The Best Chocolate Bars: Vosges Haut-Chocolat

My friend Jeff bestowed on me two boxes of Vosges Truffles this week  -- my prize for winning a trivia question he posted on jeffsweather.com.  Jeff didn't know that I have a long history with chocolate in general and truffles specifically:  When I was a teenager, I worked in a fancy chocolate shop that a family friend opened in Scarsdale, NY. One of my duties included making truffles, though my favorite duty was decorating the store window.  Every day of the first few weeks I worked there, I ate about a pound of chocolate and went home sick to my stomach. Finally, I stopped -- completely and for many years.  To this day, I'm rarely tempted to eat chocolate, and it has to be exceptionally good and unusual for me to really enjoy it.  The Vosges Truffles are quite delicious, but I have to say, for truffles, I still prefer Richart. And while Consumer Reports just rated Hershey's Cacao Reserve as the best dark chocolate (over fancy brands like Valhrona and Scharffen Berger), look to Vosges if you want something really exotic.  My favorites are the Barcelona (with hickory smoked almonds, sea salt and dark milk chocolate), the Woolloomooloo (with roasted and salted macadamia nuts, coconut, hemp seed and deep milk chocolate) and the Black Pearl (with ginger, wasabi, black sessame seeds.  $7 each, worth every penny. I buy them locally at Whole Foods and Neiman Marcus.