where to buy cheap European-style chocolate?

[scubascuba3]

Two worth trying from 7 Eleven are Break which is like Kitkat and Break Supa which is like Twix, both are 10 baht and occasionally go buy 1 get 1 free. Paying 25-35 baht for these chocolate bars just isn't worth it hence why they don't sell and eventually they get discounted

[Trillian]

High quality 100% cocoa powder, Tulip brand, is available in many supermarkets for about 125 baht per kilo. It makes excellent inexpensive drinking chocolate and if you really crave European chocolate bars, perhaps try making your own.

[BangkokBoyJohnny]

On 6/30/2020 at 10:53 PM, Enoon said:

 

 

Big C

 

 

3 x 100g bars for 129baht last time I looked.

 

Tastes, and melts, very similar to "Fin Carre" blue wrapped chocolate, sold by Lidl in UK.

 

Not a good as Lindt, but closer to it in taste and much better than "tropical" grot.

 

"Casino Group continued its growth in Asia by acquiring Thai participations in the Carrefour Group with its Big C branch."

Groupe Casino - Wikipedia

 

Casino, I think, no longer has a financial interest in Big C, but continues to supply European biscuits and confectionary to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 3 or 1 bars ?

 

https://www.bigc.co.th/casino-milk-chocolate.html

 

 

[BigStar]

6 hours ago, Trillian said:

High quality 100% cocoa powder, Tulip brand, is available in many supermarkets for about 125 baht per kilo. It makes excellent inexpensive drinking chocolate and if you really crave European chocolate bars, perhaps try making your own.

Not such high quality because Dutch processed: half the phytonutrients of natural, e. g., Hershey's Natural, readily available in Foodland etc.

[BigStar]

On 6/30/2020 at 10:53 PM, Enoon said:

Big C

 

 

3 x 100g bars for 129baht last time I looked.

 

Tastes, and melts, very similar to "Fin Carre" blue wrapped chocolate, sold by Lidl in UK.

 

Not a good as Lindt, but closer to it in taste and much better than "tropical" grot.

 

"Casino Group continued its growth in Asia by acquiring Thai participations in the Carrefour Group with its Big C branch."

Groupe Casino - Wikipedia

 

Casino, I think, no longer has a financial interest in Big C, but continues to supply European biscuits and confectionary to it.

 

Junk food. Lindt 90% is the way to go. Sometimes marked down from 138 baht to 109 at Villa & Foodland.

[Trillian]

2 hours ago, BigStar said:

Not such high quality because Dutch processed: half the phytonutrients of natural, e. g., Hershey's Natural, readily available in Foodland etc.

Only the purists would care:

 

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/9-2-02.html

 

http://www.theobroma.nl/about-theobroma/history-of-theobroma

[scubascuba3]

On 6/30/2020 at 10:53 PM, Enoon said:

Big C

 

 

3 x 100g bars for 129baht last time I looked.

 

Tastes, and melts, very similar to "Fin Carre" blue wrapped chocolate, sold by Lidl in UK.

 

Not a good as Lindt, but closer to it in taste and much better than "tropical" grot.

 

"Casino Group continued its growth in Asia by acquiring Thai participations in the Carrefour Group with its Big C branch."

Groupe Casino - Wikipedia

 

Casino, I think, no longer has a financial interest in Big C, but continues to supply European biscuits and confectionary to it.

 

 

 

 

I bought this earlier today, 139 baht, nice. HISO Chocolate snobs won't like it though

[BigStar]

12 minutes ago, Trillian said:

Only the purists would care:

 

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/9-2-02.html

 

http://www.theobroma.nl/about-theobroma/history-of-theobroma

(Irrelevant time-wasting references) No. The health conscious care to receive the full benefit of the chocolate they consume. In fact that's the big reason for consuming it at all.

 

https://www.ombar.co.uk/blogs/news/flavanols-in-cacao-what-are-they-and-what-do-they-do

 

Old fat guys who are just wanting to eat chocolate-flavored candy, as we seem mostly to have here, don't care of course.

Edited July 2, 2020 by BigStar

[Trillian]

 

Time wasting!......so he links to a blog, can't get more official or credible than that.....????

 

"Old fat guys who are just wanting to eat chocolate-flavored candy, as we seem mostly to have here, don't care of course".

 

And then he goes on to insult half the forums readership, classy!

Edited July 2, 2020 by Trillian

[BigStar]

14 minutes ago, Trillian said:

Time wasting!......so he links to a blog, can't get more official or credible than that.....????

Written so as to be readable for everyone. Thought you knew all this, it's common knowledge. But you see, IF you were really interested, or were credible yourself, then you'd have looked up the credible references at the end of the article, DUH. But here ya go:

 

Significantly, the doses used in the Taubert study³⁰ were exceedingly low (6.3 grams of chocolate per day). This demonstrated that the ingestion of flavonoids, through the medium of chocolate, had minimal impact on calorific intake (30 kcal per day) but produced statistically significant decreases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and an increase in S-nitrosoglutathione. Furthermore, cacao flavonoids also seem to mediate very significant anti-inflammatory effects that can be measured as reductions in platelet and endothelial cell activation³¹ and the expression of inflammatory mediators.³²

 

And it continues, go read it.

https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/66/11/630/1868627

 

So that's flavonoids are good and why. Hint: it's not that they taste good. What reduces them is the obviously bad. Specifically, Dutch processing, DUH.

 

In addition, the influence of the manufacturing process of cocoa powder products, in particular, the alkalinization treatment (Dutching), on the original content of these flavonoids has been studied. (−)-Epicatechin was in the range of 116.02–730.26 µg/g, whereas (+)-catechin was in the range of 81.40–447.62 µg/g in the commercial cocoa products studied. Among flavonols, quercetin-3-arabinoside and isoquercitrin were the major flavonols in the cocoa powder products studied, ranging from 2.10 to 40.33 µg/g and from 3.97 to 42.74 µg/g, respectively, followed by quercetin-3-glucuronide (0.13–9.88 µg/g) and quercetin aglycone (0.28–3.25 µg/g). To our knowledge, these results are the first quantitative data in relation to the content of individualized flavonol derivatives in commercial cocoa powder products. The alkalinization treatment resulted in 60% loss of the mean total flavonoid content. Among flavanols, (−)-epicatechin presented a larger decline (67%, as a mean percentage difference) than (+)-catechin (38%), probably because of its epimerization into (−)-catechin, a less bioavailable form of catechin. A decline was also confirmed for di-, tri-, and tetrameric procyanidins. In the case of flavonols, quercetin presented the highest loss (86%), whereas quercetin-3-glucuronide, quercetin-3-arabinoside, and isoquercitrin showed a similar decrease (58, 62, and 61%, respectively). It is concluded that the large decrease found in the flavonoid content of natural cocoa powder, together with the observed change in the monomeric flavanol profile that results from the alkalinization treatment, could affect the antioxidant properties and the polyphenol biovailability of cocoa powder products.

 

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf0728754

 

So you may present arguments against those studies, just two of many, with references to other credible studies, if you can. Otherwise, it's Hershey's Natural all the way. ????

 

23 minutes ago, Trillian said:

And then he goes on to insult half the forums readership, classy!

Did I?

 

[Tropicalevo]

Tesco own brand at the store in Samui. 90 baht for English chocolate - 200 gram bars. Sell by date November 2020 but it won't make it until the end of the week.

Waitrose own brand in Tops - slightly more expensive.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Tropicalevo

[Trillian]

"IF you were really interested", I'm not, couldn't really care less, just didn't care for the dismissive nature of your post nor your slur regarding some members...byeee.

[Kerryd]

I like Dark Chocolate Bounty Bars and could care less what anyone else thinks about that. Over the course of a year, I may eat as many as two of them ! 

Obviously I do it for the health benefits of the coconut and dark chocolate, not because I simply enjoy the taste and like to treat myself once in awhile.  
(All things in moderation).

I also like After 8 Dinner Mints. Again -  for the health benefit. Not because having one every other couple of days is a treat. It's about testing my self control and fighting the temptation to eat half the box in one evening. 

I think I buy maybe 1 box of them every other year. 

Usually though I stay away from the chocolate section of whatever store I'm in. Keeping the weight off is hard enough as it is. 

Still waiting for the Durian flavoured Kit Kats to hit the shelves here. (They were proposed 3 years ago but it seems never were produced.)
You'd think they'd at least go for Strawberry Cheesecake flavoured Kit Kats in the meantime !

  

[BigStar]

21 hours ago, Trillian said:

"IF you were really interested", I'm not, couldn't really care less, just didn't care for the dismissive nature of your post nor your slur regarding some members...byeee.

My post wasn't dismissive but merely noted that natural cocoa powder, notably Hershey's, is of higher quality than the Tulip you'd recommended, and gave the scientific reason for that.

 

Then you came back with a dismissive, condescending "only for purists." Which was false, whatever it means. And you gave a couple of irrelevant references. One didn't address the difference in possible health benefits of natural vs Dutch processed. The other gave some irrelevant history of Dutch processing. And if you actually "couldn't care less" about the differing health benefits--which you might have just stated, then moved on--then that's probably evident in other areas as well. ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 6/30/2020 at 11:37 PM, impulse said:

I always bought the super cheap baking chocolate chips at the BKK Suk Soi 16 Foodland,

 

If those are the ones I've seen in the past and thinking of, those bagged chocolate chips are coming from/made in China.

 

[BritManToo]

Snickers bars, two for 42bht at Tesco.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

22 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I bought this earlier today, 139 baht, nice. HISO Chocolate snobs won't like it though

 

When it comes to chocolate, there's issues of taste, and then there's issues of health, which are entirely separate.

 

The sugary chocolate tastes great for those with a sweet tooth, but isn't very good for you in many ways.

 

On the other hand, the high-cacao chocolates (80-90%) have healthful properties if consumed in moderation.

 

If I remember right, ideally for health, you want the levels of protein and sugar to be about equal, 5g or so per serving....which is what you get with the 80-90% cacao varieties. But those also have a much more bitter taste than the typical store chocolates.

 

[BritManToo]

22 hours ago, BigStar said:

Old fat guys who are just wanting to eat chocolate-flavored candy, as we seem mostly to have here, don't care of course.

I'll eat it all!

[xylophone]

On 7/1/2020 at 2:12 PM, tgw said:

The Casino chocolate is probably the best compromise.

Have to agree there, and they do a 70% and 80% cocoa content dark chocolate, sometimes priced at 69 baht for 100 g and many others on special, and just lately they have been discounting the prices on a few chocolate items because they are close to their "sell by" date (or is it best before date?).

 

I do like the Lindt "taste of sea salt" chocolate and also the orange flavoured one, but then again Tops at Central have been doing discounted orange flavoured chocolate bars recently, coming in at about 69 baht.

 

Unfortunately milk chocolate gets my reflux going, whereas dark chocolate doesn't (go figure?) and I can quite happily sit there and eat two large bars of the stuff whilst watching TV at night, which probably explains my 1 1/2 kg increase in weight!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

17 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Snickers bars, two for 42bht at Tesco.

 

Made in China, unfortunately...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I do like the Lindt "taste of sea salt" chocolate and also the orange flavoured one, but then again Tops at Central have been doing discounted orange flavoured chocolate bars recently, coming in at about 69 baht.

 

I like the orange flavored 100g bars as well. I don't think I ever tried the Lindt variety, but Tesco has their own brand that tastes quite nice. Unfortunately, both are somewhere under the 70% cacao level, and much less AFAIR.

 

[luckyluke]

Tops Waitrose Pepermint Dark Chocolate Crisp

150 gr. 99 ThB.

 

[dddave]

On 6/30/2020 at 9:52 PM, asiacurious said:

Chocolate in bulk (also good just for eating, though it's really meant for baking) is available at Schmidt near Phra Khanong BTS in Bangkok (that's their main office) or other locations including Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Phuket.

Just where in Phra Khanong is this?  I've lived here for 10+ years and never knew it existed (probably a good thing).  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 minutes ago, dddave said:

Just where in Phra Khanong is this?  I've lived here for 10+ years and never knew it existed (probably a good thing).  

 

They have a website and map and directions on their website, IIR...

 

It's a short walk from the BTS station toward Rama IV, if memory serves.

 

[4MyEgo]

On 7/1/2020 at 1:48 AM, evadgib said:

My local tesco had 200g own brand bars (5 types) for around 30baht a fortnight ago whereas normally they're 100g/85 bhat or thereabouts.

HTH

Has anyone ever read how high the sugar content is on chocolate, if you don't care and have a sweet tooth, well, what can I say, noting the cheaper the chocolate, the higher the sugar content usually, no thanks.

[kinyara]

Was in Tesco's Thepprasit Rd this morning and bought a 100 gr of their own brand Orange flavoured dark chocolate for 65 baht, seems a reasonable price. 

[scubascuba3]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

When it comes to chocolate, there's issues of taste, and then there's issues of health, which are entirely separate.

 

The sugary chocolate tastes great for those with a sweet tooth, but isn't very good for you in many ways.

 

On the other hand, the high-cacao chocolates (80-90%) have healthful properties if consumed in moderation.

 

If I remember right, ideally for health, you want the levels of protein and sugar to be about equal, 5g or so per serving....which is what you get with the 80-90% cacao varieties. But those also have a much more bitter taste than the typical store chocolates.

 

It's probably the same as fatties that have diet coke, it's not going to help. I do loads of exercise, burn loads of calories so eating some junk here and there is ok. I don't really like high cocoa chocolate, it's over rated, but it's a question of taste like everything 

[asiacurious]

On 7/1/2020 at 1:34 AM, Bob A Kneale said:

Nonsense.  The difference between baking/cooking chocolate and normal chocolate is not just it's shape and wrapping!

It's shape and wrapping.  Cocoa content is what matters in chocolate bars.  Doesn't matter what shape or packaging it comes in.

 

That said, if you're looking for flavored chocolate (sea salt, orange, mint, caramel) then yes, there is obviously a difference between buying thin foil wrapped bars with added flavors, and bulk chocolate used for baking.  But if you're comparing a good 70% cocoa baking chocolate sold in in 1KG (or 10KG) bars/blocks/coins and 100g of thin foil wrapped bars, you'll find very little difference.

 

I'm not talking about Godiva chocolates or specialized candy (those are obviously very different).  I'm talking the basic Lindt style bars vs a good bulk chocolate.  Which is what, in my experience, Schmidt sells.

[asiacurious]

3 hours ago, dddave said:

Just where in Phra Khanong is this?  I've lived here for 10+ years and never knew it existed (probably a good thing).  

Across from where W Market is (opposite side of the street from the BTS train line) is HopeLand Hotel Residence.  Walk through that little driveway and head to the street in back. 

 

 

Turn left and it'll be down a bit that road on the left.

 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/RUjeswg3MZ8T6oAL6

 

Below you can see the 1Kg bags of chocolate coins (various strengths) the large 5Kg (I think) bars) and bags of various flour premixes.  They also have some bakeware and tools, but there are lots of places (like 66 Kitchen) along Rama IV that are better for that kind of stuff.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by asiacurious

[Eindhoven]

13 minutes ago, asiacurious said:

It's shape and wrapping.  Cocoa content is what matters in chocolate bars.  Doesn't matter what shape or packaging it comes in.

 

That said, if you're looking for flavored chocolate (sea salt, orange, mint, caramel) then yes, there is obviously a difference between buying thin foil wrapped bars with added flavors, and bulk chocolate used for baking.  But if you're comparing a good 70% cocoa baking chocolate sold in in 1KG (or 10KG) bars/blocks/coins and 100g of thin foil wrapped bars, you'll find very little difference.

 

I'm not talking about Godiva chocolates or specialized candy (those are obviously very different).  I'm talking the basic Lindt style bars vs a good bulk chocolate.  Which is what, in my experience, Schmidt sells.

 

Nope, you are wrong. A little research would have shown you this. It would have only taken you a few seconds.

 

The main difference is actually the sugar content. There may also be a differing ratio of cocoa butter.