My name is Stephanie Zonis, and welcome to the February, 2005 edition of For Chocolate Lovers Only! Each month, you’ll find a recipe or two, tips, and recommendations on great chocolate specialties. Happy Valentine’s Day to chocolate-lovers everywhere, and especially you, my reader. This month: high-rise chocolate, and a chance to acquire a little fiber along with all those calories. Let’s get into the kitchen!

Chocolate Recommendation of the Month: What do you say when someone tells you they got into chocolate-making to support their goat habit? Kathryn and David, of Black Mesa Ranch, are truly “goat people”; they are slowly but surely realizing their dreams of self-sufficiency and sustainability on a previously-abandoned, off-the-grid, 280 acre homestead property in the White Mountains of Arizona. Their affection and respect for the goat members of their family is obvious even on their website. You can, if you wish, buy cheese or reserve a kid for purchase (based on seasonal availability), but if you aren’t in the market for fermented curd or a baby goat, you might consider buying some of their lovely chocolates instead. I’ll start with the products I didn’t taste first. The barks and “rubbles” (especially the pecan-toffee chunk-milk chocolate Milky Rubble) sound intriguing; spiced pecans (including a Sweet-Hot variety with cocoa and chile) are available, too, as well as dark-chocolate-covered candied ginger.

But Black Mesa Ranch leads you further into temptation with their Butter Almond Toffee (in dark, milk, or white chocolate, or you can order it mixed) and their truffles. The toffee is crunchy and full of almonds, with a layer of chocolate top and bottom and more almonds on the exterior. And those truffles! They’re quite large, with a center that’s stiffer than those I’m used to. Do yourself a favor, and let your chosen truffle get to room temperature before eating it; the truffles positively melt in your mouth when they aren’t cold (ideally, you’ll consume them quickly enough that they needn’t get cold at all, but if you can’t, they must be stored in the refrigerator). Try the great Mexican Vanilla (I don’t even like white chocolate much, and this is still a great piece), the Milk Chocolate, the Bittersweet Double Dark, or any of the handful of other varieties. Something else special about the candies from Black Mesa Ranch: they’re made with goat cream. Yup, goat cream (although they’ve found that cows’ milk butter works better than goat butter). Trust me when I tell you that there’s nothing “goaty” tasting about these confections; there’s just a lovely underlying note of dairy.

This is a very small business, but they are guided by solid priciples, and they use excellent, fresh ingredients. And that is what good chocolate is all about, or should be. To order Black Mesa Ranch products (a nice thought for Valentine’s Day), go to www.localharvest.org or www.blackmesaranchonline.com. You can also call the dairy at (928) 536-7759 or toll-free at (888) 536-7759.

Do you have a comment, question, or suggestion? I’d like to hear it. E-mail me at: sdziadwm@nac.net. Please specify that you’re writing about chocolate, or I might think it’s spam.