Take 5

We asked Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, to name five chocolates on his all-star list. Here's what he said:

1. The CF Signature Piece I was lucky enough to get a shipment of Candyfreak Signature pieces. A few months ago, a bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, called Changing Hands asked me to design a piece of chocolate, which was then made by Granny's Chocolates in Gilbert, Arizona. They did an amazing job. The piece is this: a soft caramel, infused with cocoa and cinnamon, enrobed in dark chocolate, with Rice Krispies. It was an effort to recreate the now-extinct Caravelle bar, my favorite as a kid. The piece is mind-blowing. It tastes like you're licking the brownie bowl when you eat these suckers.
2. The Grenada Chocolate Company (60%) Bar Grenada grows its own cocoa organically and makes the chocolate the old-fashioned way.
3. Lake Champlain Five Star Bar Any variety. Just insanely good.
4. Mother Myrick's Chocolate-Covered Butter Toffee Made by a wonderful chocolatier in southern Vermont.
5. Kit Kat Dark Not as fancy, but I worship them.