Dear Sir/Madam,

Oulu Chocolate Society is a small and rather new gathering of people who
like chocolate. You can read about us in English on page
http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/english.php although the site is more than 99%
in Finnish, I'm afraid (since we only operate in Finland).

What we do is that we get together in monthly meetings, eat chocolates (bars
or other forms) and then write short reviews about the products and publish
them on our website: http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/testit.php (select a
manufacturer from the list on the left side)

Even if we only operate in Finland, we are still interested in chocolates
around the world (Europe to start with). However, there aren't really that
many foreign chocolates available in Finland and I myself have absolutely no
clue what the most popular chocolates are in other countries. This is where
you come in.

I am interested in getting foreign chocolates from around the world (maybe
mainly Europe to start with), but I don't have that many friends abroad who
could send chocolates to me. I need help from people who are interested in
helping me. Let me just explain how I am planning this:

- You send me chocolate, I send you money (euros only) or vice versa
- Postal costs will of course be paid by me
- I am currently NOT interested in finding the best chocolate in the world,
but the most popular ones that "the masses" eat
- I'm trying to find out what sort of chocolates are most popular in other
countries, and how they compare to the Finnish taste
- I would only require help randomly, maybe just once/country
- I would need to be convinced of your reliability before I would send money
(this would most likely be the hard part, and I understand that you would
also require this before sending me chocolate)
- No one will get rich by contacting me, we're dealing with small sums of
money. The main thing is the love of chocolate.

If anyone would be interested about this idea of mine, please contact me
using the form on page http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/english.php
I will get back to you by email as soon as possible. Unfortunatelly mu
language skills are limited to english, finnish and swedish.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Jarkko Karhunen
President
Oulu Chocolate Society

No one interested in helping me with this ? This is really not a hoax or
anything like that. Well, maybe I wouldn't believe it myself either if it
was posted by someone else.

Br,
Jarkko
Oulu
Finland


> Dear Sir/Madam,
>
> Oulu Chocolate Society is a small and rather new gathering of people who
> like chocolate. You can read about us in English on page
> http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/english.php although the site is more than
99%
> in Finnish, I'm afraid (since we only operate in Finland).
>
> What we do is that we get together in monthly meetings, eat chocolates
(bars
> or other forms) and then write short reviews about the products and
publish
> them on our website: http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/testit.php (select a
> manufacturer from the list on the left side)
>
> Even if we only operate in Finland, we are still interested in chocolates
> around the world (Europe to start with). However, there aren't really that
> many foreign chocolates available in Finland and I myself have absolutely
no
> clue what the most popular chocolates are in other countries. This is
where
> you come in.
>
> I am interested in getting foreign chocolates from around the world (maybe
> mainly Europe to start with), but I don't have that many friends abroad
who
> could send chocolates to me. I need help from people who are interested in
> helping me. Let me just explain how I am planning this:
>
> - You send me chocolate, I send you money (euros only) or vice versa
> - Postal costs will of course be paid by me
> - I am currently NOT interested in finding the best chocolate in the
world,
> but the most popular ones that "the masses" eat
> - I'm trying to find out what sort of chocolates are most popular in other
> countries, and how they compare to the Finnish taste
> - I would only require help randomly, maybe just once/country
> - I would need to be convinced of your reliability before I would send
money
> (this would most likely be the hard part, and I understand that you would
> also require this before sending me chocolate)
> - No one will get rich by contacting me, we're dealing with small sums of
> money. The main thing is the love of chocolate.
>
> If anyone would be interested about this idea of mine, please contact me
> using the form on page http://www.suklaayhdistys.com/english.php
> I will get back to you by email as soon as possible. Unfortunatelly mu
> language skills are limited to english, finnish and swedish.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jarkko Karhunen
> President
> Oulu Chocolate Society
>
>

Janko ....Form how I see it you are earnest with your"unique chocolate
pursuit', so you are not bluffing .
.. But so far if there are no takers
IMO people here do ...not share the same interest with you on such
matters< sigh>.

"Jarkko" > writes:

>> - I am currently NOT interested in finding the best chocolate in the
> world,
>> but the most popular ones that "the masses" eat

I guess most of the people who read this group are interested in the
best chocolate. I cannot imagine why you would want me to send you
Hershey's milk chocolate instead of, say, Guittard or Scharffenberger
dark chocolate.

Over here, the masses simply aren't trustworthy.

If you want good chocolate, then perhaps you should just start
sampling from some European equivalent of chocosphere.com. It would
probably be cheaper and more diverse as well.


Eddie

> IMO people here do ...not share the same interest with you on such
> matters< sigh>.

Yes, this might be the case. Maybe my idea is a bit strange to most people.

Br,
Jarkko

> I guess most of the people who read this group are interested in the
> best chocolate.

But is not the best chocolate the one, that my/your mouth says is the best?
I have never been one of those people who bow to labels or makers, I let my
mouth decide. And since this is the case, I need to first know what the
basic chocolates are like in other countries and only after that can I truly
appreciate the better ones. If they truly are the better ones, that is.

> Hershey's milk chocolate instead of, say, Guittard or Scharffenberger
> dark chocolate.

Because this is my hobby and I am interested in that. Is that not a good
enough reason? Actually I already have a contact in the United States, so
what I would need now is some contacts in other countries than the US.

> Over here, the masses simply aren't trustworthy.

I don't get this sentence. Do you mean that the chocolate that the masses
like most, is not to your liking? But isn't democracy all about the vote of
the majority? I don't mean to be political in any way, but I just don't
understand what you mean.

> If you want good chocolate, then perhaps you should just start
> sampling from some European equivalent of chocosphere.com. It would
> probably be cheaper and more diverse as well.

You might be right here, but this goes against my original idea, because
only the "better" chocolates are available via Internet.

Well, this was just an idea I had. My world will not collapse even if this
didn't work out :-)

Thanks for your comments.

Br,
Jarkko

Jarkko wrote:
>> I guess most of the people who read this group are interested in the
>> best chocolate.
>
> But is not the best chocolate the one, that my/your mouth says is the
> best? I have never been one of those people who bow to labels or
> makers, I let my mouth decide. And since this is the case, I need to
> first know what the basic chocolates are like in other countries and
> only after that can I truly appreciate the better ones. If they truly
> are the better ones, that is.
>
>> Hershey's milk chocolate instead of, say, Guittard or Scharffenberger
>> dark chocolate.
>
> Because this is my hobby and I am interested in that. Is that not a
> good enough reason? Actually I already have a contact in the United
> States, so what I would need now is some contacts in other countries
> than the US.
>
I think that the reason for the lack of response here is simply that most of
the people who regularly post here are in the US, and you said that you
preferred to hear from people in Europe. Perhaps you need to find a
non-English language newgroup to improve your chances of finding European
sources.

Roy said that perhaps "people here do ...not share the same interest with
you on such matters< sigh>." I don't think this is true. I think most
chocolate-lovers have found a decent source of their favorite chocolate;
rather than embarking upon a worldwide search for the chocolate loved most
by the masses, they have found the chocolate(s) they like the most and have
established a way of getting that conveniently.

"Jarkko" > wrote in message
...
> But is not the best chocolate the one, that my/your mouth says is the
> best?

This is true, but you're making the assumption that people throughout the
world have ACCESS to samples of the best chocolates, and that the masses
have made their decision based on that. In the USA, this is totally NOT
true. We buy what's convenient to buy, and "convenient" means what's sold
in our local grocery store.

Therefore, until I actually went searching a couple years ago, most
Americans (I can't speak for any other country) have never even tasted
another chocolate than Hershey's or Nestle. In fact, most probably don't
know that another kind of chocolate exists! (As for myself, I was dimly
aware that there were other chocolates in the world, but I was happy with
Hershey's.)

> I don't get this sentence. Do you mean that the chocolate that the masses
> like most, is not to your liking? But isn't democracy all about the vote
> of
> the majority? I don't mean to be political in any way, but I just don't
> understand what you mean.

(As an aside - perhaps it's different in Finland, but the USA is a republic,
not a democracy...but that's another discussion.) Even in a democracy,
there have to be candidates to select from. The selection will therefore be
imperfect if there is a limited selection of candidates. This is just what
we have here in the USA when it comes to chocolate you can find on grocery
shelves...though that's changing a bit as the word about healthy dark
chocolate gets out. I even found a Lindt 70% display case at my local
convenience store!

> Well, this was just an idea I had. My world will not collapse even if this
> didn't work out :-)

Not to worry, it was a great idea. And there are indeed some chocolates
liked by the masses that perhaps you have never tasted. But these tend to
at least be available by mail or in a large city (there's a small store that
sells only foods imported from Switzerland here in Portland, Oregon).

Geoff

> > But is not the best chocolate the one, that my/your mouth says is the
> > best?
>
> This is true, but you're making the assumption that people throughout the
> world have ACCESS to samples of the best chocolates, and that the masses
> have made their decision based on that.

Let's say I have two chocolate bars, bar1 and bar2. Let's also say that I
have never seen or heard of any other chocolates in the world. I eat these
two bars and I like bar2 more than bar1. Does that not make bar2 the best
chocolate in the world from my point of view ? If not, then nobody can relly
say that some chocolate is their favorite, because I'm sure that no one has
tasted ALL the chocolates in the world.

> most Americans have never even tasted
> another chocolate than Hershey's or Nestle. In fact, most probably don't
> know that another kind of chocolate exists!

This is truly sad if this is the case. I'm sure that nobody in Finland (me
included, naturally) knows of all tho chocolates in the world, but I'm
equally sure that 90% of grownup finns know at leat a couple of foreign
chocolates, because at least two dozen brands and 4-6 chocolatemakers
products scan be found in any supermarket in Finland.

> And there are indeed some chocolates
> liked by the masses that perhaps you have never tasted.

I don't wish to come off as a great guru of chocolates. My knowledge of
chocolates is not (yet) much greater than an average finn. Foreign
chocolates are a great bir mystery to me, this is why I am interested to
finding out about them.

/Jarkko

> don't wish to come off as a great guru of chocolates. My knowledge of
>chocolates is not (yet) much greater than an average finn. Foreign
>chocolates are a great bir mystery to me, this is why I am interested to
>finding out about them

I am afraid that your case is an example of a recently discovered
'malady' , which I call 'obsessive compulsive chocolatic
behavior'<grin>?...


>I think most
>chocolate-lovers have found a decent source of their favorite chocolate;
>rather than embarking upon a worldwide search for the chocolate loved most
>by the masses, they have found the chocolate(s) they like the most and have
>established a way of getting that conveniently.

That is maybe one reason why its not shared by the regualr denizens of
rec. food. chocolate as they are just plain chocoholics, and their
chocolate cravings had not reach abnormal levels to desire the
extremes?
If your plan succeeds and you have the opportunity to taste every
chocolate bar made by each chocolate manufacturing plant in every
country/state and exerted the effort to classify them , maybe you can
apply for the Guiness Records for such feat?
Please keep all the wrappers intact( in order) for you to show later to
the GuinessRecords authorities<grin>.
Roy

at Mon, 15 Aug 2005 08:13:57 GMT in
>,
(Jarkko) wrote :

>> > But is not the best chocolate the one, that my/your mouth says is
>> > the best?
>>
>> This is true, but you're making the assumption that people throughout
>> the world have ACCESS to samples of the best chocolates, and that the
>> masses have made their decision based on that.
>
>Let's say I have two chocolate bars, bar1 and bar2. Let's also say that
>I have never seen or heard of any other chocolates in the world. I eat
>these two bars and I like bar2 more than bar1. Does that not make bar2
>the best chocolate in the world from my point of view ?

No, or at least not necessarily. If you base your opinion of what is
"best" entirely on things you've already tried, you've already limited
yourself drastically in that your world-view is confined entirely to your
personal experience. However, the majority of people, I think, don't assess
things this way. Rather, most people conjure up an "archetype" - an
idealised, abstract description of what the "perfect" exemplar of the item
in question would be, and apply the term "best" to such things as come
closest to that archetype. Furthermore, if nothing they've experienced
approaches that archetype very closely, then they just don't call anything
the "best". Thus, for example, a person who's driven only a Honda and a
Ford would probably still be quite likely to call a Mercedes a "better"
car, possibly even the "best", even though he himself has never driven it.
People readily acknowledge the existence of better products than those of
their own experience and are often even not afraid to pronounce something
they've never tried "best".

Pedantic grammatical technicality: Actually, in the situation you describe
if you are to apply your logic naively, then no, it doesn't make bar2 the
best chocolate in the world. It makes it the *better* chocolate in the
world. (Use of the superlative implies at least 3 objects under comparison)

>> most Americans have never even tasted
>> another chocolate than Hershey's or Nestle. In fact, most probably
>> don't know that another kind of chocolate exists!
>
>This is truly sad if this is the case. I'm sure that nobody in Finland
>(me included, naturally) knows of all tho chocolates in the world, but
>I'm equally sure that 90% of grownup finns know at leat a couple of
>foreign chocolates, because at least two dozen brands and 4-6
>chocolatemakers products scan be found in any supermarket in Finland.

Perhaps this is the first thing to learn - that availabilities aren't the
same everywhere. It's easy to assume from your own local POV that people
will have access to a certain breadth of selection, but this isn't
necessarily the case. The situation described above isn't far off being
true in the USA. Let's also not forget that probably for a majority of the
world the point is completely moot: they have never tasted or had access to
*any* chocolate at all, of any brand.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

"Jarkko" > wrote in message
...
>> most Americans have never even tasted
>> another chocolate than Hershey's or Nestle. In fact, most probably don't
>> know that another kind of chocolate exists!
>
> This is truly sad if this is the case. I'm sure that nobody in Finland (me
> included, naturally) knows of all tho chocolates in the world, but I'm
> equally sure that 90% of grownup finns know at leat a couple of foreign
> chocolates, because at least two dozen brands and 4-6 chocolatemakers
> products scan be found in any supermarket in Finland.

Amazing but true. Probably the world opinion of the United States is that
we have the "known universe" of imported goods available even in small
towns. This is simply not true. I can with very high confidence go up to
any fellow American and ask them, "Have you heard of any of the following
chocolate makers? Amedei, Bernard Castelain, Bonnat, Cacao Barry, Café
Tasse, Caffarel, Callebaut, Chocovic, Côte d'Or, Cuba Venchi, Dagoba, Dolfin
Chocolat, Domori, Droste, El Rey (etc.)"

They would answer "No" to every single one until you included Hershey,
Nestle, or Mars. One-half a percent may recognize Lindt because their 70%
bars can actually be found in the local Safeway (if you try hard enough to
find it, on the top shelf above the huge collection of Hershey's, Nestle,
and Mars products!). If they tried it, they probably didn't like it because
it's too bitter for the American sweet tooth - though I must admit, dark
chocolate is gaining a small foothold here because of all the health
publicity it gets.

Perhaps things will change now that Hershey has purchased Sharffen Berger
(though I must admit, if Hershey starts distributing S-B dark chocolate,
many Americans may reject it because it is so fruity-tasting).

Around when Star Wars III came out, Mars produced "dark chocolate peanut
M&Ms" (symbolizing the Dark Side of the Force). But these disappeared after
the movie left the theaters. I tried them, and they were pretty sweet! But
perhaps not sweet enough for the candy-buying American public.

Geoff

That seems to cover many well know brands but in the UK we consider
Cadbury's to be one of our favourite chocolates!