The Art of Tasting Chocolate

Cultivating Fine Taste with Valrhona

I had the good fortune to be invited to the ‘Cultivation of Taste Seminar’ hosted by VALRHONA CHOCOLATE. San Francisco and New York were the two U.S. cities they chose to launch their single origin chocolate range. Pierre Costet, Chief Cacao Sourcer and Vanessa Lemoine, Sensorial Analysis Expert, conducted a three hour presentation to show how the work in the field and the work in the lab partner to "produce chocolate with distinctive and specific aromas".

I was in heaven. How exciting to learn from professionals who are at the top of their game. It doesn’t get any better than this in the chocolate world. Valrhona has always done a fine job of developing relationships with professionals. When I was in cooking school 15 years ago, Valrhona Pastry Chef Frederic Bau gave a demonstration of Easter Themed desserts. They were the only chocolate company that sent their pastry chef to talk to us about how to use their product. From that day forward Valrhona became my benchmark for fine chocolate.

Could there be a highlight on such a great afternoon? Absolutely! I tasted a raw cacao bean and cacao pulp for the first time. The pulp had a slightly sweet flavor and mucous texture that reminded me of a cross between a lichee nut and a loquat. The raw bean itself is very bitter. Thanks to Amy, here is a shot of me holding my first cacao bean which was sectioned off from the inside of this cacao pod.

While the entire program was fascinating, my heart was in the actual tasting and in getting more information about the physiology of taste. We tasted a series of liquids and had to guess what they were. We are all familiar with the basic flavors of acidic, bitter, sweet, salty and the most recently discovered fifth taste, Umami. The exciting tasting news here was when Vanessa suggested that there may be a sixth flavor: licorice. Research continues.

My tasting notes:

First look at the COLOR of the chocolate.

Breath in the ODOR through your nose (which she differentiated from AROMA which is produced in your mouth).

Test snap between your fingers.

Put the square in your mouth and assess the texture.

Allow the chocolate to melt and the flavors will be revealed.

Acidity makes you salivate.

Bitterness comes through and the sensation of bitterness persists at the back of the tongue.

Rub the chocolate between the tongue and palate causing a friction which helps to release the flavors.

Head AROMAS are light, floral, fruity and fleeting.

Body AROMAS are in the middle - warm, roasted, soft bread, and have a long or short finish.

Heavy AROMAS can be detected by breathing out as though you are crushing your chest. Here you can detect notes of roasted nut and camphor.

FLAVORS

Acid contributes to the crescendo of flavor you are tasting.

Flavor develops at the back of the tongue.

Flavor and aroma is affected by conching.

Conching is to chocolate what aging is to wine. Valrhona conches up 72 hours.

65% to 70% cacao content is the best range for intensity of flavor. Valrhona does not blend with a percent goal in mind but rather with the purpose of great flavor which just happens to fall within this range.

And how do you become a Sensory Analyst?

Vanessa received her sensory evaluation and formulation training at ENSBANA in Dijon, France.

ABOUT TASTING

There is tasting and then there is TASTING.

Small cap chocolate tasting is the tasting that I do throughout the day of the chocolates I know and love. The bon bons, the handful of chocolate chips mid-morning, the cup of hot chocolate in the afternoon. You get the idea.

Large cap TASTING is the tasting that I do when I am approaching a new chocolate that I am not familiar with. Or the tasting that I get to do with my winemaker friend, DB, who possesses the most prosaic palate I know. To taste with him is to spend an evening with a storyteller. I pull out my entire chocolate stash, good and bad, when he is in town. He will try a chocolate and might agree with me that it tastes cheap and burnt. Then he will stop, close his eyes, and say, ‘Burnt nuts. Yes, burnt nuts that have been ground into the rubber gaskets in the machinery and have gone rancid. Burnt cashews. Bits of burnt cashew in a roasting machine that has not been cleaned properly for at least six months.’ Or he will take a small bite of chocolate and say ‘Soy, why soy?’ and then I get to tell him all about emulsifiers and soy lecithin in particular and on we go for an entire evening. Lucky us.

I bring up this point now about tasting because I have spent a lot of time evaluating new chocolate products in the past few months as well as being a judge for the International Chocolate Salon this past July. It is always a pleasure to taste something new. And it is always an honor to spend the time getting to know and trying to understand what the chocolatier and/or the confectioner had in mind as they created their product.

What I am finding as I taste my way through dozens of chocolates is that I have yet to taste something produced by an artisan (vs large manufacturer) that is truly vile. I may find the chocolate/confection ill-conceived or dull or boring. But I don’t usually run from the room looking for a spit bucket. Unfortunately, there are many chocolates from the large, corporate chocolate makers that must be spit out immediately. I am sorry for this. They suffer from too large a scale of production. There is a lack of quality control. Profit is not only the bottom line but also the driving force. Okay, so what else is new? But what I am most offended by is the way in which their marketing and advertising departments have hijacked the vernacular of the artisan. How dare they? The words and phrases like ‘single estate’ and ‘single variety’ are becoming meaningless in the world of chocolate because their meaning is being diluted. These words are being slapped on fancy new envelope-style packages of chocolate bars. Silk purses made out of sow’s ears? Mutton dressed as lamb? Worse. These folks are suffering from delusions of grandeur. They are responsible for mistreating cacao beans. The beans are not allowed to ferment long enough to develop flavor, are dried too quickly and roasted too dark in an effort to mask the off-flavors. And then they try to call it something that it is not: fine chocolate.

I deem it an honor to be asked to taste and evaluate. And an honor to bear witness to someone’s creative endeavor. I try to only call out what I think is fine. I only include the finest in my tastings because my students deserve to know how high the bar can go. And to learn to never settle for less. Chocolate is a divine indulgence. We don’t need it for our bodies to survive but I will argue that we need it for our souls.

Farewell, Mr. Peet

ALFRED PEET, founder of Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc., died Wednesday at his home in Ashland, Oregon. What does this have to do with chocolate? Mr. Peet was an artisan who coaxed the finest out of carefully selected coffee beans. His talent for roasting beans just right and educating his customers on the proper brewing method speaks to anyone who cares about a fine ingredient and is willing to take the time to coax the best out of it. He was one of our first truly American Food Artisans. His store on Vine Street in North Berkeley was ground zero for the food revolution that exploded in the 1970's just a block away at Chez Panisse, Pig by the Tail (charcuterie), Cocolat and The Cheeseboard. Before Peet’s came along, the only good cup of coffee to be had in the Bay Area was at Café Trieste in San Francisco’s North Beach. His product raised the bar and created a demand for good coffee. It was this sensibility for seeking the best cup of coffee that created an audience who began to seek out the best in other foods. If we could have such a great cup of coffee, why not a nibble of a (then) exotic goat cheese or bite of a dark chocolate truffle?

Peet’s has been with me since I was a 17 year old freshman at CAL, through my years in Southern California (thank you, mail order) and back home to San Francisco. It is the only coffee I have ground in my Braun coffee grinder and the only coffee I have brewed in my French press and Chemex. My husband would say that it is also the only coffee that has been spilled on the seats in our car. He is not a coffee drinker.

My favorite blends are Major Dickason’s when I am into a high octane buzz and Decaf Special Blend when I am on the wagon. Both satisfy a morning urge for chocolate as each blend has underlying notes of dark chocolate. I purchase only beans, a half-pound at a time, so that I always have the freshest coffee for my first cup in the morning. My second cup of the day is purchased at one of the three Peet’s stores that I pass on my morning walk. Chestnut Street, Polk Street, Whole Foods California Street. Usually a cup of whatever the drip is for the day or, if they are making espresso drinks with Espresso Forte, a wet cappucino.

We mourn his passing and honor his memory by continuing to seek out only the best. Thank you, Mr. Peet, for enriching our lives every day.