How To Taste Chocolate: Notes From The Test Kitchen
Do you ever feel like there’s chocolate overload? There are so many brands, types and flavors of chocolate to choose from. In my test kitchen at my shop, we were tasting some chocolates for these brown butter pecan chocolates that I wanted to make.
After this tasting it occurred to me that chocolate tasting is very similar to wine tasting. Each type of chocolate contains its own set of unique flavors.
The flavors change based on regions of where the cacao bean is grown.
Topography, weather, soil conditions, and post harvesting also affect the taste of the chocolate.
Just like wine. With so many flavors, one can see why it’s important to taste carefully so you can get the fullest flavor potentials.
Since I was mixing pecans with the chocolate I knew that pecans flavored well with fruit, specifically fruits that are in the red category, like raspberries, cherries or strawberries.
So chocolate with those aromas were important to me because I knew they would pair well with the pecans.