14 ms·

My spouse works at an artisanal chocolate factory in Raleigh, NC[0]. From experience, there is a huge difference in quality between small batch chocolate bars a

by jadell 9y ago

My spouse works at an artisanal chocolate factory in Raleigh, NC[0]. From experience, there is a huge difference in quality between small batch chocolate bars and bonbons vs mass manufactured. Even with small batch, there's a difference between buying it in a store vs buying it fresh from the factory. That said, I don't think that difference is worth an extra $290. Once you're over the $5-to-10 per bar mark, there's diminishing returns on quality (for me at least.) Anything over that and you're paying for the story and branding. A $7 single-origin fair trade bar tastes the same as a $300 one, and in both cases, they're probably sourcing from the same farmer. [0] https://viderichocolatefactory.com/ https://viderichocolatefactory.com/

wuliwong 9y ago
What types of difference in quality do you see? I'm not a chocolate connoisseur but it is interesting. I do pay premiums for coffee and cigars though. :)
- IntronExon 9y ago
  In the worst case cocoa butter (expensive) is replaced with something like PGPR (cheap).
- jadell 9y ago
  Ingredients and care in the roast are the big things. You can taste the difference between chocolate made with cane sugar vs corn syrup, or in how much oils or coagulants are mixed with the cocoa butter. You can feel that same difference in the texture. The origin of the bean plays a big part as well, same as with coffee. Cacao beans bring in all sorts of fruity, earthy, and other flavor notes, which a good chocolate maker can turn up or down depending on how they tweak the roasting process. Also, good chocolate should be shiny, and snap when you bend it, a signal of a good grinding and tempering process. Compare this to Hershey bars (even their dark bars) which have a dull finish and either bend or crumble. Like with coffee or beer (or cigars, I assume), it takes time and effort to refine your palate for chocolate.
  - stouset 9y ago
    I’ll note that I had an eye-opening moment regarding the flavor of different beans at the Tcho chocolate tour on the Embarcadero. At the end of the tour they do a tasting of bars made from single-origin beans. With the only additives being varying amounts of milk and sugar, one bar tasted bright and citrusy, another was earthy and nutty, and another was rich and (for lack of a better term) “chocolatey”. It makes total sense in retrospect, but I’d never considered how much the flavor of beans by themselves can make such a difference.
mscrivo 9y ago
So disappointed Videri doesn't ship to Canada, it looks very good.
lamename 9y ago
The fact that it's possible to charge this much for certain food & drink is both embarrassing and fascinating to me. On one hand, anyone who's spent the time to cultivate a preference can tell some bit of difference between "crappy" beer/wine/coffee/chocolate/etc. and "the good stuff". On the other hand, taste & smell in particular are so adjusted by expectation, visual presentation, and of course stories of bespoke products from old-world artisans. But even if you're aware of all that, I'm the first to admit it's easy to get enveloped in the more "objective" ways to put food & drink on a magical pedestal (especially those with psychoactive properties like alcohol, caffeine, & other drugs). Learn how different hop varietals contribute different alpha-acid concentrations that affect the taste and smell of beer, or the flavor profile of coffee roasts, or the THC/CBD ratio of marijuana strains... It's not that it's all bullshit, there's some truth there for sure, it's just interesting to me when I find myself geeking out about these things. I don't (think) I fall for stories behind products, but there are many ways humans essentially get lost in, for lack of a better word, the "magic" properties of substances we ingest. I see it as a kind of glitch of the human mind that's both life-enriching and, sometimes, to the detriment of our wallets.
- jackhack 9y ago
  >nyone who's spent the time to cultivate a preference can tell some bit of difference between "crappy" beer/wine/coffee/chocolate/etc. and "the good stuff". Maybe not. But people will pay for a story. Charles Shaw wines (sold at Trader Joe's stores, and affectionately known as "Three Buck Chuck") has won numerous blind competitions over wines costing a hundred times more. And the famous Stradivarius instruments, valued at north of $1,000,000 cannot easily be discerned from high-end modern violins. But the mystique of the brand, the imagery of these little singing cabinets scraped out of wood 200 years ago, continues to fuel the market. People pay $60 for a single ice cube carved from a glacier. That 100,000 year old ice sure must be yummy.
  - lamename 9y ago
    Fully agree. Just wanted to preface by acknowledging that not _all_ products are created equal.
jseliger 9y ago
If you like chocolate, too, there is a charming company called Chocosphere: http://chocophere.com http://chocophere.com that sells a pretty wide variety of bars and also has subscription options. Their website is a bit 2005, but the product is good.
markfer 9y ago
Love Videri! Used to work across the street, they used to host great wine and chocolate happy hours.
js2 9y ago
The website lists the address as "327 W. Davie Street, Sweet 100" Is that a typo or someone being cute? :-) (I live in Raleigh and hadn't heard of it so I looked it up.)
- justinjlynn 9y ago
  It got you to mention it! If the postal service doesn't care (and they don't) that's great marketing.
- tebugst 9y ago
  This is new hype Apple - 1 Infinite Loop Genentech - 1 DNA Way Facebook 1 Hacker Way
simonebrunozzi 9y ago
So, I assume Videri does small batches, it's all about quality, and doesn't put the usual industrial crap in its products. If that's so, I would love to buy chocolate from them. I only suggest to price the 3-pack lower than $20 (if a single is $7, a 3 pack should be closer to $16-$17).
pasta 9y ago
I once read the same applies to wine. The quality difference of bottles over $20 can't be tasted.
imbur 9y ago
There is often a large discrepancy between what something costs to produce, and what a consumer is willing to pay.
NIL8 9y ago
It's been a long day and I don't know why I even clicked the link. But, after doing so, I wanted to mention that I really like the website. Whoever made it did a good job. It's probably as informative and easy-to-use as a site like that would ever need to be without being filled with useless, time-wasting fluff. Like I said, I've had quite a day and figured I'd end it by saying something positive. Even if it's just to my screen.
bosie 9y ago
apologies if this is a silly question but you said "per bar" a few times. i just checked your spouse's shop and a bar is 1.4oz (38g). That is quite tiny and equals roughly USD18 per 100g. In Europe I am more used to people comparing the 100g price, bar price doesn't matter that much. Is it common to ignore the weight of the bar in such comparisons?

by jadell 9y ago

wuliwong 9y ago

What types of difference in quality do you see? I'm not a chocolate connoisseur but it is interesting. I do pay premiums for coffee and cigars though. :)

IntronExon 9y ago
In the worst case cocoa butter (expensive) is replaced with something like PGPR (cheap).
jadell 9y ago
Ingredients and care in the roast are the big things. You can taste the difference between chocolate made with cane sugar vs corn syrup, or in how much oils or coagulants are mixed with the cocoa butter. You can feel that same difference in the texture. The origin of the bean plays a big part as well, same as with coffee. Cacao beans bring in all sorts of fruity, earthy, and other flavor notes, which a good chocolate maker can turn up or down depending on how they tweak the roasting process. Also, good chocolate should be shiny, and snap when you bend it, a signal of a good grinding and tempering process. Compare this to Hershey bars (even their dark bars) which have a dull finish and either bend or crumble. Like with coffee or beer (or cigars, I assume), it takes time and effort to refine your palate for chocolate.
- stouset 9y ago
  I’ll note that I had an eye-opening moment regarding the flavor of different beans at the Tcho chocolate tour on the Embarcadero. At the end of the tour they do a tasting of bars made from single-origin beans. With the only additives being varying amounts of milk and sugar, one bar tasted bright and citrusy, another was earthy and nutty, and another was rich and (for lack of a better term) “chocolatey”. It makes total sense in retrospect, but I’d never considered how much the flavor of beans by themselves can make such a difference.

mscrivo 9y ago

So disappointed Videri doesn't ship to Canada, it looks very good.

lamename 9y ago

The fact that it's possible to charge this much for certain food & drink is both embarrassing and fascinating to me. On one hand, anyone who's spent the time to cultivate a preference can tell some bit of difference between "crappy" beer/wine/coffee/chocolate/etc. and "the good stuff". On the other hand, taste & smell in particular are so adjusted by expectation, visual presentation, and of course stories of bespoke products from old-world artisans. But even if you're aware of all that, I'm the first to admit it's easy to get enveloped in the more "objective" ways to put food & drink on a magical pedestal (especially those with psychoactive properties like alcohol, caffeine, & other drugs). Learn how different hop varietals contribute different alpha-acid concentrations that affect the taste and smell of beer, or the flavor profile of coffee roasts, or the THC/CBD ratio of marijuana strains... It's not that it's all bullshit, there's some truth there for sure, it's just interesting to me when I find myself geeking out about these things. I don't (think) I fall for stories behind products, but there are many ways humans essentially get lost in, for lack of a better word, the "magic" properties of substances we ingest. I see it as a kind of glitch of the human mind that's both life-enriching and, sometimes, to the detriment of our wallets.

jackhack 9y ago
>nyone who's spent the time to cultivate a preference can tell some bit of difference between "crappy" beer/wine/coffee/chocolate/etc. and "the good stuff". Maybe not. But people will pay for a story. Charles Shaw wines (sold at Trader Joe's stores, and affectionately known as "Three Buck Chuck") has won numerous blind competitions over wines costing a hundred times more. And the famous Stradivarius instruments, valued at north of $1,000,000 cannot easily be discerned from high-end modern violins. But the mystique of the brand, the imagery of these little singing cabinets scraped out of wood 200 years ago, continues to fuel the market. People pay $60 for a single ice cube carved from a glacier. That 100,000 year old ice sure must be yummy.
- lamename 9y ago
  Fully agree. Just wanted to preface by acknowledging that not _all_ products are created equal.

jseliger 9y ago

If you like chocolate, too, there is a charming company called Chocosphere: http://chocophere.com http://chocophere.com that sells a pretty wide variety of bars and also has subscription options. Their website is a bit 2005, but the product is good.

markfer 9y ago

Love Videri! Used to work across the street, they used to host great wine and chocolate happy hours.

js2 9y ago

The website lists the address as "327 W. Davie Street, Sweet 100" Is that a typo or someone being cute? :-) (I live in Raleigh and hadn't heard of it so I looked it up.)

justinjlynn 9y ago
It got you to mention it! If the postal service doesn't care (and they don't) that's great marketing.
tebugst 9y ago
This is new hype Apple - 1 Infinite Loop Genentech - 1 DNA Way Facebook 1 Hacker Way

simonebrunozzi 9y ago

So, I assume Videri does small batches, it's all about quality, and doesn't put the usual industrial crap in its products. If that's so, I would love to buy chocolate from them. I only suggest to price the 3-pack lower than $20 (if a single is $7, a 3 pack should be closer to $16-$17).

pasta 9y ago

I once read the same applies to wine. The quality difference of bottles over $20 can't be tasted.

imbur 9y ago

There is often a large discrepancy between what something costs to produce, and what a consumer is willing to pay.

NIL8 9y ago

It's been a long day and I don't know why I even clicked the link. But, after doing so, I wanted to mention that I really like the website. Whoever made it did a good job. It's probably as informative and easy-to-use as a site like that would ever need to be without being filled with useless, time-wasting fluff. Like I said, I've had quite a day and figured I'd end it by saying something positive. Even if it's just to my screen.

bosie 9y ago

apologies if this is a silly question but you said "per bar" a few times. i just checked your spouse's shop and a bar is 1.4oz (38g). That is quite tiny and equals roughly USD18 per 100g. In Europe I am more used to people comparing the 100g price, bar price doesn't matter that much. Is it common to ignore the weight of the bar in such comparisons?