Thursday, March 21, 2002


whoa -- big publishing glitch! in upgrading my software, i seemed to have made a shocking error. . .

that resulted in the loss of my march 20 entry containing seattle theobroma addict alex rast's in-depth discussion of how to taste chocolate. again, i don't agree with him 100%, but we must think of the future here! the archives! our duty to history! the repost:

I can't think of a time when I didn't love chocolate -- the only food I like better is beef -- this has been true since I was an infant. Nonetheless there are some moments that accelerated my addiction, as it were. The first was tasting a Ghirardelli milk chocolate bar. Not that I hadn't already tasted a great many quality chocolates before then: as a kid I was lucky enough to have cultured parents who introduced me to high-class chocolate. But they'd all been dark. Ghirardelli is one of the world's great milk chocolates and tasting it for the first time I realized it was possible to make a good milk chocolate. From that moment on I never doubted that any level of quality was possible in any chocolate.

The next is interesting, because I didn't really integrate how important it was for years later. IMO the best chocolate in the world is Guittard Bittersweet. Time after time, I'd try other first-rate chocolates only to find them a notch worse. At some point, I can't remember when, I went "Gee, if it seems revelatory to me now every time I eat it, what must my first reaction have been?" This unleashed a flood of memories. The first time, I'd been preparing to make (also for the first time), my Ultimate chocolate cake: Chocolate Death. I'd gone out and bought what I thought looked to be the best possible bittersweet chocolate for baking. Of course, before baking, I had to try a piece. In that instant I understood why it would never be possible for even the best milk chocolate, or the best semisweet chocolate, to be the best chocolate in the world. If tasting Ghirardelli milk for the first time had been a religious experience, tasting Guittard bittersweet was like ascending into the presence of God.

A perfectionist, however, is never satisfied, and I was always a little disappointed with the not-completely-smooth texture of Guittard and the not-quite-chocolatey-enough of Ghirardelli. I then got obsessed with making my own. Eventually my hard-fought experimentation met with success, and I succeeded in producing the best chocolate I've ever tried in my life, with the taste of Guittard and a texture, if you can imagine this, even smoother than Dove. I also found out why making chocolate at home is not a good idea! For those not in the know, it's a long, involved, elaborate process and you have to be fanatical in order to achieve good results.

So I got really serious about tasting. Now I don't merely taste new chocolates as they come my way, so to speak, but make a point of seeking out and trying new brands, even bad ones. It's been interesting because I've been able to develop quite a science out of judging and evaluating chocolate. How do you judge chocolate? First thing is to leave brand preconceptions at the door. If you approach a testing biased by brand in any way, you're not going to be fair. Before you've tried it, there is nothing that makes a Valrhona chocolate bar necessarily better than a Hershey's, for example. Be sure also that you try enough of a sample to make a fair taste-test. 50 g is optimum. 30 g is really the minimum to make a fair assessment, otherwise you won't experience the complete fullness of the taste or how it lingers.

Appearance is an indicator of quality, but not really a major one. Certainly it should not look cloudy, filmed with white or tan -- this means it has bloomed and will either be musty-tasting or very, very dry. A dark, pure brown tone is good but if it starts to approach black it's probably either Dutched or overroasted.

Next, set it down and smell it. Really bury your nose in it and inhale deeply, breathing down on the chocolate each time to heat it slightly. Do this for a good minute or so. Experience all the aroma components. A chocolatey aroma is the best, but you really have to confirm that it's purely chocolatey. Next best is an aroma of tropical fruit, almost like tropical punch.Tobacco aromas are also good, as well as certain fruits like blueberries. Among the less desirable aroma components would be coffee, citrus, or vanilla. Vanilla is particularly deceptive because the aroma itself is very pleasant, but it's an almost surefire sign that the chocolate flavor itself will be very weak.

Now it's time to taste. The first bite is critical. Bite off a big hunk. Don't be timid or delicate -- you need to get as much chocolate as possible in your mouth at once so you can get the most of the first flavor. It's typical for fruity notes, if there are any, to be strongest at this time. This first taste will be the most complex and you must really focus to try to capture as many flavor sensations as you can. Again, if the flavor is purely chocolatey, this is ideal. In a circle around the sun of chocolatiness are flavor components of coconut, tropical fruit, grapes, and flowers, all of which indicate a first-rate chocolate. Strong flavors of cherry, coffee, walnut, or blackberry are imbalanced and among the less ideal flavors.

Now, take 2 or 3 less gigantic bites, savoring them carefully. The objective here is to understand the overall flavor impression while eating. You don't have to focus so intensely on capturing all the flavor components. Ask yourself broad questions -- how sweet is it? (too sweet is sickly but not sweet enough usually tastes flat) How bitter is it? (The less, the better. Know now that even the darkest bittersweet doesn't have to have even a trace of bitterness) Is the chocolate flavor strong or weak? (an intense chocolate flavor is what you're looking for.)

For the next couple of bites, focus on texture. The ideal chocolate melts in the mouth with creamy uniformity. It coats every surface of the mouth without being pasty like peanut butter or filmy like olive oil. There should not be even a trace of grittiness or dustiness. And it should not be dry or waxy. For a nice reference for ideal texture, simply walk down to your local supermarket and buy a Dove dark chocolate bar.

Finally, finish off the rest quickly with large bites. By this point in a 50g bar, you'll have experienced all of the primary taste you're going to; now you want to experience how the taste lingers. A chocolate that in the last few bites starts to taste harsh, tedious, or overly sweet has problems. A chocolate that you regret getting to the end of is OTOH the way it should be. Then savor how long the chocolate taste lingers in your mouth afterwards. A good chocolate has very long aftertaste -- a sample of Guittard Bittersweet for me once lingered for hours!

Remember that in the final analysis, it's your subjective experience that matters, not what objective qualities you or anyone else may choose to assign to a given chocolate. A good chocolate is one that tastes good to you. If you don't like it, it's no good. If you have a satisfying experience, it's a quality chocolate.

posted by fortune | 7:15 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments