Choc tastic!

Now, for the avid reader out there you'll be aware that, as I've traveled around, I've been tasting the best chocolates each country has to offer. This is important research – and it has been hard - but I've taken the job with the seriousness it's deserved. You will also noticed that a some places, that I've traveled to (Germany, Austria, Hungry, Romania, America, Fiji, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia), are not on the list; this is because I failed to find any chocolates whilst in these countries. You'll also notice that some 'big chocolate players' are missing – Switzerland for example – this is because I haven't traveled to that country. Anyway, enough of the 'chit-chat, below is a list of the worlds best chocolate producers, in reverse order:

8) Canada: Bless them but any nation that thinks mixing either peanut butter, or a salted crisp, with chocolate deserves to be last. People of Canada, I think you're great but please stick to importing chocolates.

7) China: Presentation … good. Texture … good. Taste … awful. When peering through the glass cabinet everything looked promising but, as they say, the proof is in the tasting and they were bad.

6) Malaysia: Malaysia would have been worse than China however, due to the fact that these chocolates were the cheapest I'd purchased, I didn't feel as ripped off as the above two nations. Still they didn't look great, they were too small and they didn't taste good.

5) Japan: Between Malaysia and Japan there is a Huuuuge gap. Japanese chocolates were lovely, though the presentation needed a little work. The fact that each segment consisted of pure coco was a joy to eat. A little more variety would have been nice.

4) Vietnam: Quite unbelievable but Vietnam produces some excellent chocolates; There's little separating the top four and the Vietnamese chocolates, for taste, texture and presentation were just as good as the below nations (and they were cheaper). Just a little more variety.

3) New Zealand: Beautiful, beautiful chocolates. Due to fact that Kiwi chocolates are based on a Belgium recipe meant that the Kiwi's were copying however, if it's a case of copying or producing something similar to Canada, then I would rather New Zealand copied.

2) United Kingdom: Believe it or not but I think Blighty, in the form of Thornton's, produces some excellent chocolates. The downside is that Thornton's pre-pack their chocolates, which almost guarantees that you'll be purchasing ones that you're not going to like. Go online and you can, virtually, fill a box of chocolates choosing from Thornton's entire range; still I would prefer to visit my local Thornton's store and choose from the entire range there rather than having food posted.

1) Belgium:It had to be, the king of chocolate making. Massive ranges, excellent quality and individual selection make this small country my favourite chocolate producing nation.

And that's it chocolate lovers. With all this talk of chocolate I'm going to see if I can find any; I think next time I'll put chocolate cake onto the list as well!

Toodle Pip!