Availability of Chocolate

I think the selection is excellent. There are many qualities, depending on your taste. There is also pure cocoa (unsweetened) available at very reasonable prices.

Ecuador exports chocolate all over the world. It and coffee are excellent.

Thanks for the comments. Sounds great ! Like so many others I am a real chocoholic

so I will leave my hershey kisses behind...lol

Well, I guess that wraps it up. If I have those two excellent goodies, I can most likely live without others. LOL!
You know us girls gotta have the chocolate.

Aside from the wonderful Ecuadorian chocolates, there are imports at MegaMaxi that I stock up on.

In particular, I like the Ritter Sport brand which comes in square bars -- both the dark chocolate and the nut-and-fruit type which is like a sophisticated Chunky.

The company is German, but the dark bar -- chocolate negro -- is from cacao (raw chocolate) from Papua, New Guinea.  Sabroso!

cccmedia, at the Expat Cheese and Chocolate Desk in Quito

A true story about how chocolate saved Ecuador's economy in 1922....

The economy of Ecuador was in a depression.  A massive infusion of capital was essential.

At the same time in the United States, the Eskimo Pie was invented -- a vanilla ice-cream treat covered in chocolate.

The Eskimo Pie and its imitators were so popular, estadounidenses were consuming a million of these pies a day!

Ecuador was the world's biggest exporter of raw chocolate back then.  The surge in demand for chocolate driven by the Eskimo Pie craze pushed global chocolate prices up 50 percent, and thus did Ecuador receive a huge influx of money that lifted La República out of its economic depression.
(howtogeek.com, as posted at latinamericacurrentevents.com)

Cccmedia, I didn't see any home made chocolate in Quito but I bought some in Cuenca.

From a traditional looking lady standing outside the big food mercado in central Cuenca. She had these big oval flats of raw chocolate in a basket [she said] she made herself from ground chocolate mixed with milk. No sugar. Can't remember the price exactly, something like $3 a kilo?

I know better than to buy things like that when I'm traveling - but well, I couldn't resist. I hauled that stuff around Ecuador in my wheelie suitcase for the next 3 weeks. It melted and re-hardened repeatedly.

But when I had finally hauled to its last destination, the US, I gave it to a friend who makes candy. She made a big batch of fudge with it and it was the most fabulous fudge the world has ever seen. Creamy with a deep, rich, fresh chocolate flavor. Incomparable to any chocolate fudge I have ever eaten.

Media have you ventured to Cuenca yet?

Buy the chocolate. Also hot cocoa. And I found a little candy store in central Cuenca that makes all it's own chocolates, presumably from the local raw product. Splendid splendid chocolates and very affordable. Better than any other purchased chocolate candies I've had anywhere in the world. Ritter nowhere in the same league.