Happy 30th birthday, David!

On Sunday we had a surprise 30th birthday celebration for my co-blogger David. Obviously that meant we had 30 cakes. Here is what they all looked like:







We'd had a lot of leftover chocolate chips from our chocolate party. Our friend Danielle took them all--I mean like hundreds or possibly thousands of chocolate chips--and baked them into vegan cakes.

Here is the birthday boy himself cutting into a cake:



Here is what a plate with samples from the various options looked like. There was also milk, as you can see, but I didn't touch it. Milk is just a thing that takes up room in your stomach when that room could be better used for more chocolate.



We'd asked every party guest to bring with them two bars of chocolate. So at the end of the party we sent David home with all the bars pictured here, on the bottom shelf. Stay tuned as we review them over the weeks/months to come. You know, just in case you were worried we were running out of material.



Happy birthday, David, and many happy returns of the day! Thanks for giving us an excuse to eat 30 chocolate cakes.

Blossom Chocolate Ganache with Chocolate "Ice Cream"

You can't see this, but it was pretty good:

We've discussed Blossom before.  This dessert was from the branch in Chelsea.  Of the three Blossom desserts now reviewed, this is probably the best.  Again, the cake isn't perfect, but the ganache is very nice.  The chocolate ice cream was a bit uninspired, and likely what went into the milkshake.

Bottom Line: A good effort, and definitely recommended after a meal, though not enough to draw you there on its own.

Dominique Ansel Chocolate Thing

I am consistently disappointed with Dominique Ansel.

It's not that his stuff is bad... it's just that it's not GREAT, and it's not chocolatey enough!  This was supposed to be super rich.  I expected it to be gooey on the inside.  Disappointment.

Bottom Line: Disappointment.  As I may have mentioned.

Gobo Chocolate Cake

This cake was pretty good:

If you're already at Gobo for a meal, I recommend getting it, but no need to go out of your way.

Bottom Line: Another way to put chocolate into your face.

B.A.D. Burger Vegan Chocolate Cake

A bunch of us ordered some food from B.A.D. Burger.  The food was excellent, including the best vegan macaroni and cheese I'd ever had.

We also had some chocolate cake:

It was okay.  A bit dry.  Definitely not bad.  But it seems to be a trend for restaurants with great vegan food to have good-but-not-great chocolate cakes for desert.

Bottom Line: Good-but-not-great vegan chocolate cake.

Mi Lah in Philadelphia

Back when I was in Philadelphia, I stopped by Mi Lah for dinner.  It's a pan-asian, vegan restaurant.  Which does not sound that appealing.  But honestly, it was incredibly.  Even my dinnermate agreed.

After the meal, we went for the chocolate cake:

It was pretty good, but not nearly as good as the "Real Food."  It wasn't too dry, but the taste just didn't pop out.

Bottom Line: If you are a vegan in Philly, you should probably eat here all the time, and then you might as well get this cake while you are there.  But there is no need to go out of your way just for the cake.

Radicchio Pasta & Risotto Co. Chocolate Cake (mini)

I ordered dinner at work, and it came with a cute little slice of chocolate cake!:

It was actually good!  Moist and pretty chocolatey.

Bottom Line: Maybe not worth combing the city just for this, but the food was good, and the price was right.  If you're stuck at work late, this is a good option.

More Peacefoods

I went to dinner with some family friends.  We brought Peacefoods desserts for dessert:

I've already discussed how much I love Peacefoods brownies.  We also brought some chocolate cake and a chocolate mousse pie -- all vegan.  All were good, but the brownie was still the standout.  The mousse cake wasn't as chocolatey as it looks -- it seems to be made with avocado and dates.  

Bottom Line: Generally recommended for vegans, and the brownies are excellent for anyone.

Hardcore Sweet Cupcakes' Black Flag Cupcake

So I went to this in Philadelphia.  There were foodtrucks out back.  Hardcore Sweet Cupcakes had this vegan chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting:

It was actually excellent.  Vegan cakes usually have to choose between being dry and falling apart.  These guys made the right choice -- falling apart.  I was about two bites in before my full face was covered in chocolate.  If you've read this blog before, you know I didn't mind.

Bottom Line: Let's all cover our faces in chocolate.  The only thing that will be covered will be giant smiles.

Barrington Brewery Chocolate Cake

Friend of Chocolate NYC Emily has been talking about Barrington Brewery's chocolate stout layer cake for years. The weekend before last, we finally got to eat it.



This cake has appeared in Bon Appetit magazine, which also provides the recipe, if you are a daring baker and want to try it yourself.

As you can tell, this cake is massive. I mean, I've seen babies smaller than this cake. One slice costs $7 and it's worth every penny. Emily and I split it and we couldn't finish it in one go.



I am usually not a cake person because I tend to find cake too dry, but this was almost brownie-like in its consistency, and that is a high compliment. It's still drier than a brownie, of course, but that just comes with the territory of being cake.

The frosting is the real winner here. Oh my gosh. This chocolate frosting! Perfect.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're going to the Berkshires, you should try a slice of this cake. Just find one or two people to split it with you first.

This thing from Good Health Cafe

I ordered from Good Health Cafe on Seamless.  I ordered a vegan "chocolate mousse cake."  I got this:

Embarassingly, it was actually pretty delicious.  But it was definitely not mousse cake.

Bottom Line: It loses one or two points for the inaccurate name and sloppy presentation, but at the end of the day it is surprisingly passable.

Jean-Georges' Warm Chocolate Cake

Yes, everyone serves one of these now.  But you have to give Jean-Georges credit for popularizing it.  And his is probably still the best.

Don't make a beginner's mistake: always substitute out the vanilla ice cream for chocolate

The molten center gets me every time.

Bottom Line: There might be more original, or even better, chocolate cakes in existence now, but this is an indisputable classic.

Tokyo Mini Truffle Cake

My dad was in Tokyo for a few days, and brought me these:

I have eaten them all, and I still have no idea what they were.  The ingredients were all in Japanese.

They were pretty delicious, but I feel a little gross.

Bottom Line: Whatever these are are pretty delicious, but you might feel a little gross.

L.A. Burdick

After Leila visited L.A. Burdick in Boston, it stoked my memory, and Angel and I went to L.A. Burdick in Flatiron.  I had not been in about 4 years.  (Which of course has not stopped me from expressing opinions.)  Of course this meant we needed to buy one of everything:

LA Burdick is especially known for its selection of single-origin hot chocolates.  When I went four years ago, I got a sampler of hot chocolates and... a lot of other things.  Here is the email I sent to Leila and Angel immediately after getting home:

LA Burdick has not great bon bons and chocolate mousse, BUT it has a really interesting hot chocolate situation.  they have 6 different single origin hot chocolates.  the madagascar, ecuador, and venezuela were GREAT.  the bolivia, dominican republic, and grenada were not good.  the first three were, like, around vosges-level good.  which is really good.

Yes, we have been serious about this stuff for many years now.

In any case, my previous suspicions were confirmed on my return.  The bon bons were nothing special.  The cake was a disaster -- there was some fruit situation hidden sparsely inside.  The macaron was adequate.

But the hot chocolates were great.  We got Madagascar and Venezuela, having pulled up my old email (though a few of the flavors had changed).  I of course preferred the Venezuela.  Angel preferred the Madagascar.  But, in any case, two satisfied customers.

We also got two chocolate bars:

They were clearly crafted with love:

And in fact they may have been the highlight of the whole stop.  Both bars were excellent.  I had never seen this before, but they had a percentage range -- 69%-72% and 70%-72%.  Not that much of a range, but still.  The former was a blended origin with nibs and the latter was a simple Venezuela origin.  Both were delicious, and both were devoured within a few minutes.

Bottom Line: If you keep it simple here, you will do very well.  Just don't get carried away.  In other words, don't be us.

Milk Bar Mea Culpa

I had previously stated that Milk Bar was not good at chocolate.  It seems that in my absence they have been righting some wrongs.

First of all, this:

It's a "5-Borough Cookie" or something like that.  The first ingredient?  Cocoa powder.  It's even chametz-free, for all those of you observing passover (Sephards-only!  It has a little cornstarch.  Also I guess this advice is coming a little bit late.  Next year?)

It's also extremely delicious.

Next up, the chocolate malt cake truffles are back, and delicious as ever:

Also, they had a "chocolate swirl," which seemed like it was just a chocolate croissant shaped like a cinnamon roll, but I didn't try it, so I can't tell you for sure.

Finally, I got some of the birthday cake truffles, which are one of my favorite non-chocolate desserts in NYC, and I made an amazing discovery.  The third ingredient is white chocolate!  This explains why I love them, and why Leila does not.

Bottom Line: Milk bar is known for a somewhat rotating menu, so let's wait to see whether this effort is sustained, but this is a promising development!

My Mom's Flourless Chocolate Cake

So my mom makes a flourless chocolate cake.  A parve flourless chocolate cake.  And it is seriously among the world's greatest chocolate products.  When photographed by a terrible photographer using the world's worst camera phone, it looks like this:

The recipe can be found here.  Now the secret is out.

One time I tried to make a vegan version of this cake for a friend.  Instead of eggs, I tried using flax and water.  Smart idea.  What I didn't know was that to use that combination to replace eggs, the two must be very vigorously stirred together until they form an egg-like consistency.  So instead I half-heartedly stirred them and threw them into the mix.

So anyways, that is a story about how I boiled a cake.

Bottom Line: I don't even try to bake anymore.  But you should, using this recipe.

Belgium #4

Alright, guys.  We're almost out of Europe.  I know, it's been an ordeal.  Who needs their socialist chocolate, anyways?

(I do.)

ANTWERP:

  

Del Ray:

I got off the train from Bruges and landed back in Antwerp.  I was short on time, so I hightailed it to Del Ray, the top recommendation of basically everyone.

I got a chocolate cake thing.  It was incredible.  The second best of the trip, after Peclard's.  I got a chocolate macaron that was totally up to Parisian standards.  I got a good, but not great, truffle.  And I ordered a dark chocolate bonbon, but they gave me a hazelnut one, and it was still pretty good.

I also got a pack of five origin chocolate bars, which I ate with Leila upon my return:

That review is forthcoming.

Overall, Del Ray was probably my favorite in Antwerp, but as a patisserie more than as a chocolatier.

Burie:

I walked around for a bit, looking for Chocolatier Burie.  I found two stores right next to each other -- Chocolatier Burie and Confiserie Burie.  To this day I'm not sure whether this was a Dumon situation or whether the two were related.  If they were related, they were set up very differently.  The confiserie was basically a candy shop.  They sold lots of bars of Cafetasse-brand chocolate.  I bought some milk chocolate and dark chocolate hands.  The milk was better -- it reminded me of the European chocolate my family would bring back for me as a kid.  The dark chocolate was good too, but a bit brittle -- it reminded me of the chocolate at Stef's.  I also got a dark truffle, which was okay and a milk truffle, which was not great.

Chocolatier Burie looked like a much more serious... chocolatier.  I bought a 73% bonbon, and it was excellent.  The best bonbon I got in Antwerp, near the level of Dumon in Bruges.

I also bought a bar from each of the two places:

From L to R: Chocolatier Burie, Confiserie Burie, Chocolate Line (from Bruges)

I liked the bar from Chocolatier Burie better than the bar from Confiserie Burie, though this was far from consensus.  The Chocolatier bar was more serious, definitely legit, and way better than even the one from the Real Dumon.  The other was sweeter, which made it relatively popular.  It was definitely not bad.

Chateau Blanc:

I raced to make it to Chateau Blanc before it closed.  I did not succeed.  But they had a stall still open at a nearby market/carnival, so I went by and sampled some truffles.  The dark chocolate truffle was only okay, but the heavily-dusted Cacao Truffle was truly excellent.  The best I'd had since Brussels.

Paster Snack:

After doing the Antwerp Circuit, I met up with my cousins.  They, as I've mentioned, are chassidic, so we rolled into an extremely kosher pizza place and ordered chocolate cake and ice cream.  There was a lot of hubbub.  I am still not entirely sure what was going on.  About an hour and a half later, one of their employees comes in the door with a container of ice cream.  We think they ran out to the store to buy some?  Anyways, the ice cream was not important.  The cake was actually surprisingly good, given that I had just eaten twelve million pounds of chocolate, plus dinner.  It just confirms Our Favorite Commenter Veronica's point that it's the kosher parve stuff that's not so good -- when milk is allowed, kosher desserts are fine.

Cousins:

But my cousins were far-from-finished.  They loaded me up with kosher Belgian chocolate for the road.  Along with a seriously adorable note made by their children:

But if we ever wanted evidence of Veronica's point, this is it.  Actually, the best stuff they gave me here was the white chocolate -- and I have never said that before in my life.  Particularly the white chocolate with the milk chocolate/hazelnut filling.  That was just amazing.  But even the plain white bar was great.

The dark pieces were ok, but they had lost their tempter, were very sweet, were brittle and dry, and were not the highest quality.  Of course my friend Annie loved them.  Even the dark chocolate filled with dark chocolate/hazelnut filling was not so good... way worse than the white chocolate, and dry.  Parve strikes.

You may actually notice some milk chocolate there.  I don't know what it tasted like, because it got eaten along with the gelt.

I was also given some Mazel Tov-brand chocolate ruggelach, which was also parve and also not good.  Or chocolatey at all.  It tasted like regular bread.  Which I guess isn't so bad, now that I think about it, but it's not chocolate.

But I don't want to get down on the stuff I was given, because that is seriously some of the best white chocolate I've ever had.  A new discovery!

Bottom Line: Taking all the cities in Belgium together might not get you the sheer quantity of ridiculously high quality chocolate that you have in Paris alone, but it's Bruges and Antwerp that just really cannot begin to compare.  Brussels is actually pulling its weight nicely.  So, my review of Belgium: worth a trip, if you're already in Europe.

Kaffe 44, ChokladFabriken, and a tourist shop, Stockholm

I met up with my sister in the airport in Stockholm.  We went up to Umea real quick, then returned to Stockholm for a day.

 

Kaffe 44:

Our first stop was a vegan cafe.  We were mostly there for food.  By the time we got there, we were starving, but I think the food would have been delicous even had we been full.

Of course, we got dessert.

First, we got cake truffle-like things, which are actually extremely similar to the snowballs at Zucker Bakery in the East Village!  They were similarly made with coffee or coconut, but they were similarly delicious.  I was shocked that Zucker could pull these off well, so I was doubly shocked to found them done well at a random vegan cafe in Stockholm!

The cake truffles were so good that we got a slice of chocolate cake, too.  Apparently, they were sold out of their chocolatiest cake, but even this one was totally delicious.  If I'm ever back in Stockholm, Kaffe 44 will be one of my first stops.  I even picked up a couple of great 7" records on the way out!

ChokladFabriken:

Right around the corner from Kaffe 44 is a "chocolate factory" called, uninspiredly, ChokladFabriken.  I was told about this place by the nice gentleman who sat next to me on the plane from Umea.  He may have been dating a woman younger than his sons, but he was friends with most of my favorite Northern Swedish bands, so I think he was probably cool enough to pull it off.

Anyways.  ChokladFabriken.  We started with some excellent, rich hot chocolate.  We then picked up a bar, some bon bons, and a truffle:

The bon bons and truffle were all quite delicious, each with an interesting but chocolatey flavor.

 

The bar was good but couldn’t compare to the bars from Switzerland, France, and Belgium.  That said, when I gave some to Leila before miscalibrating her with all the world's greatest chocolate, she quite liked it.  So, objectively, even the bar was good, though it was the only item that didn't stand up to the topmost in the world.

Te Kaffe Choklad:

We felt obligated to hit up the touristy Gamla Stan area.  At least it did not make any claims it could not substantiate:

 

We stopped by a super touristy chocolate shop and picked up a mint bar that will be reviewed as part as Leila and my post-trip chocolate tasting.

 

We also got another cup of hot chocolate, but this one was totally subpar.

Bottom Line: Stockholm is not a chocolate town.  But you can find good stuff anywhere, if you meet the right cool Swedish dads going through their mid-life crises.

Paris Day 2

Puyricard:

At the recommendation of my friends who hosted me at the Cercle de l'Union, I checked out a lesser known chocolatier, Puyricard.  I bought a 100% dark chocolate bar, which was very bitter but very good.  It was, in fact, bitter even for a 100% bar, which is impressive.  I still enjoyed it quite a lot.  The truffle they gave me to taste was also good, but a bit too fruity.   Overall, well worth a try.

Jean-Charles Rochoux:

Rochoux definitely won for best packaging of the trip:

These pavés were good but very creamy.  A pavé is much like a truffle, but shaped like a cube, and probably made with like 4 times as much heavy cream:

I also ordered a dark chocolate bonbon, which, like the truffle at Puyricard, was a bit too fruity for me.

Christian Constant:

Next stop was Christian Constant.  I was worrying things were starting to blend together, but everything I ate here stood out as spectacular.  There was a delicious, unpretentious truffle.  There was a matching, super chocolatey dark chocolate bonbon.  And there were these thin dark chocolate square covered in cacao nibs that were delicious, chocolatey, and super snackable.

The theme that ran through Constant's work was that it felt like he wasn't trying to impress anyone.  He was making excellent chocolate that you can pop in your mouth, eat, and enjoy tremendously.  I constantly say that a lot of the pretentious subtleties of chocolate come at the expense of edibility and deliciousness, and that's something that Constant understands better than anyone.  Constant sort of flew under the radar as one of my favorites from the trip.

Chapon:

The reason Constant flew under the radar was that there were places like Chapon:

Chapon makes what is likely the best truffle in the world.  I might have had a mild preference for Mary's, due to its fudginess, but upon bringing the two back to the US, the clear favorite was Chapon.  It's everything a truffle should be, texture-wise and taste-wise.  It is devastatingly chocolatey, and it has a perfect dusting of cocoa powder.  As a comparison, here is what the Chapon truffle looks like next to Rochoux's and Chaudun's paves:

But Chapon did not stop with the truffle.  There was a fun, delicious dark chocolate bonbon.  And there was a wall of amazing-looking (and amazingly wrapped) single- and blended-origin bars.  Having overstocked on Venezuelan bars, I purchased a Ghana bar and a blend of Indonesia, Ghana, and Carribean bar.  The Ghanaian bar was incredible -- chocolatey and smokey.  The blend was almost as good.  It was less sweet and had more flavor notes, of fruit and spice.  I passed both around a big group of people, and everyone was floored by both, but the Ghana bar was ultimately everyone's pick.

Michel Chaudun:

Next stop was Michel Chaudun, where I bought some more pavés and a bar.  The pavés had a bit of a coffee taste.  I thought, at the time, that they were totally different than Rochoux's, and far less creamy.  So I mixed the two up and tried to perform a taste test.  I couldn't tell one from the other.  I realized I was facing a serious chocolate overload moment and saved the bar for later

When I did get to it, I really liked it.  It was very sweet, and it was something I could come back to after working my way through various fancier-feeling bars.  Often I would offer it to friends after forcing them to try various 100% bars, and they were universally appreciative.

Gerard Mulot:

Next, I headed to Mulot.  His shop was more of a patisserie than a chocolate shop, so I went with the flow and got a piece of cake.  It was good but towards the bottom of the cakes I had in Paris -- perhaps between the cake at Laduree and the one at Angelina.  It tasted a bit like coffee, and I was able to throw away a chunk of it without too many regrets.  I was very full.

I also got a milk and a dark chocolate truffle.  I tried the dark, expecting a lot, and I was disappointed.  I then tried the milk chocolate truffle, with low expectations, and it was excellent.  Far better than the dark.  Who would have thought?

Pierre Marcolini:

I was totally full, so when I passed by an outpost of Pierre Marcolini, a Belgian chocolatier, I obviously went in to try something.  I bought an 81% blended-origin bar.  It was very good, but not much of a standout.  It was sweet for 81%, but it was pretty much exactly what you want in a high-end, high percentage bar.  No complaints!

Patrick Roger and Jacques Genin:

At this point, my chocolate tasting muscles were pretty worn out, but I powered through.  I got a dark chocolate bonbon and a truffle from each of Patrick Roger and Jacques Genin.  Both are among the most respected chocolatiers in the world, and both stood their ground with everything else I had been eating, but I honestly was completely unable to distinguish them from most of the excellent chocolate.

La Bonbonniere:

But then I walked into La Bonbonniere.  Right away, I liked it.  First of all, unlike everywhere else that day, it wasn't pretentiously named after its lead chocolatier.  It looked similarly inconspicuous.  And the people there... were actually  nice.  For a second, I thought I was hallucinating on chocolate and that I must have left Paris.  I bought a truffle and a bar -- a 90% bar!  I had been scouring Europe for 90% bars (my favorite percentage), and I had been having almost no luck.  The truffle was exceptional -- probably the second best I had in Paris after Chapon.  And the bar was exquisite as well -- easily one of the best from the trip.  It was super chocolatey, and it was neither sweet nor bitter.  Exactly what you want in a 90% bar.  If I were returning to Paris and for some reason had to restrict myself to one chocolate shop, I would probably return to La Bonbonniere.

A L'Etoile D'Or:

My last stop was A l'Etoile d'Or.  A l'Etoile d'Or is an incredibly famous, old chocolate shop near my host's apartment.  I walked in, and it seemed almost like a candy store.  For example, it sold mostly non-proprietary chocolate.  But they had a display case of what seemed to me their own bonbons, so I purchased a truffle and a dark chocolate bonbon.

Wow!  Given the candy-store feel, I did not expect such high quality!  They definitely surpassed the vast majority of things I ate that day.  It was an amazing way to end my chocolate tour.

Sam, my host, recently sent me a photo of the shop on a walk past, and I was hit by a blast of nostalgia, only a month after I'd left:

Take me back to Paris!

Bottom Line: Paris is the place to be when it comes to chocolate.  Period.

Post script: a photo of all the chocolate bars I brought home, from Paris alone:

Paris Day 1

Cercle de L'Union Club:

From Berlin, I went to Paris.  I immediately met up with two family friends, who hosted me at the Cercle de L'Union Club for lunch.  It's one of those fancy, private athletic clubs, and we dined overlooking the squash courts.  The food was great, and for dessert I helped myself to their chocolate mousse.  It was surprisingly good, from a non-chocolatier.  Though I guess not that surprising given the general quality of the place.

Laduree:

The first shop on my list to visit from there was the original La Maison du Chocolat location, since La Maison one of my very favorite chocolate spots in NYC.  But before I got there, I ran into the flagship, original Laduree.  That's sort of how it is in Paris.  Oh, there's something famous.  Oh, there's another of the world's best chocolatiers.  It got to be the point that this stuff was in the way.  "Ugh, wat is this giant building blocking my way to the next chocolate shop?!  Oh, that's the Parliament.  Of France."  

Anyways, everyone talks about Laduree's macarons constantly.  I told some guy at the punk show in Berlin that I was going to Paris, and he started going on about Laduree's macarons.  You've probably heard of them.  I'd always preferred La Maison's, so I thought this was a good opportunity to create a macaron taste test. 

Spoilers: their chocolate macarcon, while excellent (and certainly one of the best available in NYC) came in fourth (out of about six -- though all wound up being excellent... spoilers again).  They had a special, Santa Domingo-origin dark chocolate macaron that was even better, and it was both my and my friend's second favorite macaron that we tasted.

I also purchased a "Buvette Chocolat" cake.  It was good but not exceptional.  Not wanting to waste stomach space, I went to throw out a big chunk of it.  But standing over the trash I found myself taking "just one more bite" over and over again until it was almost gone. The thin bottom layer, though, I threw out without any hesitation, as it was made with nuts.

La Maison du Chocolat:

From there, I went to La Maison du Chocolat.  I consider most of La Maison's products to set the standard for exceptional chocolate products.  If you can do better than La Maison, in anything, you know you are making a top-of-the-world-level product.  If Sprungli sets the bar in Zurich, La Maison sets the bar higher in Paris.

I bought two bonbons -- a Ghana-origin, Akasombo bonbon and an "Extreme" dark chocolate bonbon.  The Akasombo was delicious, of course, though my favorite of their origin bonbonbs remains Caracas.  The Extreme was good too, but a bit fruity.  I also purchased a truffle, which was exactly the kind of excellent standard-setting truffle I was looking for.

Finally, I purchased a dark chocolate macaron.  La Maison has three types of chocolate macarons, dark chocolate, dark chocolate with nibs, and milk chocolate.  The former two have always been my favorite macarons.  Unsurprsingly, the dark chocolate macaron was my favorite in the taste test.  Somewhat more surprisingly, it was also my friend's favorite.  Angel agrees with me as well on this, so it is now canon in my mind that La Maison makes the best chocolate macaron.

Jean-Paul Hevin:

From La Maison, I went to Jean-Paul Hevin.  I had been to his outpost in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and it blew me away.  In all fairness, though, I hadn't eaten all day, and Tokyo is not a world's mecca for chocolate.

I purchased his "Guayacuil" chocolate cake, and it was very good -- better than, but in the same league as, Laduree's Buvette.  I think after the Peclard cake in Zurich, my standards were sort of off the charts.

I got two bonbons -- a "Carraibe" (Caribbean-origin)  bonbon and an "Amere" dark chocolate bonbon.  Both were amazing and lived up to my memory of Tokyo.  They actually were better than the bonbons at La Maison, which puts Jean-Paul Hevin in an elite crowd.

I also purchased his chocolate macaron.  It was extremely hard to grade, because the top four macarons were clearly of one type -- fancy and indulgently chocolatey.  But Jean-Paul Hevin's was totally different.  It was darker in color and tasted like a chocolate teddy graham.  (I love chocolate teddy grahams.)  So it just wasn't trying as hard, and it was really a wonderful experience in its own right.  That said, if you had to put it next to the macarons from La Maison, Laduree, or Pierre Herme (to come), it wouldn't stand up.

Finally, I purchased a dark chocolate bar (the silver-wrapped bar on the bottom left of the last picture in this review), but it wound up being too fruity for my liking.

After my amazing experience in Tokyo, I had very high expectations of Jean-Paul Hevin.  While it did not disappoint, it was the first casualty of "not-as-good-by-comparison" -- something that was continually repeated in Paris, a city with an overwhelming number of the world's best chocolatiers.

Michel Cluizel:

I also stopped by Michel Cluizel's flagship.  Because he has a nice shop in NYC, I did not feel the need to go nuts -- his 99% bonbon is my favorite bonbon in the world, probably, but since I can get it anytime in NYC, I let it go.

I did purchase a chocolate macaron.  It was actually similar to Jean-Paul Hevin's, in color and taste.  It was a bit crusty, texture-wise, but nonetheless excellent.  I made a mental note not to neglect the macaron next time I'm at the NYC shop.

Angelina:

I needed a break, so of course I went to the home of one of the densest chocolate products in Paris -- Angelina, famous for its extremely thick hot chocolate.   It was a weekday during the day, and there was a line out the door:

Surprisingly, the line moved fairly quickly, and quite soon I was upstairs, looking down on the poor suckers waiting:

I ordered a hot chocolate (obviously) and the Chocolat Africaine Cake.  That's "African Chocolate Cake," for those of you who don't speak french.

I was prepared to be unimpressed by the hot chocolate.  Afterall NYC has City Bakery, DT Works (or had it least), D'Espresso, Grom, and tons of other super-thick hot chocolates.

It still totally impressed me.  I don't think I'd rate it more highly than City Bakery, but City Bakery is my childhood favorite and may get an unfair boost.  It definitely at least holds its own with any other thick hot chocolate in NYC.  It's very thick.  So thick the top layer becomes a film if you let it sit too long, much like in the chocolate pudding you probably made when you were a kid.  Only this isn't pudding.  It's hot chocolate.  (I think.)  But taste-wise it was just as impressive as texture-wise.  It's incredibly rich and chocolatey.  When you use so much chocolate in your hot chocolate, the bean really matters, because the flavors of it will dominate the drink.  Angelina chooses wisely.

The cake was slightly less impressive.  It was probably my least favorite of the Paris cakes I purchased.  That said, it was still totally excellent, and I was unbelievably full already.  So I'm not sure it got a fair shake.  The bar in Paris is just ridiculously high.

Debauve et Gallais:

I then stopped by Debauve et Gallais, but I pretty much only had the stomach to eat a piece of dark chocolate.  It was excellent and chocolatey -- I guessed it was Ghanaian, but they would not confirm.

I also purchased two bars -- 85% and 99%, both blends.  Both were a bit melty when I ate them -- they melted more easily than some of the other bars I purchased.  Also, neither was bitter at all, particularly surprising from the 99%.  That said, the 99% did include sugar, soy lecithin, and extra cocoa butter, which probably explains both the meltiness and the lack of bitterness.  I preferred the 99% to the 85%.  I thought their solution to the bitterness problem was creative and worked just right.  It's definitely among my favorite 99%s I've ever had, if not my favorite (I usually like things around 91%, so 99% can be a bit high for me).  The 85% bar was less exceptional, but still completely excellent.  

I finished my Debauve et Gallais experience totally impressed.

Pierre Herme:

Next stop was Pierre Herme.  I picked up a chocolate macaron for the taste test, and it beat expectations by the most.  Given my preference for La Maison, I tend to trust a store full of chocolate to make chocolate macarons rather than a store full of macarons.  But Herme did an unbelievable job.  The macaron came in third in our taste test -- right between the special and regular Laduree macarons.  Later, when talking with some French friends, they were surprised Herme did not come in first, so I guess the secret is out in France much more than in the US.

I also bought a Chuao, Venezuela-origin dark chocolate bar.  It was excellent.  It was really good even amongst all the high quality bars I was purchasing at the time.  Like I took a bite and was like, "This is great," and then started to go on with my day, but then had to go back and be like, "No, this is really great."  That said, the flavors and textures were not all that memorable over time.  All I really remember is how much I enjoyed it.  Which I guess is what is most important here.  Let's not let all this chocolate blog glory go to our heads.  We're just looking for something delicious.

Richart:

My last stop of day #1 was Richart, and by then I did not have the stomach for, well, anything.  I picked up a chocolate bar that actually did not get eaten until I got to Nairobi, almost a month later.  It was excellent.  Two friends and I, starving at the time, wolfed it down in record time.  Much like Idiolo bar I purchased at Truffe, it was a quintessential Venezuelan bar, with all the flavor notes one would expect from there.  And it was almost as good as that memorably exquisite bar.

Bottom Line: This was just day one.  Will David's stomach survive day two?  The suspense must be killing you.