at Thu, 20 Oct 2005 22:24:57 GMT in >,
(Geoffrey Bard) wrote :

>Hi again, Alex,
>
>I haven't heard of Marcolini chocolate before, but that's probably
>because they have no North American distributor at this time.

However, you can buy from http://www.seventypercent.com and they will ship
to the US.

>Actually, I don't usually like any Dutched cocoa product and will
>generally avoid it, even Guittard Bittersweet.

Well, you like Cuba Venchi 85% (dutched), and Galler 85% (probably at least
partially dutched) so it's at most a partial avoidance.

> I'm convinced the alkali
>processing removes several of the healthy components of chocolate that
>also happen to be acidic...and I don't mind bitter/acidic chocolate
>anyway.
>
Be careful because bitter and acidic are NOT the same thing - in fact, one
might even say acidic is the reverse of bitter. Bitterness is the result of
fairly *alkaline* components whereas acidity typically comes from non-
bitter, fruitier beans. Both ultimately derive from flavonoids, and yes,
Dutching does remove some of those, but so does fermenting and roasting.
However, a short ferment will result in a chocolate with little to no
flavour depth - it will taste flat and thin, while a short roast will
create a very bright chocolate. If you are more interested in health
benefits than anything else, then this would suggest a strongly Criollo
bean with minimal ferment and roast - it will taste very fruity and light,
and this would suggest perhaps Valrhona Palmira or Porcelana del Pedregal.