Chocolate is a perfect food, as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power. it is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.
— attributed to Baron Justus von Liebig, also considered to have made possible the invention of Marmite . . . but that’s a different story especially for you North Americans :)
As great as Belgian and other European chocolate can be do not discount what’s happening in the US. Three companies (and probably several more) are producing top-notch chocolate.
Dandelion (when I tried them in mid-March, I thought they were the bees knees especially their Madagascar bars)
Fresco (this WA-based outfit was a very pleasant surprise, again a Madagascar)
Dick * Taylor (their Madagascar was as good as the aforementioned two but the surprise was that their Ecuadorian bar took the top slot).
But never mind what I think, check out chocky hound Barbie Van Horn‘s website.