How to
 |
The purpose of this article is to guide you towards a structured way in tasting chocolate! To teach you to enjoy as many different senses as possible when eating chocolate.
I always try to stop a moment, breath and think about what and how I am going to eat, enjoy the chocolate. For me it has been important to understand the following things about the chocolate that I am going to enjoy: |
- where does it come from
- what is the cacao content
- what does the chocolate contain
- what is the best way to open the packaged, able to close and reopen again
I have divided this article into different parts:
- The appearance
- The snap
- The aroma
- The mouthfeel
- The taste
A. Appearance
First, look at the surface appearance of your chocolate bar. Look at the consistency of the chocolate’s colour. Is it even? Is the chocolate shiny? The shinier a chocolate, the better it’s been tempered (tempering is the process that lines up the chocolate molecules into a crystal lattice). Is there any white, powdery-looking stuff on the top of your chocolate? This is called bloom, and happens when chocolate isn’t tempered correctly.
- It should have an even texture and a shiny gloss with no discoloration, pitting or bloom. Good gloss is an indication of good tempering. Discoloration or bloom is an indication of chocolate that has been on the shelf too long and/or has undergone temperature changes, causing the fat or sugar to separate from the tempered chocolate. The feel should be neither too soft nor too brittle.
- Colour is not an indication of quality, nor is it an absolute indicator of cacao content. While one might say in broad generalization that the higher the percentage of cacao, the darker the chocolate bar, that is only true within a particular producer and bean. For example, Porcelain, one of the finest beans in the world, is light in colour—even at 85%. And if the producer prefers a dark roast, the chocolate will be darker in colour.
- Cacao content—whether one prefers chocolate that is milk, semisweet, or bittersweet—is a matter of personal preference. A very dark bar containing a high percentage of cacao can be made with inferior cacao.
B. Snap
Professionals gauge the quality of chocolate by its “snap”: the clear, crisp sound made by breaking a piece of chocolate from a bar. A good, clean snap is indicative of high cacao content and well-tempered chocolate: the higher the cacao content, the harder the chocolate and the more pronounced the snap.
- The snap should be clean, without crumbling or bending. The opposite of snap is crumbly.
- Milk chocolate, which has lower levels of cocoa solids, and white chocolate which has no cocoa solids, are softer and don’t have the same clean snap as dark chocolate.
Listening to your chocolate is more important than you might think. And the sound your chocolate makes is also related to the molecules in it. When they’re all lined up (and shiny), it’s harder to break them apart. So when you break good chocolate apart, it should make a clean, bright, snapping sound.
C. Aroma
The aromas of chocolates vary widely: the different varieties of beans have different characteristic aromas, as do beans grown in different parts of the world (and different regions within the same part of the world). There is a parallel to wine: just as Cabernet Sauvignons from different producers will have very different aromas, so will chocolates from different producers. To extend the analogy, chocolates made by the same producer with beans of different areas will bear the distinctive aromas (and flavours) of their terroir.
As with wine, there are hundreds of aromas of chocolate. In THE NIBBLE Guide to Chocolate Descriptors, we have categorized them as alcoholic, bready, colours (e.g. green as in grass, brown as in dried), dairy, floral, fruity, herbaceous, nutty, spicy, sugary, vegetal and woody. An experienced taster will also learn the scent of roasts, and will be able to tell what kind of roast the beans underwent.
Aroma is 90% of taste. To smell your chocolate, you should start out by giving it a little massage. By warming up the chocolate, you release some of the scent that’s been locked in, and you also get your taste buds ready to receive the chocolatey goodness. Different smells can indicate different parts of the world, and even specific bean breeds. What do you smell? Let your brain make associations, even if they aren’t logical. Does your chocolate smell like Muir Woods? Your grandma’s cranberry sauce? A lavender bush? Go with it.
In addition, each chocolate-growing area produces beans with distinctive regional aromas. In Venezuela, the Criollo bean generates aromas of strawberries, cream and butter notes in the genetically pure Porcelana strain; in Madagascar, the Criollo bean can yield aromas of vodka and white wine plus spice, cedar and other woody notes.
Now, inhale the aroma of the bar and try to distinguish the different scents.
E. Mouthfeel
Mouthfeel is the technical term for (literally) how a food or beverage feels in the mouth. With chocolate, we look at the texture and other sensations the chocolate provides as it dissolves in the mouth and is chewed. In general, good chocolate will liquefy in the mouth without being chewed: the cocoa butter melts at at around 97°F, and normal body temperature is 98.6°F.
- Chocolate texture can be smooth, or it can be grainy or gritty. It can feel velvety or creamy, or it can be waxy or greasy. Waxy chocolate is often an indicator that a cheaper vegetable fat has been substituted for the cocoa butter.
- Chocolate producers can add extra cocoa butter to create a smoother, richer product; however, this is not to everyone’s taste. If you find that a brand of chocolate is too unctuous, it is probably not a problem with the chocolate but the styleof chocolate that you don’t like. You should seek a less lush, more austere style.
Texture is a big deal, so how does the melting chocolate feel in your mouth? Waxy? Smooth? Gritty? Smooth usually means good, but there really is no right or wrong here; if you enjoy something, don’t listen to anyone who tells you it isn’t “good.”
To evaluate the mouthfeel, break off a small piece of chocolate and place it on your tongue. Run your tongue over the surface; but tempting as it is to begin to chew it, let it begin to melt on its own and examine the texture. Then, pop in another piece of chocolate and chew it, evaluating the consistency.
E. Taste
 |
The tastes of fine chocolate parallel the aroma descriptors that you can study in the charts—i.e., caramel and blueberry, which are descriptors in the chart, can be both smelled and tasted in certain chocolates; although sometimes they only can be smelled and sometimes they only can be tasted. Smelling a component does not mean you will taste it.
Allow the chocolate to slowly melt on the tongue. Different tastes will reveal themselves initially, at mid-palate, and in the aftertaste (what is known in wine-tasting as the finish, although the finish in chocolate refers to the surface gloss of the tempered product). As with wine, the aftertaste may be short, or it may be long and lingering—which is desirable, assuming you enjoy the taste! |
- The more you taste chocolate and compare one bar to another, the more your palate will become acclimated to the nuances, and the more you will be able to discern the differences among chocolates.
- It helps to taste with other people. As each mind comes up with different concepts in a brainstorming session, each palate will find different nuances and will contribute to the learning of the group as a whole.
- Always taste within a related group of chocolates (milk, Venezuelan, Madagascan, Criollo, Trinitario, 50% cacao, 85% cacao, single origin beans from different producers, etc).
- Taste the lowest percentage cacao chocolates first.
On to the big question. How does your chocolate taste? If chocolate is overly sweet or vanilla-flavoured, it more or less defeats the whole point of eating chocolate, which, ultimately, is to taste chocolate. So what does the chocolate taste like? Is it bright? Bitter? It might help to work your way from generalities to specifics. What other foods does the chocolate remind you of? How does the flavor change as the chocolate melts and dissipates? Do the flavors interact in different ways over time?
The taste of chocolate matures over a tasting session, and after the chocolate is gone there are still opportunities for taste. The length of a chocolate aftertaste, or “tail” as it’s called, is an indication of quality, as long as you enjoy the tail, of course. Is the aftertaste different from the way the chocolate tasted when it was present? Is it woodier now? Drier? Did the chocolate improve or deteriorate with mouth-time
Remember: every mouth is different, and there are no right or wrong answers in tasting
Just because chocolate is a familiar product, expertise does not come easily. As with wine, there’s a lot to master. But, it’s a most enjoyable course of study.
Enjoying chocolate should involve exploration, learning, and all of your senses. With that in mind, here’s our guide to help you to learn, explore, and taste chocolate like we do in the TCHO lab while teaching your palate a new trick or two.