CNN Write up

"Sweet businessPremium hot chocolate is less focused on sugar and more centered on chocolate. "The taste has more depth and more intensity. It starts in one place and ends up somewhere else," said Dana Zemack, a chocolate expert who also teaches a course on chocolate tasting. One of her favorite hot chocolates is from New Hampshire-based L.A. Burdick's, which makes hot chocolate in dark, milk or white varieties. "It's unlike anything I've ever had in my entire life. It takes me to a different place altogether," she said. Haute hot chocolate is just one segment of a luxury chocolate market that has boomed as tastes have become more discerning and consumers have become more educated about high-quality chocolate. About 10 percent of the U.S. chocolate market is regarded as premium, and the gourmet market has been growing about 20 percent every year since 2001, according to Packaged Facts, a publishing division of MarketResearch.com. That booming market reflects the growing sophistication of the American palate, Zemack said. "Good food is glamorous and fashionable, and chocolate is jumping into that category," she said. Fine drinking chocolate is really a taste for sophisticated palates, explained Michael Turback, a restaurateur and author of "Hot Chocolate," a book devoted to the classic drink. "It's like if you're a Budweiser drinker and somebody all of a sudden gives you a bottle of Guinness stout," he said. Turback recommends the chocolate from Holy Chocolate, which is made by an orthodox priest in California and comes in flavors ranging from Anise Spice to Amaretto. Most premium hot chocolates are still hard to find in your everyday grocery store, but that may change as more players break into the gourmet market.


http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/21/pf/hot_chocolate/index.htm