Taste Test via New York

While in New York City I was able to do some "research" for my work. I dragged Lotus to a couple of chocolate shops (Neuhaus, Jacques Torres and Maison du Chocolate).

Neuhaus I knew from Belgium and is my current fav, except it's hard to get since the closest store is in Macy's San Francisco (on line is too expensive). Jacques Torres is just in New York and Maison du Chocolate is based in Paris, but has a store in New York City.

The way I routed our day, we went to Neuhaus first and I picked out a 9pc box there (after we had coffee and pastries and got Lotus her cookies). What I really like about Neuhaus is the creaminess of thier fillings. Since I was somewhat familiar with their products, this stop went fairly quickly.

Later in the day we stopped in at Maison du Chocolate. I was not too familiar with their products, but I had heard of them and read positive reviews. I did not end up buying anything here, becuase the place had really bad chi. The pieces of chocolate were really small and a 6 piece box was 11 or 12 bucks. If they were reasonable sized pieces, then maybe, but these were really small. The store had a real uppidyness to it and just did not have a good feel to it.

Our second to last stop that day was Jacques Torres Chocolates. This was a nice store. It was in the SoHo area of New York and was a bit industrial looking and they make a few of the items there (the main factory is across the river in Brooklyn). We bought a quarter pound box and some asst bulk items for my parents for Xmas.

So last night I did my taste test. I tried some of the new Godiva, some Neuhaus and some Jacques Torres. Here are pics of each:

Neuhaus:


Inside the box, plus Lotus's chocolate cherry:



Jacques Torres:



Inside the box:



Godiva, I have some in bulk, so I just put them on a plate for this pic




So after exhaustive research I have determined that I still like Neuhaus the best. Some of the new Godiva items are pretty good, and Jacques Torres is good too, but for me, Neuhaus is a step above. I liked the Jacques Torres, but it's not noticeably better than Godiva or Neuhaus. I think Jacques Torres had a few flavors that were different and interesting (port, wicked fun (ancho & chipotle chili's), earl grey tea (which I did not try), etc) but the chocolate was not a step above, etc.

So in a nutshell, Neuhaus still rules, but Godiva is still a good choice since getting Neuhaus is not an easy thing to do.