SCHARFEEN BERGER Artisan Chocolate Bars, Milk, 1 Ounce (Pack of 9)

I haven't had Scharffen Berger milk chocolate since it was taken over by Hershey--eating it used to be like a religious experience. Caramel-y undertones and so rich you couldn't have more than one small piece. Now it tastes like a generic piece of American chocolate. You know, kind of like Hershey's. NOT worth the cost anymore.

For whatever reason (materials, machinery, mass-production, new formula, ...) this is no longer something worth overspending on or sharing. It's not bad, just... no better than crap you'd get at the grocery store. A real shame, because I don't know of anything comparable. Thanks Hershey.

As opposed to other reviews, the chocolate is fresh and hasn't developed the white fat bloom. But, for $22 for 6 bars, there was no protection from the Amazon warehouse and delivery abuses. The bars were wrapped in a plastic bag and shipped in a mylar mailing bag. I will cook with these but they definitely cannot be given as gifts. Not what I thought I was buying.

This does not taste like typical milk chocolate. I don't mean "Hersheys" -- I mean whatever milk chocolate you might get from a good chocolatier.This bar tastes very much like dark chocolate that has milk/cream mixed into it. I guess that certainly makes sense with the 41% cacao.For me, personally, I prefer my dark chocolate to taste like dark chocolate and my milk chocolate to have a milder taste. But certainly the more "sophisticated" taste probably prefers stronger tasting chocolate - even in milk.I'm not going to ding this bar for tasting like 41% cacao when that's what it is and how it's advertised.So:If you love dark chocolate and just want a milder, creamier version of it, this bar is great for you.If you love milk chocolate but want to ease your palate to dark chocolate, this bar is great too!If you love milk chocolate and just wanted to check out a higher quality version, but didn't necessarily want the stronger/bitter flavors of dark chocolate, this bar might be a disappointment.Overall, I will certainly enjoy my bars. But I will probably not order these again. I, personally, prefer the milder milk chocolate taste. But I certainly think many people would prefer these bars. Especially true dark chocolate fans. Although they may just prefer dark chocolate to being with. Who knows.Enjoy!

This is excellent chocolate for baking or melting, had a rich flavor and not too sweet nor too bitter. A great all-purpose chocolate which can be appreciated by both milk and dark chocolate lovers. Compares well to some of the finest Belgian chocolates, which I have a lot of baking and (guess I should admit it) eating experience. :)Recipe tip: I melt this gently on a double boiler and mix in some dried blueberries and pistachios before pouring them in little chocolate molds. It is a hit at parties (people think they are gourmet store-bought chocolates) and takes literally moments to make. Great next to a glass of red wine. :) I also chopped it up and made chocolate chip cookies this weekend, also excellent. Definitely worth keeping in your pantry for baking and last minute recipes.

These are so delicious, I have to ration myself! The amount of deep, dark coffee taste is perfectly matched with the amount of dark chocolate taste, and tempered with a bit of sugar taste. When I make café mocha, I don't add sugar, and I usually choose the 86% cacao chocolate bars, but for some reason, I like the bit of sugar in these bars. Amazon have figured out how to ship them so they arrive in perfect condition, and a friend recycles the padded shipping boxes theft arrive in, for her antiques ... so everybody wins.

If you're a choco-holic you probably like everything that comes your way, like Hersheys, or even lesser brands. As long as it's chocolate, it's good.But then we had the pleasure of having a German girl come to visit us, and she brought some of the "real" stuff from her country, and it just strikes you how much better the higher quality stuff is. I'm not denigrating Hershey's or Nestles or whatever--all right, I am, though I still like those brands too. But try this chocolate, and you'll know what I mean.It's a semi-sweet bar and therefore made for cooking, so it's not going to taste as sweet as normal chocolate you get in this country, but trust me: you'll probably never get to cooking with it. We handed some out to friends to show them the difference, and ate the rest ourselves.It's pricey (we paid about $16) but you get six bars for it. The pieces are a bit big, so the bar goes pretty fast.But taste it: it's sweet, but the most amazing quality is its RICHNESS. It has a very full quality to it--there are three real sensations with most food: the first taste when you bite it, then the "mouthful" taste, then the lasting or after-taste as it disappears down your gullet--and all of these tastes are of CHOCOLATE. Not sugar, not additives..nothing but full, rich CHOCOLATE.It's really wonderful. There's nothing quite like it.

I buy chocolate bars from all the uber-high-end makers in the US but mostly Europe. I like this far more than the more widely available US products. (Hershey's is easily discerned as by far the worst quality milk chocolate bar.) I love Vosges milk and dark milk chocolate bars but they are exotic flavors and this is plain. I prefer dark chocolate, around 70%, but this is the only plain milk chocolate I will usually eat. There are better tasting ones that are much more difficult to obtain, but this one is easily satisfying to a chocoholic.