Tasting Fine Chocolate - Flavor Notes You Need To Look For

This week we share some tips on what quality flavor notes to look for when tasting chocolate. It's easiest to start by looking for off flavors-the bad ones, the ones you don't want-as they are easier to recognize than good flavors.  

We talked about those last week in this post. Now we move on to some of the good ones. 

Floral or Fruit Flavors: hints of jasmin, citrus, blackberry, raspberry may be present.

Chocolate: Deep chocolatey flavor that can be bitter, mild, harsh or well-rounded, with hints of molasses, dark honey, or raisin are common variations.

Aromas: While not exactly a flavor, aromas make up a high percentage of our perception of flavor. These can include floral, fruity, pungent, tobacco-like, coffee, spicy, herbaceous, dairy, roasted nuts, earthy.

Other flavors: There are hundreds of flavor components in chocolate, and some you might detect include berry, citrus, plum, tart, sour cherry, winey; earthy-cut grass, herbaceous, woodsy; dairy - fresh milk, sweet cream, caramelized, cooked milk.

No need to find all or any of these in your chocolate, but these are some suggestions to go by.

We’re not wine snobs, and we’re not chocolate snobs either. Just trying to understand some basic facts about chocolate tasting.

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