it. Not because I'm seeking enlightment from it. Not because I'm working down a list of "must haves". I try different brands of chocolate to see how different companies make their product. Some, I love. Some are just marketing and fluff. But I don't feel that you eating Snickers makes you "less" and me "more". It just makes us different and that's OK.

So Oliver, I'll buy expensive chocolates....but if we ever meet, I'll share and probably spring for you a pack of M&M's just to show that there's no hard feelings.

I am a child of European immigrants, and a lover of milk chocolate, who always preferred brands like Lindt over Hershey, which tasted peculiar to me. We purchased Swiss, Dutch, and Belgian chocolates in our household.

As an adult, I've come to find that certain candy bars that are common here, like Kit Kat bars, taste much richer across the pond, because the quality of chocolate is higher, and they are also available in a variety of flavors. Last year I became addicted to special edition Kit Kat bars with fruit fillings of seville orange and red berry (a blend of strawberry, raspberry, and cranberry). Sadly, they are no longer available, and this year, Kit Kat introduced pedestrian peanut butter and mint flavored bars. I'm sure they taste better than their American counterparts, but I didn't bother sampling any because they seemed juvenile and uninspired compared to the more grown-up palate-pleasers I fell in love with last year.

There are certain Cadbury chocolate varieties, like the Banoffee bar, that I seek out when I travel each year in Ireland and the British Isles, but I've become loyal consumer of Butlers Irish Handmade Chocolates (www.butlerschocolates.com). They're every bit as good, if not better, than the finest Belgian chocolates, and I'm not referring to those overrated, waxy Godiva chocolates.

P.S. The Guittard Chocolate Company is located in Burlingame, not Burlington, California.

...ultimately we all benefit. Remember how absolutely horrible coffee was about 30 years ago? Restaurants would serve that horrid burned stuff, all watered down and disgusting...And as someone else pointed out, 30 years ago iceberg lettuce was the standard, and now you can gorge yourself on mache, arugula, baby spinach or plain old romaine. I grew up on Cadbury's, and I think Hersheys just tasks wrong, but to each her own. I've tried the fancy dark chocolates (Sharffenberger for instance), and they remind me of those baking bars people buy at the grocery store. Bleah.

But of course, given that I live in Northern California, I'm surrounded by snobby foodies who think Sharfenberger is the standard.

Okay, it wasn't wax, it was just 'waxlike'.

Hershey had solved that riddle long ago by simply replacing the cocoa butter in the Ration D with a fat that could withstand extremely high temperatures. The problem was that the substitute fats always made the chocolate taste terrible, like eating a mixture of wax and chalk.

Excerpted from The Emperors of Chocolate by Joël Glenn Brenner

A short correction: the Guittard factory is in Burlingame, not Burlington, California. I worked in an office nearby for three years, and often would get out of my car in the morning and breath in the smell of chocolate mixed with the smell of eucalyptus trees. It was heavenly.

I remember once, when there was an accident on Highway 101, the radio reporter asked why it smelled like cookies while on-air.

My 2 cents on chocolate: I like the high-cacao content stuff. I also like Hershey's with almonds. It's real bliss to go to Fog City News on Market Street in San Francisco and try out all the great new chocolate you can get today, some with flavors that would never fly with kids (cardamom! chile!)

--Kate W.

Yes, I guess I'm a chocolate snob as well. I also remember my father coming home in the mid-70's with my first Hershey's Special Dark. Funny, I don't like it anymore so maybe a previous poster is correct about its changing formula.

My taste buds for better chocolate developed early in life, with my first Lindt bar as a teen. I've refused to eat cheap chocolate ever since. I still can taste the 2 lb. box of assorted ganaches I got at a small chocolatier in France 3 years ago. I'd rather go without than eat something mass-produced.

I was only recently turned onto high percentage by my chiropractor who sold me a $3 bar of Dagoba last fall. I made that thing last a week, taking only one or two squares a day and it was really all I needed. This article actually helped me out a lot because the letters have given me plenty of brands to seek out now!

But chocolate isn't the only thing I'm picky about. I'm currently into Vermont Butter & Cheese Co.'s cultured butter which is just heaven. Who cares if its $5 for a half lb.? My car just turned over to 200k! Years ago I used to bring back restaurant packets of butter from europe. The europeans really know how to make butter, even if its just plain ol' Presidente. Keller's Pflugre is a nice supermarket find that comes close to the real thing but the VT B&C stuff is just plain beautiful. It even comes infused with sea salt crystals. I get it at a small grocer but you can find it at Wegmans if you're lucky enough to have one.

Why not take time out to enjoy your food? I hand pick from the bins each green bean from my favorite local market, out of my way, who is also the only place I go to for fresh corn in the summer eventhough I live in corn utopia where there's a local market practically every mile. I also yearn to find that batch of red plums with the red insides instead of yellow, a rare find indeed.

But at the same time I'm never without a jar of Cheese Whiz in the fridge and plenty of times I prefer my favorite brand of frozen pizza over run-of-the-mill pizza parlors. And you really can't get enough of Mrs. T's pierogies which I find way more appealing than the deli section, fresh variety.

It really just comes down to what you like and what you're passionate about. No need to get all indignant about it if your tastes run differently.