Domori Chocolate

Last winter, I embarked on what would prove to be an arduous, and ultimately inconclusive, mission: to track down and sample all the fine chocolate I could find in Tokyo. From the Maison du Chocolat boutique in Marunouchi to the plethora of shops - Le Roux, Wittamer, Jean-Paul Hevin, Michel Chaudun - in department shore basements from Ginza to Shinjuku, from the Reine Astride across the street from my supermarket in Azabu Juban to the Bonnat cafe next door to Starbucks in Hiroo, I found them and tried them all. They were all good, of course, but none of them stood out as particularly superior to any of the others, and that disappointed me.

Then I went to Italy, and found the chocolate love of my life: Domori. I wrote about Amadei, another Italian find and the second best chocolate I've ever had, in an earlier post. What gives Domori the edge is the pure intensity of its flavor. Containing nothing but cocoa, cacao mass, and cane sugar, there's nothing to get in the way of the taste of chocolate. The texture is also perfect - even though the bars are quite thin, it takes some effort to bite through them and they break with a satisfying snap, then crunch as you chew them (I'm not patient enough for the melt-in-the-mouth experience). None of the bars is overly sweet, but even in the 100% cacao bar, which contains no sugar at all, the chocolate flavor is savory, not at all bitter. They are expensive - even in Italy, they cost 4.75 euros for a 50 gram package - but so strong that you wouldn't want to eat more than a little at a time.

If you aren't planning a trip to Italy in the near future, Domori chocolate is available in most of the U.S. and Canada from Chocosphere.com.