I guess I'm about two days ahead of you, dcb1...we were fiddling back and forth too, but when we saw the Amazon Green (deep, rich greenish brown tones with blue grey highlights and quartz flecks) we couldn't pass it up. It wasn't exactly what we originally envisioned, but seeing a sample in our kitchen's light next to creamy colors and steel, I know it'll be perfect. AND it didn't hurt that we found 3 slabs of it for under $10 a sq ft. Guess what I'm saying is keep an open mind and the 'right one' for you two will show up.

But I STILL love the Cambrian Black Antique and lots of people on this site think it's very easy to maintain.

Good luck!

We have Cambrian black brushed (or antique) on our island and are very happy with it. I told DH about it when I first saw it, and he wan't too excited about it. He can't picture anything. We went to pick out our marble slabs, and when I showed it to him, the only thing that might have swayed us was some gorgeous soapstone. Alas, all they had was a bundle that had been dropped and was in small pieces. Maybe a small vanity small -- maybe just trivets and such. We went with the granite and have loved it.

I knew I wanted stone, so I didn't have the quartz issues. Really -- what am I likely to do to a slab of rock that's been around for millions of years? And this stuff is tough -- the guy at the yard tried to break off a piece to give me to take with me when we picked it -- it wouldn't chip off. You will be able to tell if the counter is dirty, but it won't stand out and you won't be afraid to set anything on it, touch it, knead on it, whatever.

Have you gone and looked at slabs? You sound like you've been looking at photos or tiny square samples. When you look at the large slabs, it seems to make a difference. That's how I found mine -- I'd never seen it and may or may not have ever heard about it when I saw the slab. Good luck with your decision.

I started out looking at sample pictures, and you're right it is very difficult to say. I have looked at slabs and it is much easier to tell. The only nice thing about the sample tiles is that you can bring them home and put all sorts of stuff on them and see how they look. I'm guessing, I'm probably in a situation where I can't go wrong, I just don't recognize it yet. Thanks for the advice. I'm looking at quartz again today and then I'm going on Friday to a wholesaler to look at some granite slabs for the last time.

Thanks for the advice.

I like Cambrian black that lascatx mentioned also. It was one that I was gravitating to.

Then I saw a black granite called "Blue in the Night" and I think it also goes by "Blue Polare". It is a black granite - very black - but with some cobalt blue inclusions. In mine, the blue inclusions are like confetti rice. I also picked a piece with a quartz vein running through it - I haven't seen quartz veins in other BP/BNight granites since.

Here is a picture showing the granite. I must tell you that I needed a flash and to standing up on a chair right over my granite to get this much detail. The little glints here and there are the blue inclusions:

A close up shot of the granite so you can see what I mean by the blue confetti:

I'm also including some pictures of my kitchen so you can see how black the granite looks nominally:

It is in good light, as you walk by it that the cobalt blue flecks flash at you as they catch the light right.

As of right now, we're going with Diamond Black granite. It's a black granite with silver inclusions (think Black Galaxy only with silver inclusions rather than copper and pink). I don't know if it has a more common name, but I do know I've had a hard time finding it at local stoneyards. We're getting it through EXPO, so their stoneyard will have it, but it's in northern Virginia and we haven't made the trek out there yet. I've only seen it polished--and I really like it that way--so I cannot help you with how it would look antiqued.

I've linked a couple of pictures; unfortunately, though, they don't show the granite very well but they're the only ones I could find.

Diamond Black Granite : Origin : Brazil
Diamond Black Granite And Other 1st Class Material

HTH!

I looked for smething like the Blue in the Night and couldn't find it. Anything similar just didn't do it or was too much. Since we have the blue wall, I would have liked the blue, but I think it would have been easy to get too much, so I'm happy with the Cambrian. In certain light at the yard, the lighter parts of the black on black/charcoal grey had a blue cast. Sold DH on it, but I haven't seen that in my kitchen. I do like the ice flowers - some are silvery, some are more coppery. And I like that many people dn't think it's grantie and ask what it is.

I love my honed absolute black. You could also try Virginia Mist - there have been some posts here about it, and it's stunning. Cambrian is also great. My kitchen sounds a lot like yours - you're going to love the finished product!

We went with polished b/c we were concerned about water/oil spots and fingerprints showing up more on a honed finish. I had read a few threads on here about fingerprints on honed black granites and did not want to be constantly cleaning.
We are pleased with our choice, the counters look great and upkeep is easy. I do love the look of honed black granite though.
Ours are Black Galaxy, with some coppery and some silvery inclusions. i posted our finished pics last week:

Here is a link that might be useful: black galaxy

Like buehl, we went with Black Diamond (AKA Black Silver) and I think it's a piece of cake to keep looking beautiful. Hot water, a drop of detergent, and a washcloth for daily cleaning; microfiber cloth for drying; and a spray of granite cleaner followed by microfiber buffing when company's coming. The silver flecks add a lot of visual interest and disguise water spots. It's dramatic yet quiet -- very homogeneous, which we like. And shiny shiny like glass.

As Coolbeans said, regardless of which you end up choosing, keep a supply of microfibre cloths handy. I bought them at WalMart, about $1.50 each, and so far am cycling through a pack of three. I just wipe up counter with one hand, buff with microfibre with the other (as it's always buffing a clean counter, lasts pretty long). Have learned to just wash them by hand, I dissolve a little bit of wash detergent in sink (have a small box of regular left that I can't use in my new front-loading washer), and soak the cloths and floor mop cloth and airdry. Don't throw the Microfibre cloths in the wash with other stuff, as it will pick up the dirt from your other wash, and NEVER throw them in the dryer.

Go with which ever granite you love (if you can afford it), and don't let the fingerprint issue dissuade you- really- with microfibre cloths it's not a big deal!

Mindstorm: Your granite is lovely!

We have Antique Nordic Black. No water stains or fingerprints. Here are some pictures. It looks darker in person than in pictures.

We have cambrian black antiqued and we love it. The antiqued finish has hid fingerprints for us and has been very easy to keep clean. It has also drawn a lot of questions on what kind of material is and they are always surprised to find out that its granite because of its texture.