E. Dwass

Trader Joe's is known for traveling the globe to find a wide and ever-changing variety of foods. They recently went next door to bring back Organic Stone-Ground Mexican-Style Dark Chocolate, which has the shape, taste and paper packaging of traditional south-of-the-border chocolates.

There are two varieties, extra dark and salt and pepper, both with an intense, barely sweet flavor. Like other Mexican chocolates, the texture is grittier than American or European choices. The extra dark version has 70% cocoa solids, while the spicy has 54% cocoa solids. Each package contains two 1.3 ounce discs, scored into 8 pie-slice-shaped wedges, priced at $1.49.

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S. Bonar

Scads of homemade Valentine's Day candies at Little Flower Candy Co.

You've heard of "Pay it don't say it"? This year, how about applying that principle to Valentine's Day goodies? If you really love your significant other, surely you can afford to spend several hundred dollars on chocolates or a fancy cake? Look at it this way: It's way cheaper than an engagement ring!

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flickr user geminigeek

The Best Chocolate + Wine Pairings?

Chocolate and wine. Could there be a more classic Valentine Day's pairing? There's one small problem: "The flavors of [dark] chocolate and wine aren't always that compatible," as a Food and Wine article summarized. Sure, there's that tannins on tannins thing, a double hit of bitter acidity in the chocolate and wine. And we've all heard the sommelier lectures that bittersweet chocolate should be tamed in a dish, like a mole sauce or chocolate mousse. But on Valentine's Day, we want pure, unadulterated chocolate.

Besides, aren't some of the best pairings in life, wine and otherwise, the most unexpected ones that those perfectly balanced PB&J sorts never thought would work? As Vineyard 29 winemaker Keith Emerson told us, "I would never say no to a great piece of chocolate, and I would most certainly never pass up a glass of Champagne. Two rights definitely don't equal a wrong." Precisely the reason we bypassed sommeliers and went straight to the local chefs of the wine world -- California winemakers -- for their Valentine's chocolate pairing opinions.

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jgarbee

Modernist Painting with Ococoa Chocolates

Surely there is a Duff Goldman of chocolate out there somewhere. But all of the real-time chocolatiers (sorry, Willy Wonka doesn't count in our book) we've spent tasting time with, including Diana Malouf, owner of Ococoa, have more temperate personalities -- a compliment. Measured, focused and with a patience that bodes well in the confectioner's kitchen, where precision is essential. Kind-hearted, too, perhaps partly the result of the contentment that a life of making chocolate brings.

If you strip away the tired cliché, it actually makes a box of chocolate seem fitting for Valentine's Day, even at this early January hour (some of us prefer to go directly from holiday cookies to chocolate, skipping the diet talk altogether). Get more on Ococoa chocolate after the jump.

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James Bartlett

candy vending machines

The holidays are the ideal -- and perfectly acceptable -- time for kids of all ages to chow down on chocolate, crunch candy and basically indulge your sweet teeth. At the new Sweet! Hollywood candy emporium at Hollywood & Highland, which soft-opened in November, you can literally do this; there's a large white chocolate molar ready and waiting for you.

Inspired by the weird world of Willy Wonka -- the Wonka boutique is here, complete with everything Nerd, chocolate crayons that actually write and many more exclusive individual choc treats, as well as a one-minute-he's-there-the-next-he's-not, Depp-ish Wonka himself -- this extravaganza features 12 themed boutiques over 30,000 square feet.

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E. Dwass

Chocolate nachos

El Pollo Loco, you've got some explaining to do.

For starters, we know some kind of mind game is going on. How else to explain the fact that late Saturday night we pulled off the 101 in Agoura Hills and sped to the chain's store on Kanan Road.

"We'd like an order of Chocolate Dessert Nachos," we announced, with no shame whatsoever, forgetting our usual concerns about whole grains, processed foods, fats and sodium.

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Flickr/Golden_ie

Cadbury chocolate

If you're the sort of chocolate lover who loses sleep over things like M&M's melting in your pocket, or the fate of that bar of Godiva you left in the back seat of your car, the folks at Cadbury have come up with something just for you. (And maybe the military.)

Apparently the chocolate company's R & D plant in Bourneville, England, has created a way to make heat-resistant chocolate, not by any weird chemical additive, but simply by breaking down the sugar into much smaller particles during the conching process, which somehow allows less fat to cover them and thus makes them more tolerant to heat. Whatever works. Great news for those of us in hot climates or with kids who like to melt things with hair dryers.

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jgarbee

Rancho Gordo Mexican Chocolate

Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo is known among chefs as the "bean guy" -- his Good Mother Stallard, Vallarta and Santa Maria Pinquitos make appearances on most top restaurant menus this time of year. More recently, Sando began importing a handful of products made by small producers (very small, often one or two individuals). Among them, the best Mexican chocolate we have tasted. It also comes with a handy (and genuine) holiday gift card story that trumps the average Beverly Hills chocolate box.

The chocolate is made by a small collective of women (Mujeres de Xochistlahuaca) in Guerrero. They grow and harvest their own cocoa beans, toast them in clay comales, then stone grind them with piloncillo and canela (Mexican cinnamon). By hand. Read that again and yeah, a box of 5 large tablets for $14.95 is a fantastic deal.

Get more on the chocolate, and why Sando, who primarily commissions small U.S. farmers to grow his beans, began importing a few products in recent years.

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Nesquik

If you were thinking of making yourself a nice comforting cup of cocoa to deal with last Friday's spinach recall, you might want to try a glass of wine instead. Glendale-based Nestle USA has recalled Nesquik, also for possible Salmonella contamination. (That Salmonella seriously gets around.)

The foodmaker said Thursday that it's recalling Nesquik sold in its 10.9-, 21.8- and 40.7-ounce canisters across the country in early October. The affected products have an expiration date of Oct. 2014.

Nestle says it is issuing the recall after its ingredient supplier recalled some of the calcium carbonate used in the product due to potential Salmonella contamination. Nestle asks consumers with the product to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund, or call Nestle Consumer Services at (800) 628-7679.

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Flickr/adactio

The Swiss eat the most chocolate and also have won the most Nobel prizes, making them the most awesome people in Europe

What is the secret to winning a Nobel prize? A genius IQ? Long, lonely hours in the lab or library? An unfaltering commitment to establishing peace in the Middle East (good luck with that)?

Actually, it turns out that Nobel prizes are within reach for all of us, because the secret may be eating a lot of chocolate!

A study published Wednesday in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine ties chocolate consumption to the number of Nobel prize winners a country has, and suggests that chocolate can boost brain power. (Previous studies have shown that flavanols in chocolate can help slowing down or even reverse age-related mental decline.)

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