Chocolat, Chocolat: A Brief Guide on the Art of Chocolate Tasting

Lyndon and I decided to celebrate the world's greatest food with a party. We started a new tradition and had the first ever Plothow Chocolate Party. Now in your mind you might be thinking of all the decadent chocolate desserts and how delicious they are (I know your mouth is watering at this moment thinking of it), but we went in a more "sophisticated" direction. Instead of gorging ourselves on chocolate treats we had a chocolate tasting party inorder for our pallets to become aquainted with the many different types of flavors chocolate can have.

There is an art to tasting chocolate. We base our tastes on what we like and do not like. To truly desire to appreciate a flavor (especially chocolate) we must use all the senses.

Sight: First evalutate the color of the chocolate. The darker the color the richer the cocoa. Gloss is important when looking at chocolate. If the chocolate has a nice gloss to it then it means that it has been tempered well. If the chocolate has a dullness to it watch out. This means that the cocoa butter may have crystallized poorly in the cooling process.

Smell: The chocolate's aroma tells about the quality of the chocolate. A chocolate with a high percentage of chocolate has a stronger smell than a low percentage chocolate. If there is any unpleasing odor to the chocolate it may have een badly aged or has dried out.

Taste: Concentrate on the degree of sweetness. Think about if the chocolate's taste is balanced or to strong, if there is an acidic taste, if there is any bitterness. There are all indicator of the percentage of cocoa.

Touch: Touching the chocolate will help you determine the amount of cocoa butter in chocolate and the finness of the cacao. Things to notice by touch are the texture of the surface, if it begins to melt with touch, and if it is smooth or silky.

Hearing: Hearing is used to see if the chocolate is to hot or cold to taste at the moment. If the chocolate yields a dull snap then it is to warm and if the snap is quick and dry then it is probably too cold at the moment. The snap also tells about the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate. The higher the percentage of the chocolate the harder to snap it (99% being the hardest to break).

Going back to the tasting part, there is an order to tasting chocolate. First you must smell it. Then bite a part off and let it begin to melt in your mouth. Once the chocolate starts to melt chew it up making sure to chew on both sides of your mouth. Then last swallow and remember the after taste.

After reading this you have a little bit better understanding of how to truly enjoy your chocolate when eating it.  Bon Appetit!


All the chocolate that was sampled. Don't you wish you were there.

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