Dolce vita

The world spends more than USD 40 billion on chocolate in a year – one third of this is spent in the United States. Still, chocolate is the cheapest ‘luxury product’ in the world today. The market is full of sweets which call themselves chocolate but whose cocoa bean content is replaced with sugar, emulgents or whatnot. At the same time, it was revealed quite a long time ago that dark chocolate with a cocoa content above 70 percent is really healthy. Lovers of milk chocolate should not worry either: artisan chocolate makers increase the cocoa content and make milk chocolate smoother as well. The popularity of expensive dark chocolate is more and more fashionable and a few chocolateries in Budapest do offer unforgettable experiences. Luckily, even chocolates of the highest quality are now available in Budapest; for instance real luxury products could cost as much as HUF 100,000/kg. There is an analogy between the world of wine and the world of chocolate: cocoa bean is similar to grape in many aspects (soil type and climate vastly influence its taste and quality). The art of chocolate making is as complex as that of wine making. So it should not come as a surprise that in American restaurants and hotels there are chocolate sommeliers as well. Those who like a bit of self-education can visit chocolate-themed websites where they can learn about the art of chocolate tasting.