How To Taste Chocolate

There is nothing wrong with just scarfing down some chocolate sometimes, but sometimes it’s nice to take a little more time and get a richer, deeper experience through really tasting the chocolate.

Tasting chocolate is more of a slow, mindful experience where you evaluate a piece of chocolate using each of your senses.

The benefit of tasting is that it will bring out more of the subtleties that you might have missed in the chocolate and give you a deeper appreciation for the differences between different chocolates.

Look

Put the chocolate against a well lit white paper/table cloth to look at its appearance.

Touch

Close your eyes! Press the chocolate to assess its finger-sensitivity. Rub between your fingers for the melting rate. Bend the chocolate to feel the resistance, and thus hardness.

Listen

With your eyes still closed, bring the chocolate close to your ear and snap it.

Smell

Rub the chocolate. Bring it to your nose and cup. Then sniff three times. In-between chocolates, smell your own body perfume to neutralize the nose.

Taste

Pinch your nose: bite and let melt, feel the tastes. Release your nose and take a deep breath: focus on the aromatic notes. In-between chocolates, drink water to neutralize your palate.