Absolute Black

Having lost my indiscriminate childhood appetite for chocolate I ate relatively little of the stuff until, in my late thirties, I acquired a taste for good-quality dark chocolate. For some time I was happy enough with bars containing 70% or 80% cocoa, then gruadually began to seek out even more intense and bitter confections.

At length I made it to 100%, thanks to Montezuma’s Absolute Black. This has become my chocolate of choice: a couple of small squares of it serve as an excellent pick-me-up on a workday afternoon. It’s not readily available in nearby supermarkets so I’m obliged to order on-line or to stock up on my infrequent visits to Waitrose.

For a change at the weekend I’ll typically switch to something a little more laid-back such as the J. D. Gross Madagascar 70% chocolate from Lidl, or the Peru 85% bars from Co-op.