As I have since 2007 I am once again researching theobromine and caffeine in cacao.

Starting with this study:

"HPLC Determination of Methylxanthines and Polyphenols Levels In Cocoa and Chocolate Product"

http://www.ukm.my/mjas/v7_n2/14Nazaruddin.pdf

I am going to add to this as I go along and learn more so I will warn you in advance that it will be rambling and not very well organized. Someday I hope to have my conclusions more organized.

Excerpt from the abstract:

"imported chocolate, the mean theobromine and caffeine levels respectively were 1.05 mg/g and 0.12 mg/g in dark chocolate; 0.76 mg/g and 0.04 mg/g in milk chocolate; and 0.74 mg/g and 0.03 mg/g in white chocolate"

Questions:

1) what does "imported" refer to?

2) What is the percentage of the cacao in this "dark" chocolate? Certainly the higher the percentage the greater the amount of theobromine.

3) How does white chocolate have any theobromine in it?

Disclaimer: I have not yet read the whole article, so these questions may already be answered there.

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Also learning more about theobromine from "Theobromine" at

http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/vol51/mono51-12.pdf

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Will post this now and add more later...

Please feel free to comment, and especially to add references to any definitive studies that you know of.

Food & Wine's Best Chocolate in the U.S.

What a spotty list! It's good that they have Askinosie, French Broad, Dandelion, and Woodblock on their list. But other top quality b2b makers like Rogue, Fresco, Manoa, Ritual, and Dick Taylor are conspicuously absent while Lindt makes the list! Makes one question the experience and the judgment of the editors.

For me it is just another in a long string of examples showing why the "quest for the best" is doomed to failure.

You can check out my reviews of the chocolates I've tasted at Choco Files . I also explain my review philosophy and I'm adding more and more files with my ratings for each bar.