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SALT LAKE CITY — In a blind taste test, two chocolate bars from Utah were among a New York Times food critic's favorite.
The creations of Amano Artisan Chocolate and Ritual Chocolate both made a list of eight recommendations from veteran critic Pete Wells for bean-to-bar chocolate made in the United States.
"All my choices are, without a doubt, worth their price," Wells wrote. "Excellent bean-to-bar chocolate is the only nonalcoholic product that can provide such a complex range of pleasures at once. I could work up a case that chocolate is a better value than wine, because a single mouthful is more satisfying than one sip of pinot noir could ever be."
Wells named Orem-based Amano's Ocumare dark chocolate bar as his No. 1 pick.
The New York Times' reviewer said the bar "rapidly surrenders its bundle of juicy, delicious berry and pear flavors underscored by caramel and toast." The winning chocolate bar is made in Utah with beans from the Ocumare Valley in Venezuela.
"What most people don't realize is that some of the world's best chocolate is made right here in Utah," said Amano founder Art Pollard.
Amano has actually been a favorite of national media right from its beginning in 2007. A reporter from NPR somehow got a hold of one of its early test bars and included the company on a list of best chocolates for Valentine's Day that year, according to Pollard.
"They ran the story, and we hadn't even turned on our website," he said. "We just kind of looked at each other and said, 'I guess we just launched.'"
Since then, Amano has won more than 150 first-place awards. He said that far more rewarding than all of the accolades the company has earned is the opportunity he's had to work with farmers in various parts of the world and support their businesses. He noted that after you've stayed in the farmer's home, it's hard to not love the beans.
"We've done all right, but it's all about attention to detail and wanting to do things the right way," he said.
Park City-based Ritual Chocolate's Balao bar snagged the eighth spot on the New York Times list. Wells described the chocolate as being "slightly waxy; tastes like cherry jam on a well-browned baguette."
The cacao for the indulgent treat comes from Camino Verde in Balao, Ecuador. Ritual, which was founded in 2010 by Robbie Stout and Anna Davies, has also earned its fair share of awards. Back in July it won silver in the National Awards and bronze in the Plain/origin awards at the International Chocolate Awards Americas Competition.
The New York Times' chocolate taste testing article was posted Tuesday. Wells conducted the taste test after it was revealed that Brooklyn-based Mast Brothers had been melting bulk chocolates and marketing them as artisanal, to the dismay of some fans.
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