Debauve & Gallais - direct from Paris, France, a follow-up

I was lucky enough to have a friend going to Paris on vacation, and I specifically requested several bars of the 72% cacao plain bar from Debauve & Gallais. I also told her she should try some of the champignons. Happy to oblige, she tried the champignons, as well as some other confections. She returned recently, bars in hand, and we sat down to have a tasting.

Again, I must confess my great disappointment in the underwhelming taste. While the plain chocolate was an improvement over the ganache, it still had overtones of nut, rather than of vanilla. This is also clearly not a cooking chocolate. At $6/bar (in the U.S., more on the order of $7.50/bar), neither the price nor the taste warrants melting this down to mix with other ingredients.

I'm looking forward to my Halloween ghosts from L.A. Burdick, though.