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Edel & Gut: The Noble & Good Chocolate from Austria

A cult winemaker, a confectioner, and some Tyrolean farmers walk into a bar.... There is something about naming the collaborative producers of the Edel & Gut chocolate bar that sounds like a joke. The talent behind this confection includes Austrian cult sweet-wine maker Alois Kracher, pâtissier Hansjorg Haag, and a small group of Austrian farmers attempting to save an ancient cow from extinction. But Edel & Gut (Noble and Good) is no joke--it's an artisanal chocolate bar filled with the most amazing Traminer wine jelly.

Kracher, who has persuaded many connoisseurs that Austria is indeed capable of producing world class desert wines, set out to create a chocolate confection using his premium wines. After tasting the work of over fifty chocolate makers and confectioners, he selected Haag as his partner. Haag developed a unique confection using high quality chocolate, a jelly made of Kracher’s Traminer Beerenauslese wine, and a very particular cream.

This cream comes from cows that spend most of their time grazing in lush alpine pastures: the Grauvieh (“Tyrol Grey”) cattle that have been living in the region for over 3000 years. This ancient breed of ’noble cows’ (as the local farmers call them) is native to North and South Tyrol and have perfectly adapted to the harsh mountain climate. Their milk is exceptionally rich and creamy – ideal for cheese and chocolate – but they only produce small quantities. As a result, they’ve been largely replaced throughout most of the Tyrol by higher-yeilding cows and their numbers have been drastically reduced. A small group of Austrian farmers dedicated to preserving this ancient breed contacted Hansjorg Haag to help create a market for this very limited product.

Each Edel & Gut bar is made by Hansjorg Haag personally. Because of the handmade quality and scarcity of Grauvieh cream, these bars are produced in very small numbers. Foster & Dobbs has a few of these bars to offer now, but when they are gone, they’re gone. 50 gram bar - $12.