I went to XOX Truffles in San Francisco earlier this month, but
unfortunately, they take the month of January off & the store was
closed! The trip wasn't a total waste of time, however, because posted
in the window was a list of chocolates, from the Rosengarten Report on
Chocolate, Sept 13, 2001, rating chocolate from "Ultimate" down to
"Unacceptable".

Ultimate Chocolate *****
$$$ Ortrud Münch Carstens NY
$$$ Richart Design & Chocolate NY
$$$ La Maison du Chocolat NY
$$ Michel Cluizel echocolates.com
$$ L. A. Burdick NH
$$$ Ricard Chocolat NY
$ XOX Truffles San F

Great Chocolate ****
$$$ Michael Recchiuti San F
$$ Jacques Torres Chocolate NY
$$ Payard NY
$ Chocolate Garden Coloma, MI
$$ Linda Grishman Burlington, VT

Very Good Chocolate ***
$$$ Vosges Haut-Chocolat Chicago, IL
$$ Christopher Norman Chocolates NY

Good Chocolate **
$$$ Fritz Knipschildt Norwalk, CT
$$ Candinas Chocolatier Verona, WI
$ Neuchatel Chocolates Oxford, PA
$ Joseph Schmidt San F

Acceptable Chocolate *
$$ Laderach Chocolatier Suisse Gaithersburg, MD
$$ Neuhaus Belgian Chocolate NY
$ De Bas Chocolatier Fresno, CA
$$$ Teuscher Chocolates of Switz NY
$ Green Mountain Chocolates Waterbury, VT
$$ Kron Great Neck, NY
$ Godiva godiva.com
$ Lake Champlain Burlington, VT
$ Leonidas NY

Unacceptable
$ Mendocino Chocolate Co. Ft. Bragg, CA

A note at the bottom of the list said it's difficult to price chocolates
because there's a fair amount of variation in the products, but
generally,
$ indicates chocolates that cost less then $40/lb
$$ " " " " between $40 and $50/lb
$$$ " " " " more than $50/lb


These comments are from www.rosengartenreport.com: "Ortrud Münch
Carstens ... was the clearly the grand prize winner in our [chocolate]
taste tests! God bless her, can this woman make chocolate better than
anyone else on earth!" and those chocolates are described as "[t]he
finest pure chocolate taste I know of in America".

Clearly, the order in which companies are listed is significant!