A gourmand’s guide to Christmas chocolate

Christmas is coming and you know what that means? More Lindor truffles than any human being can decently put away, family size boxes of Quality Street and, for the upwardly mobile, Ferrero Rocher. My friends, I am as keen on Lindor truffles as the next greedy pig but there is another way. There is a whole world of chocolate out there which is respectful of the defining ingredient, cocoa, often imaginative and delicious. The starting point, the founding principle, for decent chocolate is, More Cocoa, Less Sugar. Simple as that. And this principle doesn’t just apply to Christmas chocolate, obviously, but to chocolate all year round.

Chocolate is a bit like wine, and interestingly, is grown in those areas where grapes don’t, as Nature’s compensation for the absence of vineyards. At its best, the cocoa bean partakes of the nature of the terroir, and varies according to the country of origin: Venezuala, Peruvian and Ecuadorian chocolate (where the bean originated) is mellow and nutty, whereas cocoa from Madagascar is fruitier and livelier.