CHOCOLATE TASTING

With so many variables affecting the flavour of just one chocolate bar, it’s important to taste chocolate carefully so that you can extract the fullest flavour potential.  If you follow this chocolate tasting guide, you will quickly and easily be able to experience the wonders of fine quality chocolate in no time.

SEE.

Take a close look at the chocolate bar. Is the chocolate even in color and consistency? The surface of a good chocolate should have a silky gleam to it.

FEEL.

Use your fingers to feel the surface of the chocolate. It should feel smooth, sleek and firm.

HEAR.

Break off a piece of chocolate right by your ear. High quality chocolates have a firm compact structure and when they break, they break with a clearly audible snap. Incidentally, the edge of the break should be nice and smooth.

SMELL.

Hold a piece of chocolate right under your nose and breathe in deeply. Take in the chocolate’s full range of aromas. It might for example, have the scent of intense cocoa, or milk, or caramel, mocha, or vanilla, in fact, a cocoa bean has up to 400 different aromas.

TASTE.

Taste is of course the most intense experience of them all. Allow the chocolate to melt slowly in your mouth. In high quality bitter sweet chocolates, the bitter, roasted, and yet harmonious character will be dominant, and with a little practice, you will be able to recognize a broad range of other flavors, for example, hints of dried fruits, or liquorish, or tobacco, when you smell, and when you eat it. This exercise is always the most enjoyable.