Hershey's Cacao Reserve Chocolate

I recently wrote a review on Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate. Being a chocolate lover, I am always on the lookout for quality chocolate. I decided to make Tiramisu this past weekend, and was going to purchase a bag of Ghiradelli squares to shred on top of my dessert. However, at the last moment, I decided I would try Cacao Reserve by Hershey’s, which is priced about the same as the Ghiradelli. The Cacao Reserve looks like an attempt by Hershey to tap into the specialty chocolate market, and Hershey’s is a name that I have come to trust.

My first impression of the Hershey’s Cacao Reserve was mixed. The squares are substantially smaller than the Ghiradelli squares. The flavor was better than your average Hershey’s product, being made from a recipe including 65% Cacao. However, the chocolate was not as polished as the Ghiradelli. The bitterness was not quite as balanced with the smooth deep flavor that you will find in Ghiradelli’s chocolate.

I have a really weird story to share regarding these chocolate squares. I needed to shred the Cacao Reserve, which I did using a cheese grater. I have done this in the past, uneventfully. I used a plastic dish to catch the chocolate as I was shredding it, which I have never done before. This may have had something to do with my experience, but I’m not sure because a great deal of chocolate appeared to be sticking to the inside of the grater, eventually dropping down onto the plate. When I went to pick up the plate, the chocolate sprayed everywhere. Somehow it became magnetized, sort of like the plastic wrappers that you pull off a piece of candy and then you can’t drop it in the trash. I didn’t realize that chocolate could become statically charged, but that is my only explanation as to what happened. I left the grater (which had a decent amount of chocolate shavings still clinging to the inside) sitting on another plate, and the chocolate (which looked like a bunch of magnetized metal filings) eventually let loose and settled on the plate. When I moved my hands over the chocolate, the filings clinged to my fingers! Maybe I should not have been sampling the Godiva Chocolate Liqueur while I was baking!

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