Who knew?

At our recent PLC conference, Dr. Ed Seguine, one of the world's leading chocolate tasters, taught our Chocolatiers how to really taste chocolate - much like one tastes wine. Since I didn't get to go (but benefited from the knowledge of some of my Chocolatier buddies who did attend), I decided to do my own chocolate-tasting comparisons. It involves acquiring several different varieties of chocolates and tasting each one very carefully and mindfully, which is, of course, just plain fun. I highly recommend this to all chocolate lovers - not only did I truly enjoy it, I learned a few things and discovered what I like and do not like.

According to Dr. Seguine (and a couple of other sources I consulted), one makes note of these things about chocolate:

• Aroma
• Bite/snap - the texture when you bite it or break it
• Mouthfeel - how it feels when it's dissolving in your mouth
• Taste/flavor
• Finale - what lingers after the chocolate has left your mouth?

One recent afternoon, armed with water and pretzels to cleanse our palates, my husband and I set out to taste five different dark chocolates (mind you, he doesn't care for dark chocolates, so he could easily pay attention to the tasting without just getting caught up in the "I'm eating dark chocolate!" giddiness to which I fall prey occasionally), and our findings are below. We forgot to note appearance, but we did make notes of the other characteristics:

Dove Chef-Series Dark Chocolate:

• Aroma: noticeable, pleasant, sweet, chocolate
• Bite/snap: firm, crisp, solid; not brittle
• Mouthfeel: smooth, creamy, silky
• Taste: intense chocolate, balanced sweetness, not bitter
• Finale: sweet, clean, lingering flavor with no bitterness

Ritter Sport 50% Cocoa Dark

• Aroma: very faint, almost floral
• Bite/snap: hard, not chalky
• Mouthfeel: powdery, smooth, a little chalky
• Taste: fruity, floral, not intensely chocolate
• Finale: left a dry feeling behind

Ghirardelli  Evening Dream (60% cocoa)

• Aroma: cocoa-y (not really a word, but the best I could come up with)
• Bite/snap: crumbly
• Mouthfeel: smooth, but not creamy - more liquid
• Taste: sharp, bitter, almost burned
• Finale: dry, acrid, very unpleasant

Hershey's Special Dark

• Aroma: sweet, not very chocolate, faintly floral
• Bite/snap: soft, not crumbly, a little waxy
• Mouthfeel: chalky, powdery, gritty
• Taste: floral, mild, bland
• Finale: not much aftertaste; passive

Lindt 50% Cocoa Dark

• Aroma: no remarkable aroma (or maybe our noses were worn out by then!)
• Bite/snap: soft, but slightly brittle
• Mouthfeel: smooth, slightly waxy
• Taste: sweet, intense, but with a sort of strange, sharp, unidentifiable flavor
• Finale: slightly sweet; not bitter

I never had any idea that dark chocolates could taste so vastly different! I guess I hadn't much paid attention before, or had never tried them side by side. I can't tell you how many bars of Ghirardelli Evening Dream (and darker) I've consumed in my life, but I probably won't touch the stuff ever again. I was totally surprised that it was my least favorite, and I've rarely seen my husband make such a face as he did while it melted in his mouth.

Not surprisingly, the hands-down favorite: Dove Chef-Series. I might be biased, but I like to think I can employ a certain amount of objectivity. I actually hoped I'd discover another dark chocolate I like as much (for emergency purposes), but even the second favorite, Lindt, didn't come close enough for either of us to want to eat it. 

Next adventure: milk chocolate! I can't wait to see what we discover about that.