Chocolate

The higher the cacao percentage, the harder the chocolate is. Often that means it melts slower. That may be what you want out on the trail for a couple of weeks.

OTOH, milk chocolates can be tasty, but they melt quickly.

If you have a Trader Joes grocery store nearby, you can find quite an assortment of chocolate covering the gamut from soft to hard.

–B.G.–

Best chocolate bar in the universe E. Guittard Nocturne Bar (%91).

That's right, you heard me. Bring it on, B*****s!

Trader Joe's has a one that is really good too. (%87 I think) I am biased though. Hot out or no, I really like dark chocolate. I took some trail mix that looked good in the store one time that had chocolate chips – to Utah in the summer. Not doing that again.

Dagoba Eclipse or New Moon bars.

I'm hardly a chocolate expert, but out of all the chocolates I've had, the $1.79 Cadbury milk chocolate bars you get at the grocery store are my favorite.
But like Bob said, milk chocolate melts easy.

You can get the Ghirardelli "Midnight Reverie" 86% at your local Walmart for $2.50 a bar. Not bad on the trail, especially with peanut butter.

+1 on Trader Joes. They also carry Valrhona. Other brands I like, in no particular order: Theo, Green&Blacks, Alter Eco, Xoxo. Of course, I had an 85% TJs bar melt in my bear can last August. When it solidified that night, it was grainy/chalky in places. If you carry a cozy, might be worth tucking meltables inside.

"I had an 85% TJs bar melt in my bear can last August."

I sometimes take M&Ms that "melt in your mouth, not on your hands", but that chocolate isn't very good, I don't really like food color

I wonder if there's a better tasting chocolate with non-melting outer coating that's not food colored

What ever happened to the old Hershey's Tropical Chocolate bar?

It was a small bar that was fairly hard, and I never had one melt in the least. One time the white oils were expressed onto the surface, but that did not bother its usefulness.

"I wonder if there's a better tasting chocolate with non-melting outer coating that's not food colored"

So, not food colored? That would mean it had to be purple or blue or something.

–B.G.–

"So, not food colored? That would mean it had to be purple or blue or something."

Okay, let me re-phrase that, I wonder if there's a better tasting chocolate with non-melting outer coating that's food colored

The best chocolate I've found (for just "plain" chocolate), comes from this company. I prefer to order the bulk discs, because it's easy to portion out. I haven't taken them hiking, but I imagine as long as you left them in the interior of your pack, they wouldn't melt.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm…..So delicious. I like the 64% dark myself.

Kinda partial to Whoppers myself.

Ritter Sport is OK.
Lindt is very good … but not hard.

Cheers

Every so often I find dark chocolate M&Ms. Not world class chocolate but an order of magnitude better than the regular ones and just the thing for hot-weather gorp. Look for the purple bag.

I, too, vote for the Trader Joe's Pound Plus Dark Chocolate (72%). It's tasty – ummm, ummm – and the best buy around at about $5. Colin Fletcher, in his book The Complete Walker IV, recommends simisweet baker's chocolate. He states that it "is cheaper than 'candy' chocolate, tastes just about as good, and melts less readily. Still, it melts. Try to keep it out of direct sunlight. In deserts, avoid."