I like to stress my chocolate.
I’ll taste it on an empty stomach and after an espresso, early in the morning, and late in the evening, after a heavy meal, and right after a glass of wine.
Wait, doesn’t that go against every advice on how to taste?
Yup, and if you’re a colleague of mine, please resist the temptation to unfriend me.
Sure, in an ideal world, you’ll want to taste chocolate in a quiet, well-lit room, with no noise or strong smells. You’ll wait a couple of hours after a meal, then cleanse your palate between bites. This is fine for a chocolate industry professional, but for most people, this sounds like a chore.
When a client hires me for a private or virtual tasting, I have little control over the circumstances.
Some attendees will bring a mug of tea or coffee to the event.
Others will have finished a heavy meal.
One renegade will have finished the chocolate the day before the event and bring their notes to the tasting (true story).
In other words, people will do what they want hashtag #shocker.
When I realized that, I flipped the script on my tastings: I stopped expecting people to “do things right” and started adapting to their circumstances.
This is what that looks like:
When considering chocolate for my kits, I pick distinct bars with notes so different from each other than you could taste the difference even after finishing a bowl of curry.
Is the first bite dark and bold and fudgy? Great, then the second will be light and fruity.
Are we tasting a single-origin dark chocolate? Cool, then we’ll end with a milk chocolate.
When I choose chocolate for a client, I have one goal: to convey the amazingness of craft chocolate, no palate cleansing required.
