I love the Chocolate buyers at Waitrose

I love Waitrose. OK, so they aren't the cheapest supermarket if you're looking for commodities. But if you love good food they are brilliant. They source the best quality products and ingredients. Their own brand food is void of unessential additives. I generally don't like cakes unless they are from a quality bakery or home baked by me or someone else I know, yet the cake line they launched last year is fantastic.

What I love most about Waitrose is their chocolate section. Far from Asda that doesn't even stock Lindt, Waitrose has chocolate bars from Valhrona, Michel Cluizel and Rococo - amongst others.

In a plan to begin the chocolate education of friends I bought a bar of Michel Cluizel's blue lined variety (I don't have it with me and I've forgotten the country of origin!). We ended up having Haagen Daaz and Thai Bananas that I made for dinner so the chocolate got laid aside. But I opened it yesterday. Recently I've been enjoying my chocolate more in baked goods or in truffles and filled chocolates. I had actually forgotten just how delicious quality chocolate is on its own - how much flavour is in the chocolate that comes entirely from the bean, no difference in the processing whatsoever. It is this kind of chocolate that I really can manage to stop after just a small amount. I'm looking forward to attending another Seventy Percent tasting next week. So I can be reminded again of the variations in pure chocolate. Yum.