Ghirardelli 72% cocoa chocolate Tuesday July, 16, 2013. (Will Waldron/Times Union) Ghirardelli 72% cocoa chocolate Tuesday July, 16, 2013. (Will Waldron/Times Union) Photo: WW Photo: WW Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Savor the darkness 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

And you thought dark chocolate was there just to melt away your troubles. It's packed with antioxidants, those free-radical fighters that ward off various ills and give dark chocolate the one-up on kale. No one drowns her sorrows in kale.

Boyfriend dump you? Break off a piece of 70 percent cacao/cocoa. (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't have a standard for what can be labeled as dark chocolate, though you'll want to start at 60 percent cacao to get the true experience.). And, you know, that loser didn't deserve you anyway.

Office suck-up two cubicles over got another ''attaboy'' at the staff meeting? Suddenly being passed over by your boss doesn't seem so bad as a square of chocolate dissolves on your tongue, kind of like a designer drug, but it's not illegal and no one will find you writing a manifesto about why your hand is one of creation's many awesome miracles.

Milk chocolate works for kids stuffing their cheeks with candy eggs on Easter. But you've got adult problems, and those require grown-up chocolate that happens to be good for you. Your chocolate is bitter so you are not.

Dark chocolate is complex and mysterious. Like wine, it comes with layers of flavor, various notes, and all the other fancy words foodies use to make food sound like an expensive hobby. Dark chocolate isn't just a blast of sweetness. It can be a little sharp. There may be coffee notes or citrus tones. This chocolate has traveled. It has really experienced life.

For this Price Point, a monthly feature in which we taste-test brands at three stops along the price range, we've looked at dark chocolate. And because all those antioxidants have us feeling so good, we even threw in a bonus bar.

jgish@timesunion.com • 518-454-5089 • @Jennifer_Gish