Buffett/Berkshire - general news

[Munger_Disciple]

2 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

My goto chocolate is the Ghiradelli with 85% Cocoa. I would give the Sea's chocolate a try, but they are basically unobtainable on the East coast. When I lived in CA, I was not exactly thrilled with the Sea's pralines but that was a while ago and I have not tried them since.

 

Costco has pretty good stuff on sale from time to time. It's very hard to go wrong with Belgian chocolate or pralines.

 

This is a chocolate stock I have been checking out a couple of times, but never bough (Barry Callebaut). There is of course Lindt and Sprungli, but it is very very richly valued and the common shares cost a Be5rtkshire like 100K CHF.

 

 

I also looked at Lindt & like you concluded it was very richly valued. BTW See's has an online store (https://www.sees.com/dark-chocolate) so you might be able to order from them. I recommend the following: Dark Almond, Dark Walnut, Dark Nougat, Dark Pecan, Dark California Brittle & Almond Royale. 

[adesigar]

Sees is ok. It’s good not great. Buffett is just marketing it.

 

Cadbury’s used to be decent till Kraft messed it up. Lindt manufactured in the US also doesn’t taste as good as the imported stuff.  Most Hersheys and Mars chocolates just taste terrible especially Hersheys.
 

Belgian/Swiss are our favorite. Now I need to stock up on some Lindt Gold bars.

[rolling]

1 hour ago, adesigar said:

Sees is ok. It’s good not great. Buffett is just marketing it.

 

Cadbury’s used to be decent till Kraft messed it up. Lindt manufactured in the US also doesn’t taste as good as the imported stuff.  Most Hersheys and Mars chocolates just taste terrible especially Hersheys.
 

Belgian/Swiss are our favorite. Now I need to stock up on some Lindt Gold bars.

Ah… so I am not the only one thinking Lindt chocolates are not all the same… I love Lindt chocolate in Portugal, there is no close rival.
BUT I do NOT appreciate the same Lindt chocolate bought in Switzerland (yes, it probably should be the opposite)

[Parsad]

16 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Coming from Europe, I would strongly disagree. Ghiradelli chocolate is much better, if you want to stick with made in the USA.

 

The fruit cream fillings in See's are terrific...for example the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cream, Raspberry Truffle, Blueberry Truffle or Key Lime Truffle.  As good as anything Ghiradelli, Godiva or Teuscher make.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

9 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

My goto chocolate is the Ghiradelli with 85% Cocoa. I would give the Sea's chocolate a try, but they are basically unobtainable on the East coast. When I lived in CA, I was not exactly thrilled with the Sea's pralines but that was a while ago and I have not tried them since.

 

Costco has pretty good stuff on sale from time to time. It's very hard to go wrong with Belgian chocolate or pralines.

 

This is a chocolate stock I have been checking out a couple of times, but never bough (Barry Callebaut). There is of course Lindt and Sprungli, but it is very very richly valued and the common shares cost a Be5rtkshire like 100K CHF.

 

They deliver across North America.  You can order online at See's.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

6 hours ago, adesigar said:

Sees is ok. It’s good not great. Buffett is just marketing it.

 

Cadbury’s used to be decent till Kraft messed it up. Lindt manufactured in the US also doesn’t taste as good as the imported stuff.  Most Hersheys and Mars chocolates just taste terrible especially Hersheys.
 

Belgian/Swiss are our favorite. Now I need to stock up on some Lindt Gold bars.

 

I'm not sure you guys are eating the right chocolates at See's.  The chocolate that See's uses is from Guittard, which makes excellent chocolate comparable and on par with Callebaut.  

 

https://www.guittard.com/

 

Cadbury, Lindt, Hershey's, many common Belgian/Swiss brands don't even compare to couverture chocolate like Guittard or Callebaut.  Most are known for their milk chocolates which aren't even in the same realm as quality dark chocolate.  It's like Tim Horton or Dunkin's coffee and true Italian espresso.  Cheers!

 

 

[Spekulatius]

totally OT, but love it. I am not into cream fillings and such - I like dark chocolate. I am trying @rkbabang recommendations of the TJ 85% Uganda chocolate, since it's value priced as well.

[Munger_Disciple]

5 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

totally OT, but love it. I am not into cream fillings and such - I like dark chocolate.

 

+1. I don't care for cream fillings at all. Other than the peanut brittle & the dark chocolates I mentioned before, I don't like most of See's chocolates or candies. They are way too sweet for my taste. 

[adesigar]

21 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

I'm not sure you guys are eating the right chocolates at See's.  The chocolate that See's uses is from Guittard, which makes excellent chocolate comparable and on par with Callebaut.  

 

https://www.guittard.com/

 

Cadbury, Lindt, Hershey's, many common Belgian/Swiss brands don't even compare to couverture chocolate like Guittard or Callebaut.  Most are known for their milk chocolates which aren't even in the same realm as quality dark chocolate.  It's like Tim Horton or Dunkin's coffee and true Italian espresso.  Cheers!

 

 

 

Its something about the ingredients or manufacturing process. US chocolates are more grainy (maybe that's how they are preferred in the US I don't know, its just not to my liking) and often have cheaper ingredients. Even Sees uses Corn Syrup instead of sugar, vanillin instead of vanilla, etc. in some of their chocolates. For the prices they charge you would hope for better ingredients. They claim "We only use the highest quality ingredients - see for yourself!"   https://www.sees.com/ingredients/

 

The best chocolates I have eaten was in Paris.  It was a store called Patrick Roger.

[Parsad]

8 hours ago, adesigar said:

 

Its something about the ingredients or manufacturing process. US chocolates are more grainy (maybe that's how they are preferred in the US I don't know, its just not to my liking) and often have cheaper ingredients. Even Sees uses Corn Syrup instead of sugar, vanillin instead of vanilla, etc. in some of their chocolates. For the prices they charge you would hope for better ingredients. They claim "We only use the highest quality ingredients - see for yourself!"   https://www.sees.com/ingredients/

 

 

The corn syrup is used in the center fillings...not milk or dark chocolate itself.  Guittard chocolate is no different than Callebaut in how it is made and the ingredients used.  Cheers!

[Dynamic]

Very interesting how chocolate tastes differ around the world, and how climate influences the types sold too, which is probably why Cadbury's made in the USA has to have a different recipe to the mostly cooler UK where it can melt in the mouth almost instantly (I've just shared a few squares of Dairy Milk in the UK with my wife. We like Hershey's too, when we're in the US or Mexico, but there's something about Cadbury's we miss.

 

On a different note, tastes for fine chocolates differ too. Lindor does very well in the UK. Leonidas is a favourite brand of ours (especially the white chocolate with yuzu dark chocolate ganache filling), but there seem to be fewer places to buy it in the UK over the last 5 years and we were glad to get some on a recent trip to London. We often stock up when visiting France or its native Belgium and need just one chocolate at a time and really savour it, so the box can last many months. We have family near Pau in France who raved over a particular chocolatier, but we enjoyed it and loved the store but wouldn't rave over it like them, so it's very much a matter of taste.

[gfp]

Meanwhile, Berkshire just keeps bidding on these distorted T-bill auctions!

 

[Gamecock-YT]

Think that's the treasury direct/retail rate that you have circled

[gfp]

6 minutes ago, Gamecock-YT said:

Think that's the treasury direct/retail rate that you have circled

 

That is the coupon-equivalent yield on a $35 Billion bill auction for 21-day bills.

 

[Paarslaars]

16 hours ago, Dynamic said:

Very interesting how chocolate tastes differ around the world, and how climate influences the types sold too, which is probably why Cadbury's made in the USA has to have a different recipe to the mostly cooler UK where it can melt in the mouth almost instantly (I've just shared a few squares of Dairy Milk in the UK with my wife. We like Hershey's too, when we're in the US or Mexico, but there's something about Cadbury's we miss.

 

On a different note, tastes for fine chocolates differ too. Lindor does very well in the UK. Leonidas is a favourite brand of ours (especially the white chocolate with yuzu dark chocolate ganache filling), but there seem to be fewer places to buy it in the UK over the last 5 years and we were glad to get some on a recent trip to London. We often stock up when visiting France or its native Belgium and need just one chocolate at a time and really savour it, so the box can last many months. We have family near Pau in France who raved over a particular chocolatier, but we enjoyed it and loved the store but wouldn't rave over it like them, so it's very much a matter of taste.

 

Yes Leonidas is the best, I prefer the manon:

 

[Spekulatius]

My bought some of TJ 85% Uganda chocolate that @rkbabangand it's indeed very good. I rate it 8-9/10, about even with Ghiradelli. The TJ chocolate is incredible smooth tasting for the 85% cocoa content while Ghiradelli is slightly bitter.

Both are better than the Lindt 85% or 92% bars imo.

 

Both are great Chocolates and the TJ for $2 is an absolute bargain. After all we are value investors here.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Spekulatius

[rkbabang]

2 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

My bought some of TJ 85% Uganda chocolate that @rkbabangand it's indeed very good. I rate it 8-9/10, about even with Ghiradelli. The TJ chocolate is incredible smooth tasting for the 85% cocoa content while Ghiradelli is slightly bitter.

Both are better than the Lindt 85% or 92% bars imo.

 

Both are great Chocolates and the TJ for $2 is an absolute bargain. After all we are value investors here.

 

Yep,  maybe there is better chocolate in the world somewhere, but it is the best I have access to in my area in any grocery store, and I seriously doubt there is a better value on any dark chocolate in the US.  If there is something available that is as good and cheaper I'd love to know.

 

[NnnnotSoSmart]

Speaking of chocolate. More nibbling of OXY by Buffett.

 

BRK bought another 4,660,809 OXY shares for $272,996,222.  Average price paid: $58.57/share.

 

https://dataroma.com/m/rt.php

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1067983/00...

 

He's apparently not interested in "buying control" but he sure keeps buying.

[jks327]

On 5/24/2023 at 9:25 PM, adesigar said:

 

Its something about the ingredients or manufacturing process. US chocolates are more grainy (maybe that's how they are preferred in the US I don't know, its just not to my liking) and often have cheaper ingredients. Even Sees uses Corn Syrup instead of sugar, vanillin instead of vanilla, etc. in some of their chocolates. For the prices they charge you would hope for better ingredients. They claim "We only use the highest quality ingredients - see for yourself!"   https://www.sees.com/ingredients/

 

The best chocolates I have eaten was in Paris.  It was a store called Patrick Roger.

 

From what I've read you have to use vanillin when making hard candy, it gets hot enough that regular vanilla will burn and lose its flavor.  Supposedly vanillin is made from tree bark, sounds like there could be worse but then again I haven't eaten anything with added sugar since 2018.

[gfp]

Jury decision against PacifiCorp - Oregon fires

 

https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-utility-company-berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffett-ff26bcf69a111e7343e7f806c6c7c937

[crs223]

going forward, i hope they shut off the power whenever the wind speeds exceed 20 mph.

[gfp]

Little update on BRK's Japanese investments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jbwent63]

I track the shares, and since March 31 as a group they are up over 29% vs. the Nikkei being up 17.75%. In terms of yen, the gain is about 558.5 billion yen (about $4 billion USD), and the total value of the shares held as of today is 2.465 trillion yen ($17.7 billion USD). Amazing performance.

 

Edited June 13, 2023 by jbwent63
error

[Charlie]

I like the Apple chart :

 

 

Buffett began buying in Q1 2016.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Charlie

[Munger_Disciple]

Buffett the