Raising the Bar on Chocolate

Swishing the smooth, dark blend around in his mouth, Gary Guittard searches for the right words. "Astringent," he decides, "with some floral notes."

Zinfandel? Or maybe Merlot?

No, chocolate. It's a semisweet made from Ecuadorean cocoa beans, just one of the new "varietal" and "estate" chocolates hitting the market.

Designed to attract would-be connoisseurs, these high-end chocolate bars are made from different varieties of cocoa beans grown on plantations around the world, from Venezuela to Trinidad to Madagascar.

Just as different varieties of grapes bring their flavors to wine, Guittard and other chocolatiers insist, the type and terroir of certain cocoa beans bring subtle but distinct flavors to the chocolate they produce.

Venezuelan beans are spicy and nutty. Ecuadoreans have the floral aroma of the rain forest.

Chocolate lovers, they're betting, like wine lovers, will be willing to shell out more for a little taste of what they believe to be the finest the world has to offer. Like $3 to $7 for a 3-to-4-ounce bar.

"If people hear something is the strongest in the world, they want to taste it and say they like it," says Guittard, president of Guittard Chocolate Co. in Burlingame, Calif. Right or wrong, he says, "it's got snob appeal."

Some believe these so-called origin bars and the flowery language used to describe them is just marketing hype, a ploy to make people spend more money on chocolate at a time when consumption appears ready to level off in the U.S.

But if these cocoa pioneers have their way, the labels on chocolate bars soon could be as crowded as wine labels--with descriptions of special blends of beans, information about where the beans are grown, cocoa percentages and, in some cases, even vintages so people can nibble on a "good year." Chocolate shops could more closely resemble Starbucks, with people choosing the blend of their beans as well as the fillings.

And more Americans would choose chocolate to fit their mood rather than simply look for "something sweet."

That's still a long shot. Today, varietal chocolate is still very much in its infancy, catching the fancy mainly of pastry chefs and foodies looking for something new and exciting.

But growing sales of these bars at gourmet shops such as Dean & DeLuca, at supermarkets such as Andronico's and Bristol Farms and online could be an indication that American tastes are changing.