We love Konditorei Zauner in the town of Bad Ischl, Austria between Salzburg and Hallstatt. Their chocolates are absolutely wonderful, as are all their pastries, coffees, teas, and ice cream desserts . See the Zauner website at - http://www.zauner.at/

Many thanks, everyone for your suggestions. You're making my mouth water. Has anyone ever tried the rum coco's from Austria? I'm just a few days from chocolate shopping. Leaving for Germany on 9-4-04

I am in a state of a chocolate drought now :)

In Vienna I bought a box of dark chocolate squaares that were positively devine. Can't remember the name, but the box was a yellow gold flat one. Might still have it somewhere--I'll look.

Ritter Sport peppermint is wonderful but I can no longer find it at Cost Plus, alas.

I really enjoyed the Leonidas chocolates I purchased. Does anyone know how they compare to some of the other brands mentioned?

Lindt and Sprungli's chocolates are ah-mazing! They have stores in Switzerland as well as candy bars available in grocery stores. My favorite were these chocolate and hazelnut wafers bars! Yum. Cailler's chocolate bars are also delish.

Belgium by far is the best chocolate in the World when purchased there. No preservatives or other things they put in the mix to ship to the US. In Brussels stop by many of the local chocolate stands and have a taste. Leonidas is good as well as any other brand.