Although it is almost never mentioned, freshness is a tremendous factor in the taste of chocolates. Leah Rosenthal, the chocolate buyer for Dean & DeLuca, does not import bonbons from Europe, despite the enduring cachet of Belgian, Swiss and French truffles. (Solid chocolate, which is imported and sold around the city, has a much longer shelf life than bonbons.)
"I'd rather have a fresh chocolate from Brooklyn than a week-old one from Brussels any day," Rosenthal said. Chocolates from Martine's chocolate shop at Bloomingdale's come with instructions: certain bonbons must be eaten within days.
Although they are not especially fancy, the freshly made dark-chocolate truffles at La Bergamote, like the homemade milk chocolate rice crunch at Varsano's and the almond bark at Li-Lac, have clear chocolate flavor, and creamy, not greasy, texture that puts Godiva to shame. At Bierkraft, Scholz said, "You know, anyone who buys a block of Callebaut can say that they are making fine Belgian chocolates." She continued, "That doesn't tell you anything. If you know it was made yesterday, that tells you something."
Scholz also stocks a single bar that may hold the future of chocolate within its wrappers: Italian lattenero, or dark milk chocolate, from Andrea Slitti. It is a creamy milk chocolate that includes 62 percent cocoa mass, a level previously undreamed of for milk chocolate.
Brace yourself.
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