Chocolate tasting etiquette
- Tasting should occur in the morning when your sense of taste is at its sharpest
- Tasting amounts should be small to avoid over-indulgence and overpowering your taste buds
- When sampling, begin with white and milk chocolate before venturing into the intense flavours of dark chocolate
- Always clean your palate with water(at room temp.) or flavourless crackers between tastings
- Limit your tasting to six different pieces to ensure your palate continues to sense the subtle differences in the chocolate
- There are 5 different categories used to rate chocolate.
- Aroma
- The sense of smell makes up a large part of the sense of taste, thus indicating how chocolate will taste
- All chocolate has the basic “chocolaty” aroma, but other common aromas or “notes” that can be found include earthy, spicy, tobacco, licorice, grass, citrus, and even cheese !
- Look / Snap
- Good chocolates often have a redder appearance rather than black
- Grain should be fine, preferably without air bubbles
- Surface should be smooth with a silky sheen
- It should break with a clean, crisp snap, not too brittle or too soft.
- Taste
- The flavours will evolve, initial bursts, slow developers, and hidden notes
- It is best to first let the chocolate slowly melt on the tongue to release the initial flavours and slow developers, and then munch the chocolate to reveal the hidden notes
- Roll the chocolate around the tongue to reach the four zones. The top senses sweet, the sides sense salt and sour and the back senses bitter
- Flavours are commonly described in terms of earthy, citrus, dark tans, tobacco, toffee, caramel, milk, coffee, nutty …
the list can go on and on !
- Melt
- Chocolate melts at a temperature that is close to our body’s temperature… which is why it melts in our mouths !
- It should be smooth and velvety, never sticky, waxy, or sandy in the mouth
- Length
- A good chocolate is revealed in its length, the aftertaste that lingers on after the chocolate is eaten
- Poor quality chocolate quickly turns bitter and metallic in the mouth
- Good quality chocolate tastes good in the mouth a long time after eating.