Raise the Bar: Chocolate Tasting

Variety_of_Seattle_Chocolate_Bars

Don a lampshade and prepare to be the life of the next chocolate-tasting party. The Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks team has some tips for you—none that we’ve actually tried ourselves, but Ghirardelli recommends them, and that’s good enough for us—to try later. If you happen to have a bunch of good-quality chocolate lying around, now’s your chance to really, really taste it for real.

According to “How to Taste Chocolate” on the Ghirardelli website, you’re supposed to decide on a “focus,” such as white chocolates or bittersweet chocolates. I can’t decide between napping on the sofa or napping on the other sofa, so focusing is not my strongpoint. However, we did stuff our stockings this past Christmas with all kinds of chocolate bars, so if “stocking stuffer chocolates we have NOT eaten yet” is a decent enough focus, we’re good!

Next, the experts at Ghirardelli suggest creating a pleasant atmosphere for a tasting, which was not hard for the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team. We regularly use soft lighting for dinner around the table + soft music and non-distracting smells (whatever that means). For a chocolate tasting, you’re also supposed to have crackers and water for cleansing the palate, but we failed on both accounts there. No crackers—and just copious amounts of wine. You’re also supposed to have writing instruments and paper—no such things are allowed at the dinner table. We prefer to happily forget our chocolate-tasting experiences, so that we can re-create them again and again and again.

Before eating, you’re supposed to notice the appearance of the chocolate. Assuming it’s not a mangled, melted mess with razor blades stuck in it, you should notice if it’s glossy, textured, grainy, etc. I think I sort of noticed that the chocolate I was tasting was glossy—but that’s it. It came in a fancy wrapper, boasting of a high percentage of cocoa—so that was enough to convince me I didn’t have to look at it too long—or wonder about razor blades.

Here’s an interesting quote about “smell,” which comes directly from the Ghirardelli website: “Hold the chocolate in cupped hands, like a brandy snifter.” WHO HOLDS CHOCOLATE IN CUPPED HANDS? IT WILL MELT. In any case, I can appreciate the energy of a “brandy-snifting” chocolate aficionado, but when I unwrapped my chocolate at the table, I smelled chocolate. Like really, really good chocolate—like they used to put in scratch and smell books when I was a child—and I’d walk around with a book up my nose, which adults mistook as a love for reading.

Snap to it! The next thing you’re supposed to do is snap the chocolate bar, which we did in order to divide up the pieces—and wow! Did that chocolate snap! It is a satisfying sound that means you have a more bittersweet piece of chocolate, which I like. I like this sound so much that if a tree branch outside my house, burdened by ice from a storm, breaks in the middle of the night, I wake up in a panic that can only be soothed by chocolate.

Here’s another important tip from the Ghirardelli experts: “Place the chocolate in your mouth, but resist the urge to chew and eat”—in order to appreciate the “mouthfeel.” Well, that was an epic fail on our part. We jumped into the chewing, eating, and fighting over the last few morsels and crumbs left.

Taste, according to the Ghirardelli website is supposed to be measured by answering the following questions: Does the taste develop quickly? Slowly? Is there a “long finish?” The Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team does not know the answers to any of these questions. We just ate—happily and heartily. We expressed our appreciation like a family of Frankensteins: “Mmm. Good. More. No more? AAAAHHHHHH!!!! Lampshade on head now!”

Your Turn: Have you ever done a chocolate tasting? Do you have a favorite chocolate?

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Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

33 thoughts on “Raise the Bar: Chocolate Tasting”

  2. I’ve never done a chocolate tasting. I mean, I taste the chocolate when I eat it, but like you, I just dive right in. No cupping or pens and paper. When it comes to chocolate, I love the good stuff but really, any chocolate in a storm will do. 😊

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  3. I was spending an insane amount of money on chocolate. I needed a piece two or three times a day, and usually several pieces. I started to notice that I was satisfied with one piece of chocolate with some brands and others left me unsatisfied no matter how much I ate. I bought one bar of each available at my favorite grocery store. If I couldn’t buy it there, I wouldn’t be going someplace special. Lindt and Dove ended up being the winners. Dove Dark was the one I could enjoy a single piece and be satisfied. Then I started cutting soy from my diet, and I’m down to Enjoy! chocolate.

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  5. Hi Cecilia,
    I’ve never done a chocolate tasting, but I think I can apply some of the tips you’ve shared to other foods I like. I’m imagining a steak tasting now 😉

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  9. Wow those Ghirardelli people have put a lot of thought (and pomposity) into this. But I have an aunt who eats one small square of dark chocolate a day, really stops and savors it and says that treat stops her thinking about sugary desserts all evening.

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  11. This is hilarious, both your telling and the rules themselves for making chocolate tasting just like wine tasting. Are there seriously freaks out there who would do all that? I suppose so. I much prefer your approach of see the chocolate, eat the chocolate. 🙂

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  15. I feel like this is a good guide just in time for the holidays. I think people need to take the time and fully appreciate the garbage chocolate they put out every year for Easter. That powdery, off colored, half melted chocolate that tempts us with whimsical shapes. Simply Delish.

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