A #Chowhound Listicle Review | #PodSaveChocolate Ep 128

Episode 128 is an exploration of a Chowhound listicle titled, “The Absolute Best Chocolate Shops In Every State.” Are the 50 shops listed The Absolute Best?
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Episode 128 Overview
In this episode of PodSaveChocolate I will explore a Chowhound listicle titled, The Absolute Best Chocolate Shops In Every State and seek to answer the question, “Are the 50 shops listed The Absolute Best?” As a part of that exploration we’ll take a look at another list and see where the two are the same, where they are different, and take a poke at answering why they are different.
Whenever I run across a #listicle like this one on Chowhound, I always have two questions:
- What are the credentials of the person making the selections?
- What is the methodology used to compile the entries?
In the case of this listicle, the author’s name is linked to a bio on the site. From the bio we learn that he attended the French Culinary Institute, has been an editorial assistant at Gourmet [Magazine], and is a certified Competition BBC judge who has also judged jam, jelly, and pie contests. This is far more experience than many writers I’ve seen credited on listicles like this one.
The methodology used is posted at the bottom of the page:
It wasn't easy to pick just one chocolate shop from each state to single out. There are many great chocolatiers doing amazing things all over the country. We scoured the web, read customer reviews, lurked on message boards, and looked for recommendations in both local and national publications to make our picks.
In other words, the evidence collected for this list was purely anecdotal and is unsourced/uncredited. (Which message boards? Customer reviews where?) Given the information presented, the author has not actually tasted any of the pieces mentioned from any of the shops being recommended.
I asked Google’s Gemini to create a list of one chocolate shop in each state using the following prompt:
What is The Best Chocolate Shop In each US state?
Let’s go on a state-by-state exploration of these two lists ⋯ one hand-curated (we don’t know if AI was used to help reduce the amount of work required) at Chowhound, and the other generated by Google Gemini.
Do you agree with any of the Chowhound picks? Disagree? Do you have a favorite or favorites? Let me know in the comments.
Questions?
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