www.insidedenver.com By The Wall Street Journal February 13, 2003

"The first note is liquorice root, followed by berries and a drawn-out finish of green olive." No, that's not a Chateau Lafite Rothschild Bordeaux. It's straight from the wrapper of a candy bar.

This kind of language is posing a new challenge for the nation's chocolate lovers, who will gorge on an estimated $1.3 billion of the stuff this Valentine's Day. Now, in addition to exercising self-control, chocoholics must attempt to decipher a perplexing new vocabulary that's increasingly being used to market high-end chocolate.

Bars sold at gourmet food shops now boast names like "Premier Cru," and "Single Bean Origin." Turn them over and you'll read about things like the candy bar's "vintage" (the year the cocoa was harvested) or the "terroir" of the beans (where they came from). Some tout their "varietals," or type of bean, as well.

High on the totem pole: One company makes a chocolate solely from rare Porcelana beans and sells it for about $75 a pound. By contrast, a pound of Hershey's chocolate can cost roughly $4.

Restaurants and hotels are getting in on the game as well. Two months ago, the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia promoted one of its bartenders, Caesar Bradley, to the position of "Hot Chocolate Sommelier." His job: help guests pick a brand of chocolate and percentage of cocoa content.

How did chocolate, one of life's simple pleasures, get so complicated? Part of the change is due to the growing sophistication of the American palate - and chocolate makers' desire to capitalize on it. Every gourmet food producer wants its product to be "the next olive oil," which has developed such a following that some supermarkets now carry bottles costing $30 a liter. But while other fancy food items like balsamic vinegar can fetch up to $300 a bottle, few people see any reason to pay more than a few dollars for a plain bar of chocolate.

The built-in price limit is particularly problematic for the chocolate industry this year, because cocoa costs twice as much as it did last year. A combination of factors - including violence in Ivory Coast, where about 40 percent of the world's cocoa is grown - has sent commodity prices skyrocketing in recent months.

Even worse for high-end chocolatiers, some of the world's greatest cocoa is downright impossible to get a hold of right now: It's sitting in the ports of Venezuela, where a general strike has frozen exports for the past two months.

Fancy chocolate makers are hoping the lingo can help justify the higher prices of their products, and encourage buyers to think of candy bars as gourmet food on par with caviar and truffles. Indeed, some specialty companies say they will have to boost prices by as much as 10 percent during the next few months. (Prices on mere mortal chocolate, like Oreos and Hershey's, have already gone up.)

The Venezuelan company El Rey has been particularly aggressive in marketing the pedigree of its candy. Wrappers tout "Venezuelan single bean origin," meaning they don't blend different beans as most other makers do. Promotional materials read like wine reviews, extolling virtues such as "fruity acidity and long linger on the palate" and "interesting hints of apricot and plum."

But does haute chocolate actually taste any better? Our own panel of chocoholics differed widely on that point. By far the most divisive hunk of candy was a 3.5-ounce bar of Michel Cluizel Premier Cru de Plantation Hacienda "Los Ancones," which cost us $4.75. Reactions ranged from "yuck" to "wow."

Our outside chocolate expert, Clay Gordon of PureOrigin.com, says this variety is made with a single, strong-flavored bean rather than the subtler blend in most chocolate. (For more taste-test results, see accompanying chart.) Truly decadent dark chocolate uses much more cocoa than the milk chocolate sold in vending machines.

The Food and Drug Administration mandates that milk chocolate contain a minimum of 10 percent cocoa. (The rest of the bar is mostly just sugar and milk.) By contrast, the most prestigious bars use huge amounts of cocoa - as much as 99 percent of the total bar - and tout those percentages on the packaging.

Decoding the new lingo requires some knowledge of cocoa beans.

While most are grown in Africa, the "flavor beans" - the ones that impart the most powerful chocolate taste - mostly come from Latin American countries including Venezuela and Ecuador. Criollo beans, the finest, are pricey and rare because the trees are high-maintenance and produce lower yields. But about 90 percent of all beans are Forasteros, which are easier to grow but not as flavorful.

But bean type tells only part of the story, according to connoisseurs, who insist that the specific region where the beans are grown is of great importance. "Just like in wine, there can be a good side of the hill and a bad side of the hill," says Clay Gordon, a professional chocolate taster. That's why many chocolates now specify the region, or even the precise plantation, where the beans grew.

Terms like "premier cru," for instance, are supposed to mean only the best beans from a particular "terroir," or region, were used. Single-bean origin indicates that, unlike most chocolate, beans from different countries weren't blended. Another French word that pops up a lot is "couverture." Translation: baking chocolate.

However, some of the most important information on the wrapper is buried in the ingredients list. Connoisseurs say cocoa should be listed first, and they look for real vanilla (not artificial vanillin). Cocoa butter is preferred, too: Milk fat and lecithin are often used as less expensive substitutes. Everything else on the package "is marketing speak," Mr. Gordon says.

Indeed, some consumers are baffled by the lingo. Dennison Lee, an engineer in New York, recently got a tip on chocolate from an online food chat room. When the bars arrived, he read on the label that they were "made with a hundred percent single variety premium Venezuelan cacao." "'Venezuelan' doesn't mean a thing to me," Mr. Lee says. But one thing's for sure: "It's certainly not Hershey's." --- Tasting the Good Stuff A "bold, earthy and complex" candy bar? To see if we could discern what the packaging promises, we snarfed down a half-dozen chocolate bars. The panel was a hardened pool of chocoholics, from the Wall Street Journal's managing editor to wine columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, as well as chocolate expert Clay Gordon of PureOrigin.com.

Chocolate: El Rey Gran Saman Dark Chocolate Carenero Superior 70 percent The Marketing Speak: "A bold, earthy and complex dark chocolate with ... refreshing acidity." What We Said: Most of us disliked the texture, calling it "chalky," "gritty" and "crumbly." The Expert Explains: Simple bad luck: This company is known for fine chocolates, but we managed to buy a bar that had been damaged and got dried out. (The maker says it must have been improperly stored in the shop.) Chocolate: Michel Cluizel Premier Cru de Planatation Hacienda "Los Ancones"67 percent The Marketing Speak: "The first note is liquorice root, followed by berries and a drawn-out finish of green olive, current, and apricot." What We Said: By far the most divisive bar. One of us said the "sour, lemony taste makes you cringe." For others it was a "favorite." The Expert Explains: When chocolate is made with beans from a particular region, as the case here, the flavor can be very specific. (Most chocolates are blends.) Some people like the strong flavors, others don't.

Chocolate: Valrhona Caraibe 66 percent The Marketing Speak: "Aromatic and long in the mouth ...

delicate savours of almonds and roasted coffee." What We Said: John and Dorothy found it "interesting," with "deeply buried tastes" that evolved in the mouth.

The Expert Explains: "One of the natures of fine chocolate is the layers of complexity. A fine bean will be interesting and complex." Chocolate: Cacao Barry Origine Rare Cuba 70 percent The Marketing Speak: "How can one define its powerful, lingering taste of mingled smoke and undergrowth?" What We Said: Most of us enjoyed this one, finding it "buttery" and with a "dry finish." The Expert Explains: How can anything be both "buttery" and "dry"? Because it's a "couverture," or baking chocolate, it has more cocoa solids, which can impart a "dry" finish. But its high cocoa butter content gives it richness.

Chocolate: Hershey's Special Dark The Marketing Speak: "Mildly sweet chocolate." What We Said: A sugar bomb - nearly everyone found it "too sweet." Except one diehard fan who said "only thing missing was peanut butter." The Expert Explains: Sugar is the first ingredient listed, a surefire sign it's extra-sweet. Ingredients also included milk fat (a less expensive replacement for cocoa butter) and vanillin, an artificial vanilla flavoring. Hershey's responds that it's the best-selling dark chocolate in the country.

• Eating Chocolate Like a Pro As if anyone really needs help with this. But here's how chocolate snobs do it:

Step 1: The Sheen Test: Shimmer is good, chalky is bad - just like makeup. This Michel Cluizel bar glimmered nicely.

Step 2: The Snap Test: Break it. You want a crisp snap: Think Kit Kat.

Step 3: The Sniff Test: Smell it like a cigar. The packaging on this bar promised licorice and berries.

Step 4: The Gritty Test: Pop a piece and "worry" it on the roof of your mouth. The smoother the better.

Step 5: Eat it: If it tastes good, ignore steps 1 through 4.  

www.japantimes.co.jp Take your lover to Hevin and back By ROBBIE SWINNERTON

What is it about Japan and chocolate and Feb. 14? For the past two weeks and climaxing today, the entire nation -- or at least the female half of it -- has been engulfed in the annual chocomania. And, if anything, this year the Valentine's Day frenzy has reached new heights.

Treats from Decadence du Chocolat (above and below) will leave you hungry for more this Valentine's Day.

Department-store food floors are awash with pralines and truffles and ganaches. Lines are stretching down the block outside exclusive Ginza confectioners. Even the humblest rural convenience stores have bought into the idea that, on this day of days, Japanese women must buy chocolate, not just for their beaus but for all menfolk, related or not.

It's all a marketing ploy, the cynics cry. And undoubtedly it is -- but there's more to it than that. All the evidence suggests that Japan is just now, under the guise of ritual gift-giving, discovering a deep, unbridled passion for real chocolate.

We are not talking about common-or-garden 100 yen bars of Ghana or Meiji, of course, but the soft, melting textures of the gourmet product. As any chocoholic will aver, that deep, dark flavor is the taste of romance -- sensuous and stimulating, languorous but elevating, short-lasting but memorable.

For many people, the ultimate way to appreciate this supreme confection is in liquid form. It is our good fortune that, finally, the civilized practice of sipping hot chocolate is now being introduced to connoisseurs in Tokyo. Here are three places that have opened in the past year, where you can indulge.

Decadence du Chocolat

First stop, the wonderful and aptly-named Decadence du Chocolat, which opened in June. Housed in a long, free-standing building in brick and elegant dark green, its primary role is as a workshop and retail store. But walk in beneath the bright red awning, and you will find half-a-dozen small, round tables where you can revive yourself from the exertions of your hike through the tranquil residential back streets of Daikanyama.

The look is refined and elegant, almost medieval in style, with Gothic wooden pillars and beams, and Andalucian tiles underfoot. The walls and ceiling are a rich hue of red, studded with gold heraldic motifs. It feels like sitting down inside a deluxe and rather expensive chocolate box.

It smells that way, too. A heady perfume, sweet but not sickly, wafts across from the other side of that counter, with its array of tantalizing cakes and candies. As you watch the bevy of white-clad pastry chefs laboring over their whisks and baking tins in the large, open kitchen, sit back and sip on the specialty of the house -- hot Creole chocolate drink (900 yen for a single-serving pot).

Made with prime cacao beans from Venezuela -- 65 percent of the total mixture -- it is thick in texture, sweet (of course) but with a fine balance of bitter counter-notes, leaving your palate buzzing with lingering hints of vanilla and cinnamon. You will find it comforting and warming, but also richly elevating. This is not the kind of hot, milky cocoa you prepare as a nightcap. You will find your eyes are opened and your senses heightened.

The menu also offers a selection of teas and coffees, and the best argument for ordering these is that they make a better contrast with the various chocolate treats that you will be tempted to order and nibble on as you relax.

You will find it hard to leave without a purchase of pralines or bonbons under your arm (try resisting the wicked Hennessy brandy-flavored ones or, at the very least, the candied, half-dipped Valencia orange slices). Simplest of all, treat yourself to a chunk of solid nut chocolate (almond, macadamia or hazelnut) broken with a hammer into large, irregular blocks. Now, that's what we call chocolate.

Decadence du Chocolat is part of the Global Dining group, which includes not only La Boheme, Zest and Gonpachi, but also the upmarket Tableaux and Stellato restaurants. That means inevitably, as you arrive and leave, the whole kitchen acknowledges you with a loud sushi-shop chorus.

Decadence du Chocolat, 10-13 Hachiyama-cho, Shibuya-ku; tel: (03) 5489-0170; open daily 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Chocolates can be ordered through their Web site ( www.globaldining.co.jp) for delivery throughout Japan.

Theobroma Another noteworthy arrival that is equally devoted to spreading the gospel of genuine chocolate is Theobroma, in Tomigaya, not far from Yoyogi-Koen Station. Although it styles itself as a "Musee du Chocolat," that doesn't mean you can't sample and buy all the delicacies in this elegant retail shop-cum-salon de the.

Chef Koji Tsuchiya spent six years in Paris, finessing his art alongside some of the world's top chocolatiers. He produces an excellent gateau (from 2,500 yen) that lives up to its Classique Chocolat name. And his rich chocolate bars are remarkable -- especially the lip-tingling Ocumare 66 (800 yen for 75 grams), made from the finest Venezuelan cacao beans.

Besides his huge range of confections based on the fruit of the cacao tree, he also sells croissants and authentic French brioches, which are all available in the small cafe area, as are light snacks and drinks. Choose from four kinds of hot chocolate -- bitter, milk, herbal (with lemongrass and mint) and spicy, with an intriguing, prickly chili afterburn. Each is 700 yen, served in a special silver chocolate pot; or 500 yen per take-out pack.

Despite a rococo exterior and the flowers and frilly ornaments inside, Theobroma has a solid jazz soundtrack and the clientele is far from being all female. In fact, the seats are as likely to be occupied by men as by women, many of them from the nearby NHK center.

In ancient Greek, Theobroma means "food of the gods." In modern science, theobromide is an alkaloid isolated from cacao (and also found in tea) used for treating headaches and circulatory problems. Whichever excuse you need, this is a place worth knowing about.

Musee du Chocolat Theobroma; 1-14-9 Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku; tel: (03) 5798-2946; www.theo broma.co.jp; open 9.30 a.m.-8 p.m. (cafe last order 7 p.m.). Theobroma also has a substantial shop-cum-cafe in Hiroo, just opposite Enoteca: 5-16-13 Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku; tel: (03) 5798-2947.

Hevin But the high temple to the cult of gourmet chocolate in the city has to be Jean-Paul Hevin's small shop in Shinjuku Isetan. Currently one of the most brilliant stars in the firmament of chocolate artisans in France, Hevin is now attracting a growing number of acolytes here in Tokyo.

It feels like a cross between an exclusive jewelry boutique, a wine cellar and a walk-in humidor. The number of customers in the shop at any one time is restricted. The temperature of the chocolate is kept at 15-18 degrees, and light and humidity are controlled rigorously. With its darkened glass and solemn atmosphere, this is one of the growing number of foreign food outlets that have put the "chic" back in depachika food basements.

Besides the retail counters, with their perfect display cases of exquisite creations, there are chairs for a dozen or so at dark marble tables, where you can sit and savor the finest molten chocolate in the city. So powerful but subtle is the flavor, so complex the interplay of bitter and sweet, so lingering the reverberations on your palate, this will make anyone a true believer.

Demand for Hevin's chocolates has been massive over the past week. People have been lining up for more than two hours for the chance to acquire some of his spicy ganaches -- the Brasilia (coffee flavor), Criollos (cinnamon) or Gemme (lapsang souchong smoked Chinese tea) are all wonders of creation -- or gift packs of 250 grams of mixed chocolates for 6,500 yen.

Is this true love, or mere infatuation? Sometimes, the line between the two is hard to discern. Once all the Valentine Day's brouhaha has died down, go along and decide for yourself.

Jean-Paul Hevin, Shinjuku Isetan B1F, 3-14-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku; tel: 3351-7882. Open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; closed occasional Wednesdays. Hevin also has an outlet in Hiroshima: Hiroo Andersen 1F, 7-1 Hon-dori, Naka-ku, Hiroshima-shi; tel: (082) 247-2403

The Japan Times: Feb. 14, 2003

www.thekansan.com

By Myrna Krehbiel and Cathy Anderson

Telling someone you love them. Accepting a compliment. Choosing not to kick the dog when you are in a bad mood.

These are all ways to practice nonviolence. Most of us would agree that they make us feel better, and yet, they might not come naturally to us -- unless we practice.

"A Season For Nonviolence" is a nationwide program, now in its sixth year, to help people discover ways to practice nonviolence in their everyday lives. It includes 64 activities -- 23 for practicing personal peace, 23 for practicing interpersonal (one-to-one) peace and 18 activities for practicing community peace. Each day from today through April 4, one activity is offered for practice. At the end of the 64 days, every participant will have tried at least one new thing and increased their understanding of what they can do to reduce violence around them.

Locally, the program complements efforts of the Harvey County Partnership/Communities in Schools to "ensure that our kids succeed in life."

In 2002, the Kansas Children's Report Card gave Harvey County a C- in the area of "Safety and Security." It may seem hard to believe, but violence to children here is above both the state and national averages.

That kind of statistic can make us feel powerless, discouraged, even hopeless. Too often, we may not be aware of the everyday actions that we can take. We may not realize we have choices about how to act. We may think that only giant efforts will accomplish something, and we are afraid we don't have energy to spare for a giant effort.

That's why Peace Connections recommends "A Season For Nonviolence." It's do-able. It doesn't push politics on us. Because we are practicing and experimenting, we don't have to worry about getting it right the first time.

By practicing creative, constructive ways to reduce violence in ourselves and the world around us, we believe we will be able to influence future generations to do the same.

Myrna Krehbiel is director of Peace Connections in downtown Newton. Cathy Anderson is administrative associate.

64 ways to practice nonviolence BEGIN LIVING YOUR LIFE FOR PEACE

PERSONAL

Nonviolence begins by learning how to be less violent and more compassionate with ourselves. We learn by building the courage to speak and act with respect, honor and reverence for our own being.

JANUARY 30

• Courage Eleanor Roosevelt urged, "You must do the things that you think you cannot do." Practicing these 64 Ways will challenge you to do things that you think you cannot do. Today, light a candle and accept the courage to practice 64 Ways of living nonviolently.

JANUARY 31

• Smiling Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh said, "If in our daily life, we can smile...not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work." Today, share a smile with at least three people, knowing that your smile contributes to peace.

FEBRUARY 1

• Appreciation Louise Hay says, "Praise yourself as much as you can...the love in our lives begins with us...loving yourself will help heal this planet." Write down 10 things that you appreciate about yourself. Read aloud what you have written.

FEBRUARY 2

• Caring According to Peter McWilliams, "Nonviolence toward the self is caring for oneself. Self-love a crowning sense of self-worth...it is what the Greeks call reverence for the self." Real caring is not just what we say, but what we do. Make a list of at least five ways that you can take better care of yourself. Practice at least one today.

FEBRUARY 3

• Believing Author Wayne Dyer writes about the impact that our beliefs have on our daily lives. Today believe that you have all the resources to move your life in the direction of peace. Be aware of simple, peaceful responses you receive.

FEBRUARY 4

• Simplicity To simplify is to invite peacefulness. Think of three ways you can simplify your life and put at least one of them into practice today.

FEBRUARY 5

• Education Knowledge strengthens your conviction and deepens your wisdom and understanding. Learn about the power of nonviolence by educating yourself. Read an article, periodical or book; watch a video on a subject that relates to nonviolence. Learn about human rights, diversity, ecology, history, politics, forgiveness, spirit-uality, peace studies, biographies of heroes and more.

FEBRUARY 6

• Healing Writer, poet, activist, and professor Maya Angelou turned a traumatic childhood experience into a catalyst for creativity and achievement. Today, choose a painful incident in your life and find the "gift" it has given you. Consciously share this gift with others.

FEBRUARY 7

• Dreaming Martin Luther King, Jr., had a great dream. What is your own dream for peace? Write it down. What is one thing you can do to honor your dream? Do it today.

FEBRUARY 8

• Faith When Caesar Chavez was organizing farm workers, he challenged them to say, "Si, se puede" (yes, it is possible) when they didn't know how they would overcome obstacles. Today, say, "Yes, it is possible," even if you don't know how your goal will be realized. Have faith and say, "it is possible," until you find a way.

FEBRUARY 9

• Contemplation For at least three minutes, relax, breathe, and let your mind be fed "by whatsoever is good and beautiful." Sacred scripture states, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

FEBRUARY 10

• Groundedness Gandhi said, "To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves." And Black Elk said, "Some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds." Today place a seed in the earth or nurture a plant.

FEBRUARY 11

• Creativity The worst thing you can do to a human soul is to suppress its natural desire to create. Identify at least five ways in which you express your creativity everyday. Today, allow something unpredictable and joyous to express through you.

FEBRUARY 12

• Humility Making mistakes is a part of learning and growing, simply an "error in approach." Today, freely acknowledge at least one mistake you make and reflect for a couple of minutes on what you have learned.

Click here to return to story: www.thekansan.com

E-mail: sfeats@examiner.com Publication date: 02/12/2003 BY PATRICIA UNTERMAN Special to The Examiner      Like boutique olive oil, coffee and wine before it, chocolate has become the next culinary frontier -- and as usual, Northern California is in the vanguard.

    Great chocolate releases layers of flavor and an evocative aroma as it melts in your mouth. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate with a high proportion of cocoa to sugar (say 65 to 80 percent) might taste bitter or astringent at first, but it opens up as it dissolves on your tongue, revealing fruit, smoke, spice and floral overtones.

    Some say the complexity of flavor in chocolate is akin to that in wine. Others liken it to varietal coffee. But in the past five years, a revolution has swept America's taste in chocolate. We now want more from, and are willing to pay more for our indulgences, especially affordable ones like chocolate.

    History in chocolate     My changing taste in chocolate is typical: Way back in the 1950s I used to bake a simple sour cream chocolate cake with my mother. We used Baker's unsweetened chocolate in the cake and Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder in the buttery frosting, which we also flavored with brewed coffee.

    Even as a child I loved the cake because it had a dark chocolate bite unlike the lighter, sweeter, chocolate cakes that seemed to be the common currency.

    In the '70s I made Toll House chocolate chip cookies straight from the recipe on the back of the package of chocolate chips, with my own baking variation: I pressed down each spoonful of dough on the cookie sheet with wet fingers so that the cookies baked up very thin and crisp.

    Then, sometime in the '80s, I tasted a bar of Bernachon chocolate. I'll never forget the moment I first bit into a bittersweet bar from this famous artisan chocolate maker in Lyons.

    Not only did many flavors dance around on my tongue, but the finish seemed to last forever. One bite led to another in this haunting blend. Who knew that chocolate could be so expressive, so thrilling?

    Bernachon's beans     About five years ago I made the pilgrimage to this Lyonnaise chocolate maker. Jean-Jacques Bernachon himself conducted the tour, available by appointment, which took place in a warren of rooms behind his chocolate shop at 42 Cours Franklin Roosevelt (tel. 78 24 37 98).

    We smelled the roasting beans from Venezuela, Ecuador, Trinidad and Madagascar, each bag checked for slow outdoor fermentation in the open air where the beans were harvested.

    The pinkish beans roast for 20-30 minutes, (checked every two minutes by the roaster) until they darken and shed their moisture. Then they are broken in a machine which winnows out the dark, shiny, brown nib.

    Bernachon carefully grinds the different varieties of cocoa nibs with sugar, vanilla and cocoa butter. This mixture passes slowly through steel rollers of different sizes until it forms, first, a moist sludge and then, a dry powder.

    The conching begins next: the smoothing out of the chocolate with added cocoa butter. For three days this mixture is warmed to the melting point and churned until it forms a thick, brown liquid. This silken liquid is formed into blocks which are aged in what looks like a huge walk-in refrigerator.

    Bernachon sells some of this chocolate in small pure bars with graduating ratios of pure chocolate to sugar. Most of it goes into in their exquisite filled chocolates (the best is the bittersweet chocolate-covered ganache called palets d'or), and flamboyant, achingly rich pastries.

    This is one of the few chocolatiers in the world that makes its chocolate from scratch. Most other candy makers buy blocks of chocolate from manufacturers and create their own confections with it.

    Going gourmet     About the same time that I was touring Bernachon, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, a local company, was just starting.

    Founded by John Scharffenberger, who previously developed an excellent Mendocino county sparkling wine, and Michael Steinberg, a doctor turned chocolate-maker, their goal was to manufacture their own super-high quality chocolate to sell in blocks to pastry chefs and also to retail consumers, just as the Europeans do.

    Experimenting in a home kitchen, the two came up with a recipe for expressive dark chocolate. As they became more experienced, their small-batch artisan chocolate got better and better.

    Word of mouth spread like melted chocolate. Pastry chefs all over America started using it and consumers bought little individual bars of pure chocolate to eat out of hand, and larger slabs for the home kitchen.

    A year ago they set up a new factory in Berkeley (914 Heinz Ave.; 510-981-4050; www.scharffenberger.com). You can take a tour yourself and buy their products at the factory shop.

    Now, another local chocolate maker has jumped into the high-end chocolate sweepstakes: Burlingame's Guittard Chocolate Company, founded in 1868 (in San Francisco). Guittard supplies the inimitable See's (my favorite), among others, with chocolate for their confections, and is a major manufacturer of chocolate chips.

    But fourth-generation owner Gary Guittard told me that the success of Scharffen Berger was a wake-up call, that its European-style chocolate forced him to rethink the whole process in this highly competitive business.

    Though his operation is much larger than Bernachon and Scharffen Berger, Guittard now makes its own small-batch artisan chocolate.

    E. Guittard L'Harmonie is now sold in little orange boxes with five individually wrapped leaves of dark, fruity chocolate, a perfect two bites each. I like the thinness of the L'Harmonie packaging, but I prefer Guittard's Sur del Lago, a blend of cocoa bean varietals that grow south of Lake Maricaibo in Venezuela. Currently Sur del Lago only can be bought in big slabs.

    Gary Guittard, who grew up working in the chocolate factory, has an emotional attachment to chocolate making. As we tasted fingerfuls of warm chocolate sludge (just ground nibs, sugar and cocoa butter), he told me that this was his favorite stage in the manufacture of chocolate. He loved eating it as a child.

    He gave me a nugget of crumbly chocolate from a white jar made with the same blend of Sur del Lago beans but processed differently. It was delicious -- more vivacious, more accessible and with an addictive finish.

    I asked Guittard what made it taste like that; he wouldn't tell me. He said the process was proprietary and that the company was thinking about using those same techniques on its other premium chocolate. The chocolate tasted as if it were closer to that initial moment of mixing of nibs, sugar and cocoa butter. There was something brighter about it, more friendly.

    Taster's choice     If you want to sample the range of artisan chocolate, visit Fog City News (455 Market St.; 415-543-7400), a unique magazine store that carries the largest selection of magazines in the Bay Area as well as more than 150 premium chocolate bars from Europe and the United States.

    Owner Adam Smith has the soul of a collector. He goes well beyond just stocking the bars; he catalogues them and lovingly describes them.

    Here's his description of Guittard L'Harmonie (64 percent): "This chocolate has a smoky raisin and maple scent, with a smooth consistency and notes of mint, orange, lightly roasted peanut and toffee presented at the back of the palate."

    And Michel Cluizel 1er Cru d'Hacienda (66 percent): "Pleasant rose fragrance, the slightly brittle exterior leads to notes of cool orange, cinnamon, pear, and black cherry, with a smooth kiwi and apricot conclusion."

    Since he opened the store in 1999, Smith told me that his palate has become more sophisticated, and he has watched his regulars develop theirs, too, distinguishing between chocolates as they would wines. So it's no coincidence that the Bay Area now has two artisan chocolate makers and a growing appetite and appreciation for complex, layered, dark chocolate.

    With more and more people tasting the difference, chocolate will only get better.

www.canada.com Faye Flam Knight Ridder Newspapers

PHILADELPHIA - In the near future, individuals may be able to pinpoint which diseases they should worry most about -- heart disease, Alzheimer's, stroke, prostate cancer or multiple sclerosis.

The medical crystal ball will be high-tech, inexpensive, personal genetic testing, which could be available in just five to 10 years, according to some researchers.

"This will create a profound revolution in medicine," predicts Leroy Hood, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington. "Medicine will become predictive, preventive and personalized."

Hood and other scientists gathered last month in Los Angeles at a seminar focused on the increasing power of genetic testing.

Such testing will offer more than just a window on your future demise, Hood said. The same technology that exposes your personal health demons could also provide strategies to battle them -- new drugs to "overcome the limitations of your genes."

The seminar was organized by Gregory Stock, director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at the University of California.

"Genes are the biggest window into who we are, and we are drawing back the curtain," he said.

The seminar was prompted in part by the completion three years ago of the $3-billion public and private undertaking known as the human genome project. The result was a sequence of letters that represented the entire genetic code -- the full complement of DNA -- for a small sample of people from different ethnic groups.

Hood said he believes that in a few years many people will have their own complement of DNA sequenced and stored on a disc for less than $1,000.

The genome project didn't sort out which genes had any bearing on health or illness, but such work is underway.

Scientists are looking for what they call polymorphisms -- places where the genetic code differs from person to person. Some of these differences have no apparent effect while others influence people's vulnerability to disease.

Some of the latest findings have come from Iceland, where Keri Stefansson of the private company DeCode has undertaken to analyze the DNA of the country's 275,000 residents.

Because Icelanders keep detailed genealogy and medical records, Stefansson said, he has been able to trace patterns of disease in families and then search the DNA for genetic differences that might be responsible. In one family, he said, there were cases of a variety of cancers -- melanoma, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and breast cancer -- all, he said, related to some genetic quirk present in that family.

He has also isolated a genetic variant that appears in about a third of Icelanders with schizophrenia. The gene, he said, helps in the remodelling and growth of neurons in the brain. The finding, he said, may help scientists understand what causes schizophrenia and perhaps lead to new treatments.

But some people may not want to know their own genetic heritage in too much gory detail.

"You're going to get a lot of information, why you get frequent colds, whether you'll get cancer or ALS or Alzheimer's disease, why you're a pain in the neck," said Nancy Wexler, a medical researcher from Columbia University.

The knowledge gained from genetic tests, she said, "is going to affect the rest of your life."

Wexler knows first-hand about contemplating such tests, she said, because she learned when she was in her 20s that her mother was ill with Huntington's disease, an incurable neurological disorder that strikes people around their 40s and leads to a slow, horrific death. Wexler's father told her and her sister that each of them had a 50-50 chance of inheriting their mother's fatal genetic disorder.

Wexler, 57, is probably safe, since she is past the age that most people with the disorder develop serious symptoms.

As a medical researcher, she went to Venezuela to study families in which the disease was particularly rampant, and eventually helped to isolate the genetic flaw, making it possible to test people for Huntington's disease.

But most people who live with those odds opt not to take the test, she said, preferring to go on in uncertainty. She read some quotations from people who had the test and got bad news. "It was like a loss, a loss of dreams," one read.

As other tests come along to assess risk for other fatal and possibly incurable diseases, she said, people have to keep in mind that the knowledge is irreversible -- you can't ever go back.

There may be other cases, however, where advance knowledge can save your life. Icelandic researcher Stefansson said his analyses uncovered a gene that influences whether people develop pulmonary obstructive disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema). The disease is almost inevitable if people with the genetic variant are smokers. But if they don't smoke, they will almost certainly not get the disease.

Stefansson said he anticipated most of the genetic tests that would become popular would involve preventable diseases. That way doctors would be able to pinpoint which parts of the standard medical mantra -- don't smoke, eat better, exercise -- will be particularly important for each patient.