We held the first of two championship tastings Monday, concentrating on the 70% end of our “extra dark” range. As I wrote on our wiki:

In order to keep the championship round at two weeks, we ended up with eight chocolates per tasting, and some of the tasters noted a bit of fatigue by the time they reached the eighth chocolate — all of which were fairly similar, but the panel was still fairly clear on the differences, and the result was quite certain. (However, it may be interesting to compare panelists comments with previous tastings where the same products were included!) With four first-place votes, the winner was Equal Exchange Very Dark Chocolate (71%). In second place, with three first-place votes, was Theo Pure 70% Dark Chocolate, which I had expected to win. Rounding out the field, Jelina Noir (72%) came in third, followed by Whole Foods Costa Rican Dark Chocolate 71% in fourth, Vivani Dark Chocolate (71%) and Nói Síríus Traditional Icelandic Chocolate 70% tied for fifth, Divine Intensely Rich Dark Chocolate (70%) in seventh, and Dick Taylor 72% Madagascar (Sambirano) in last place.

More to come in a couple weeks when we do the 85% end of the spectrum.