Working with, around, or in a field generally related to food usually comes with perks. And sometimes, the perks are mouth-dropping, drool-inspiring, and downright genius. Today, I received an email to the tune of "come pick up a free loaf of Bread & Chocolate".

I'm not the first to discover this dense, chocolate-filled, sourdough-tangy, perfectly-salty boule. It has already appeared on Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate,” and in Bon Appétit's list of America’s 10 Best Bread Bakeries.

The breakdown: -This isn't your grandmère's flaky pain au chocolat. This is the sumo wrestler of chocolate bread, with 1/3 its weight coming from Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate. So unless you're a real masochist, there's not much of a risk of eating the full loaf in one sitting. -The sourdough boule is a unique, tangy spin on the traditional combo. In high school, my French teacher used to feed us Hershey bars on butter-slathered baguettes, which she claimed her children ate daily for snack. This is a sophisticated one-up on that classic. You've got the salt, the dark chocolate, the oil/butter - but now with an acidic, tangy aftertaste. In other words, this bread won't evaporate into your stomach without notice. It commands (and deserves) that you slow down and recognize its full flavor profile.

Oh - and did I mention that this bakery is dangerously close to a holistic/Ayurvedic retreat center? I guess we don't have to think twice about where those lost little campers ran off to...