Taste

Appears in
Chocolate: The Food of the Gods
Chocolate

By Chantal Coady

Published 1993

  • About

Although we do not spit out the chocolate, as the wine buffs do, neither do we eat it. A small piece of the chocolate should be placed on the tongue and allowed to melt of its own accord. I suggest that three or four bars are tried side by side, with a glass of water to sip between samples.

Professional chocolate tasters often use a vocabulary that is borrowed from wine tasters. ‘Notes’, or characteristics, are looked for, and expressed in comparisons with, for example, flower blossoms, citrus and red berry fruits, newly mown hay and green tea. With a little practice we all develop a method of tasting that works for us, and learn to recognize the different characteristics of the chocolates we taste. One thing that all fine chocolate has in common, like great wines, is a very long ‘finish’.