Speaking of Chocolate

Before you get to the fourth and final lesson of how to taste chocolate let’s recap the first three lessons:

In lesson 1 of how to taste chocolate you evaluated your chocolate bar in regard to texture, sheen and discoloration or blemishes.

In lesson 2 of how to taste chocolate you paid attention to the snap when breaking off a piece of your chocolate bar. You watched for a clean break and listened for a crisp snap (particularly for dark chocolate bars).

In lesson 3 of how to taste chocolate you did the sniff test by inhaling your piece of chocolate.

Now it’s on to lesson 4 of how to taste chocolate: Use your sense of taste and touch (but with your tongue, not your hands).

Put your piece of chocolate bar in your mouth but do NOT chew. The temperature of your mouth is about 97 degrees, perhaps a bit more, so the chocolate bar will literally melt in your mouth on your tongue.

Once you put the chocolate in your mouth, take note of the texture. How does it feel? Like velvet? Like wax? Obviously the first description is more of what you’re looking for in quality chocolate.

Now that your piece of chocolate bar has begun to melt on your tongue you can start to taste it. If you want to chew limit your chewing to just a few bites. What flavors do you taste? Does the flavor change as the chocolate bar melts further in your mouth? It might.

And let’s “finish”. The chocolate bar has dissolved, been swallowed and left the mouth. What taste(s) linger in your mouth. If it’s an unpleasant aftertaste then perhaps that’s a chocolate bar to avoid in the future. But if it’s a pleasant taste then perhaps you want to do an encore and repeat that performance, or chocolate tasting session, with that particular chocolate bar.

This concludes your chocolate tasting lessons. But utilizing these lessons learned one time on one chocolate bar does not make you a chocolate connoisseur. You must keep tasting chocolate using the lessons learned here. Keep comparing chocolates. And keep refining your chocolate tasting abilities. Becoming a true chocolate connoisseur is a long-term task. Fortunately, it’s not a hardship for the chocolate lover. Enjoy!

In lesson 1 of how to taste chocolate you evaluated your chocolate bar in regard to texture, sheen and discoloration or blemishes.

In lesson 2 of how to taste chocolate you used your senses of sight, hearing and perhaps touch. You paid attention to the snap when breaking off a piece of the chocolate bar. In general, you were interested in whether the break was clean or crumbly. And you wanted to know if the snap was crisp and pronounced. That told you a bit about the quality of your chocolate. It also gave you an indication of the type of chocolate (if you didn’t already know that from the label).

Now it’s time to get your nose onto the scene, literally. Bring in your sense of smell.

Some experts recommend you first lightly rub the piece of chocolate. You might think this is an act of showing some kind of worship to the chocolate. But don’t chocolate lovers already worship chocolate? Actually the purpose of lightly rubbing the chocolate piece is to use your body temperature (from your finger) to help melt it slightly and thus release some of the odor from the chocolate. You’re preparing to sniff your chocolate!

Now close your eyes, bring the chocolate up toward your nose and inhale it. What scent do you detect from the aroma of your chocolate piece? Can’t tell? Don’t worry. Keep at it. Eventually, you’ll start to notice that the aroma varies for different pieces of chocolate. Don’t believe me? Geez…now you will have to make a trip to the store to buy some more and different types of chocolate bars just to validate what I’m telling you. Do what you must do, right?

Yes…I just gave you another reason to buy more chocolate. Call it a science experiment if you need something to tell your family about your sudden chocolate bar shopping spree.

Remember, you’re sniffing the chocolate not to tease yourself mercilessly (because it’s not time to bite into that chocolate yet) but to check for quality in your piece of chocolate. You want to smell a rich and flavorful chocolate odor. You want to detect quality and a smell that appeals to you. If you don’t smell any scent or if the scent of the chocolate is unpleasant such as a burnt smell or a smoky smell, then put down that chocolate. Move on to the next chocolate bar in your chocolate tasting session.

Additional reasons chocolate bars may smell different is based on their geographic origin (or actually that of the cacao beans or seeds) and the roasting process. As you become more observant of and expert at tasting chocolate, you may start to associate the aroma of your chocolate bars with this aspect too.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next lesson of how to taste chocolate like an expert. I promise you that you will soon be able to actually put that piece of chocolate in your mouth—if you haven’t already. If you have then your homework is to…

…buy more chocolate bars!