Noka - A Chocolate Report

I just finished reading a ten-part report on Noka Chocolates by "Scott--DFW" on his DallasFood.org site.

Its a fascinating investigative piece that attempts to discern what, if anything, makes this particular companies chocolates worth the prices they charge. It's also a great starting point for anyone interested in learning more about high-end chocolate. Even if you have no interest in chocolate its still a great read to see how he builds his case and reaches conclusions based on the evidence he gathers.

Anyway, take a look. I don't think you'll be disappointed.


http://www.dallasfood.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=78

Edited the link to point to beginning of the report.

Thanks for posting this...I'd read the first couple and forgotten to go back to it. Good stuff.

Thanks for the kind words.

For those who are interested in buying Noka's products after reading the reports, they can be found at the Oakbrook Neiman Marcus. It can be most amusing to hear the sales associates' responses to questions about the product and its pricing.

Scott

Scott -

Outstanding detective work. Well done on all fronts. Just curious - has the Cocoa Bean Counter threatened to sue you yet??

- sdp

Scott,

I read every single word of this opus. It's wonderful to have all the room you want to write such a thorough report. You spent quite a bit of time, money and spreadsheet real estate to divine the chocolate behind Noka. You revealed the mere mortal behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.

A phrase kept ticking in the back of my mind while reading this, "You can dazzle them with brilliance or baffle them with BS." Noka seems to do a good job with the smoke and mirrors baffling aspect.

I loved your last line, "If you or your gift recipient are rich, stupid, and vain, Noka is probably the way to go."

Thanks for a very fine investigative report.

Regards,

I'll join in the praise for this extraordinary piece of research, analysis, and writing. Terrific work! Thanks for pointing us to it.

sundevilpeg wrote:Outstanding detective work. Well done on all fronts. Just curious - has the Cocoa Bean Counter threatened to sue you yet??

No. But they did sic a "crisis consultant" on me. (See this thread.)

Scott

I sent the link to a dear friend who has a proclivity towards shopping for gifts at N/M's food department. She said that when she was at their Atlanta store before the holidays, all the NoKa was past its expiration date by a month.

Her quote: "Guess those stupid rich people are not THAT stupid "

My boss received a box of these from one of our clients and after reading the article on slashfood I had to try them. I tried one of each variety in the box--I believe there were 4. The box was huge but weighed 6 oz. at most--each piece of chocolate was the size of a stamp and about the thickness of a nickel. I've eaten a lot of bittersweet chocolate in my lifetime and would say that these were good but not as good as Michael Recchuiti as an example. I also make a lot of chocolate desserts at home and use a combination of Valrhona and Scharffenberger along with the occasional Trader Joe's varietal bar and in my opinion these do not stand up based on flavor alone much less value which is the obvious issue here.

Apparently Scott's report has gotten a lot of traffic on the web (including growabrain today). Noka's response is now up on the website as well, with lots of excellent commentary following.

Noka Chocolate went out of business

Somewhere on DallasFood.org, where we first learned of this, there is a story announcing their demise. I don't have time to find it, though I am sure someone will.

Regards,