How to Taste Chocolate

To become an expert in chocolate tasting, all that is required is a love of chocolate, a palate which has not been dulled by too much sugar, and the ability to compare and contrast. There is an obvious comparison with wine. Most of us have graduated from the unsophisticated phase, where sugar and fizz are all-important, to the point where we are able to appreciate good wine, even if we find it hard to describe. At wine tastings, each glass of wine is examined for colour and density and turned in circular movements, to allow the bouquet to rise up and stimulate the olfactory senses, before the liquid is run over the taste buds. With chocolate it is a little different, because we are dealing with a solid material. However, as with wine, there is more to chocolate tasting than just taste. Indeed, with chocolate all five senses come into play: