Dark Chocolate Finds in Maine

My mother and I recently went to the Common Ground Country Fair in Maine, and we had a really great time there (I went to lots of food related session, of course!). We don't often (as in, ever) go on trips just the two of us, and it was really nice to do that (until we hit a moose on the way home, which was scary, but that's a whole different story). Both my mother and I are huge fans of the ocean, so when leaving the fair, we decided to swing past the coast before heading further inland to home.

Going on the recommendation of a friend, we headed into Belfast ME and found the co-op. Now, this friend really likes co-ops (as do I) and she knows about an awful lot of them, so I tend to trust her judgement on which ones are good. It seemed like just your average co-op as we wandered around inside. Nice enough, but nothing to write home about. But then, then we decided to get some dark chocolate for the road. And we discovered what's special about that co-op. They have THE BEST chocolate selection I have ever seen. Tons of delicious, dark, high quality chocolate, most of which is also fair trade and/or organic. It was awesome.

The Belfast Co-op Store.

Of course, being me I picked out one bar, that also happened to be on sale, while my mother couldn't make up her mind (not that I'm complaining in this case), so we ended up with 6 bars from 5 different companies. Then we had to have a taste test and try them all, of course. My winner was the Equal Exchange brand Extra Dark Chocolate from Panama. Yummm. Mum's favorite was the Taza brand Counter Culture Coffee Chocolate Mexicano, which while not quite my favorite, I still agree is pretty delicious.

So if you're a chocolate fan like we are, and you're ever in the area of Belfast, I highly recommend you check out that co-op! There's not much better than a good bar of dark chocolate...