Chocolate tasting

“Despite years of thinking of myself as a chocolate connoisseur and doing my best to have a daily serving (or two!) of chocolate, I’d never gone to a chocolate tasting, where the intricacies of the flavor and the importance of the purity of the beans were explained in detail. [...] She detailed the proper way to eat a fine chocolate: First you hold it between your fingers until it leaves a bit of chocolate on your skin. Then, smell it (since so much of the joy of eating is the aroma) and then put it into your mouth, letting it melt on your tongue. Alyssa prodded us to guess the flavors we were detecting – one sample had undertones of sassafras and vanilla. Another, that I didn’t care for but my daughter loved, had a goat’s milk vibe. Another had hints of lavender, honey and vanilla.”

“What arrived was a box with nine different chocolates to taste, a grading sheet and a score sheet. We logged in to a Zoom meeting and were presented with a brief history of chocolate, different chocolatiers, the science behind tasting chocolate, and how to get the most out of our tasting experience. My husband and I enjoyed the presentation but the kids were keen to get to the tasting. As predicted, the kids preferred the milk chocolate selections while Jim and I enjoyed the many ‘notes’ offered in the richer, darker chocolate. We came away from the experience with a greater understand of chocolate, which types we like, and why Americans have no taste in chocolate.”