Mike:
One way to look at the question is to take a look at the price you're going to be able to charge for your finished product and then work backwards from there.
If your market will pay for a premium product at 60 or more per kilo then you've got a lot of freedom to choose the chocolate you want. If your market has trouble paying20/kg then you need to look a lot harder at your chocolate choices.
Keep in mind that there's nothing magical about the air or water in Belgium or Switzerland or France that makes their chocolate any better than chocolate manufactured elsewhere. They all use pretty much the same machinery, they all use pretty much the same beans (that is, until you get into the premium brands).After that it's just marketing.
I think it's a matter of taste. Buy the chocolate you like. That said, there are people who think that Belgian chocolate is best or Swiss chocolate is best and if your market has a lot of people who've bought into the marketing hype then it makes sense to pay attention to that fact and use it to your advantage. From personal experience {{{{ shudder, trying to forget bad tasting experiences }}}} I can tell you that there is a lot of crap chocolate made in Belgium and Switzerland.
One approach I recommend to all my consulting clients is to consider blending two or more couvertures to arrive at a distinctive taste profile. One of the challenges with using the same chocolate that everyone else does is that it's much harder to differentiate your product from others when the base ingredient tastes the same. Another thing to consider is always using the same chocolate for the enrobing and shells, and then to use different chocolates for the fillings.
So - I wouldn't go for a "safe" choice, I'd go for something that gives you a competitive edge over all of the other confectioners in your market.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@DiscoverChoc
