Hot Cocoa

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After discovering the pleasures of premium coffee beans, heirloom tomatoes, and microbrewed beer, many Americans have learned to appreciate the difference between mass-produced, industrial chocolate like Hershey's (what Rosenblum refers to as "sugared wax") and artisanal varieties infused with ingredients, such as sea salt, balsamic vinegar, chili peppers, and saffron, that are normally reserved for savory dishes.

Of course, the spate of recent news reports touting the health benefits of dark chocolate have played a key role in our education. Turns out, wonderfully enough, that dark chocolate is good for you. Not only is it rich in minerals like iron, magnesium, and zinc, but it also contains the same all-powerful flavonoid antioxidants (which help prevent cancer, heart disease, and stroke) as red wine, green tea, and blueberries.

The key here is the amount of cacao, or cocoa, in the chocolate; essentially, the higher the percentage of cacao, the darker the chocolate and the richer the nutritional content. According to U.S. guidelines, anything labeled dark chocolate must contain a minimum of 35 percent cocoa solids (compared to only 10 percent for milk chocolate); most of the premium chocolates on store shelves go well beyond the government standards, typically ranging anywhere from 60 to 90 percent in cacao content.

Milk chocolate remains the most popular chocolate in the United States; last year, it brought in a staggering $3.6 billion compared with $294 million for dark chocolate (excluding Wal-Mart sales). But over the past several years the dark-chocolate market has grown at a steady clip, while sales of milk chocolate have stagnated, leading many industry insiders to predict that dark chocolate may well constitute the future of chocolate. A decade ago, only 20 percent of Americans said they preferred dark chocolate; today, that figure has grown to 35 percent. More and more people these days would probably agree with chef and food writer Jennifer Harvey Lang, who declared that "dark is to milk chocolate what Dom PŽrignon is to Dr. Pepper."

No wonder, then, that the sleeping giants are starting to take notice. After all, the concept of healthy chocolate is a pretty powerful one, marketing-wise. Last summer, to the disappointment of food purists everywhere, the Hershey Company acquired Scharffen Berger, a Berkeley, California-based company that specializes in premium dark chocolates.

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