Our Guide to Tasting Chocolate
Appearance:
Take a look at the chocolate you are about to taste. Is the surface glossy and smooth, or pitted and discoloured? Good quality chocolate that has been correctly stored (14 - 18°C) will have a smooth glossy surface with a consistent uniform colour.
Snap:
The noise the chocolate bar makes when being broken is a good sign of the quality of the chocolate and how well it has been made. A good quality, high cocoa content, solid chocolate bar should break with a loud clean snap.
Aroma:
Taste is 90% smell! Before you taste the chocolate bar make sure you smell it. The aroma of the chocolate is a little hint of the flavours you can expect once you taste it. Cheap, poor quality chocolate is easily identifiable by the overpowering aromas of sugar and vanilla. Good quality chocolate offers us a huge array of complex aromas from sweet and floral to smokey and earthy.
Flavours:
Now it is time to eat! Place a piece of the chocolate on your tongue and as you chew move it all around your mouth. As the chocolate warms and softens in you mouth it will release more flavours. Try and identify some of the individual flavours you can taste. The four basic tastes are sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Beyond these you should start to taste the aromatic flavours of that particular chocolate. Is it fruity, nutty, earthy or smoky? Good quality chocolate should offer a good depth of flavours which compliment each other without being overpowering.
Aftertaste:
What flavours remain in the mouth up to a minute after. Good quality chocolate leaves a satisfying lingering aftertaste. If you are scoring the chocolate out of 10 now is the time to do it while the flavours are still fresh on your palette.
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