Italy is home to some of the world’s finest chocolate companies winning gold medals in international competitions. In just one region of Italy, Piemonte, there are more master chocolatiers than in Belgium and France combined. In Tuscany, there is such a concentration of fine chocolate makers that journalists have dubbed the area between Florence and Pisa the Chocolate Valley.
One reason Italian chocolate is so good is that Italians care so much about the purity of ingredients. There is no better evidence of their concern for quality than the country’s long battle with the European Union over cocoa butter. For the Italians, this is not ‘pure chocolate,’ but a chocolate-like substance, and should be labeled accordingly.
