an article on dark chocolate in hindustan times

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/default.aspx

viste this web site to view this aticle dated 28 th june 2009 page no 14 mumbai edition

Learn / How To Taste And Appreciate Chocolate

Tasting chocolate for pleasure is a journey of discovery, a most enjoyable way to explore your own palate and preferences. No two people taste flavors or even experience textures in the same way; you will be amazed at the different responses you will find among a group of tasters.

· Serious or prof

ess

ional tasters usually taste one type of chocolate

at a time, for example, milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, or white

chocolate, ideally tasting no more than six samples at one sitting.

Pleasure tasters set their own rules, tasting chocolates from a single manufacturer, or from several, tasting across several types of chocolate or only from one type at a time.

· Professionals sit in a quiet, odor free room, perhaps with slightly dimmed lights!

Pleasure tasters are much more informal.

· Prof

essionals typically do not talk while tasting, though they may compare notes afterwards.

Pleasure tasters can agree to chat or not. Whether or not sharing of opinions is allowed

during the tasting, sharing afterwards is definitely part of the fun.

Getting Started/Setting Up

You will need:

Chocolate samples cut or broken into very tiny pieces or shards (because tasters often taste and re-taste). Plan for providing about 1/3 to ½ oz. of each chocolate sample per

taster.

TASTEING PLACEMATES Ours features an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to the protocol of tasting like a pro, and provides space for tasters to write their personal tasting not

es.

· Water (slightly warm), and unsalted, u

nflavored crackers or matzo for each taster to cleanse the palate between tastes

Tasting Chocolate? What To Notice

In the past when you’ve eaten a piece of chocolate you’ve probably thought to yourself either “that’s pretty good,” or “I don’t especially like it.” Chocolate tasting is all about paying attention to the special nuances of different chocolates in ways you probably haven’t considered before.

Don’t worry. There’s no “right, or wrong” taste. The best chocolate is the one you like. In fact, no two people perceive arom

a or taste flavors exactly the same way. Even the perception of texture —whether something is smooth and creamy or slightly gritty -- differs from one palate to another. Your individual chocolate palate also evolves and sharpens over time with experience. Each taster should look for, notice, and describe what pleases them personally in the chocolates they taste, and what displeases them, as well.

To taste and appreciate chocolate, engage all of your senses.

Look!

APPEARANCE. We eat with our eyes. Appearance is part of the initial pleasure and attraction of chocolate, but not itself a measure of quality. The color of chocolate varies. It may be ivory, golden, shades of copper brown, deep reddish, or charcoal brown depending on the type of chocolate, the percentage of cacao in the

chocolate, the presence and quantity of milk or cream, and the source of the beans from which the chocolate was made.

An attractive gloss on the surface of chocolate with a tight, fine grain and even-colored showing at cut or broken edges indicates that the chocolate was well-tempered, and properly cooled and stored. Scuffed or scraped samples are not necessarily of poor quality, but they are less pleasing to the eye.

Smell!

AROMA. As with wine, some of the first clues to flavor are in the nose. Before even tasting, rub the piece of chocolate with your thumb to warm and release its aroma. Hold the chocolate to your nose in cupped hands, like a brandy snifter, to capture and hold the aroma close. Sniff or draw slow breaths. At first chocolate may simply smell “chocolaty.” But as you compare one piece with another you will notice general differences in richness, intensity, sweetness and earthiness. You’ll pick up on lower notes and higher notes. The aroma of some chocolates is faint, while that of others is intense. You may then detect even more specific differences.

Milk chocolates often give off aromas of milk or cream, or caramel or malt. Dark chocolate aromas may be characterized by toasted nuts, roasted coffee, dried fruit or wine. Some chocolates have floral or fruity qualities; others smell more roasted or nutty. As with flavor, each chocolate brand has a signature aroma. This comes from the blend or selection of beans and their quality, as well as the manufacturer’sroasting and conching methods. There is no end to the specific notesthat you can pick up with practice and no limit to the words that you may use to describe them.

Seriously accomplished tasters are adept at drawing from their own experience and memory, choosing words accordingly to describe what they smell and taste. Practice!

Similarly, learn to detect any unpleasant aromas as well. These might be described as harsh, paper, burnt, waxy, moldy or musty, etc.

Snap It!

TEXTURE is enormously important to the chocolate experience. A smooth and creamy melt-in-your-mouth texture is so seductive, that many people are more influenced by texture than by flavor.

Begin by listening for the snap! It’s the first clue to texture. Snap is the feel and sound of a piece of chocolate when you first break it or bite into it. Snap is easier to appreciate in a thin bar than a thick chunk of chocolate. Snap is a function of theamount and quality of the cocoa butter in the chocolate, how finely ground the chocolate particles are, and how well the chocolate was tempered.

White and milk chocolate bars have a gentler snap than dark or semi-sweet chocolate because their milk and butter fat content make them naturally softer.

Feel and Savor The Melt!

MOUTHFEEL is another word for texture. After looking, smelling, and snapping, place the chocolate in your mouth. But, resist the urge to chew and eat. Instead, hold the chocolate against the roof of your mouth and pass your tongue over the bottom of it, noticing first how it melts and then how it feels. Does it melt readily and feel smooth and creamy, or greasy and slimy? Maybe it resists melting and seems hard or waxy? Does it feel grainy or gritty, powdery, harsh, or drying?

No two palates have the same perception of these textures...it is even possible for the same piece of chocolate to seem smooth and silky to one taster and dry and powdery to the next!

If the piece of chocolate has melted completely, take another piece so that you can now notice how the chocolate feels to chew. Is it gummy, sticky, cake-like, fudgy, fast-dissolving, etc.?

Now Taste!

FLAVOR is the ultimate criterion for quality in chocolate. Because texture is so distracting some tasters focus on flavor first, before considering texture. Either way, flavor begins to fill your mouth from the moment the chocolate begins to melt on your tongue.

At first there is so much pleasure in tasting the chocolate, it may be difficult to focus on the specifics of flavor. As with aroma, your first perception may be simply described as “chocolaty” or even just “yummy”! As you begin to focus, notice several things:

· Ddoes the flavor come on quickly or slowly?

Does the flavor build and peak or remain constant?

Does the flavor change character from the beginning to the middle to the end?

How long does the flavor last in your mouth? Professional chocolate tasters often look for a “long finish.” This is simply flavor that lasts a long time in your mouth.

Describing flavor is the most fun and most challenging aspect of chocolate tasting. Everyone gets better with practice.

Helpful Tips

· Relate the flavors that you taste in chocolate to flavors, smells and experiences familiar to you, no matter how corny or off beat they may be, and whether they are pleasant or unpleasant.Don’t forget food memories. Chocolate flavor has been compared to strange things like “buttered toast,” “egg custard,” dirty leaves...You may describe the sweetness in terms of sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey, caramel or some other sweet food memory.

· Consider tartness, acidity, and bitterness as well. If these are detected, are they pleasing or displeasing to you? Do you taste vanilla? Does the chocolate taste nutty? What kind of nuts, and are they toasted nuts or raw? Do you taste fruit, and is it dried fruit or fresh fruit, citrus or other? Do you taste coffee?

· Connoisseurs appreciate complexity in chocolate, rather than a single constant flavor. But even connoisseurs disagree about what they taste and what they like.

· Professional tasters also appreciate balance and the overall intensity of the chocolate flavor.Deciding which chocolates taste "in perfect harmony or balance" or which "strike the perfect intensity" is up to the individual and is completely personal, and often develops with chocolate tasting experience.

· Practice! Beginners may not taste or be able to describe as many flavors as seasoned tasters, but continued practice is both pleasurable and rewarding.

Chocabulary from A to Z

Alkalized or Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder that has been chemically treated (usually with potassium carbonate) to reduce acidity. See Cocoa Powder.

Aroma: The variety of scents given off by individual chocolate. Hold different kinds of chocolates to the nose and you’ll quickly see that each has an individual and distinctive aroma.

Bloom: Dullness, streaks, graying, or whitish discoloration on the surface of chocolate caused by poor tempering, temperature fluctuations and/or moisture in storage. Bloom is unattractive but not harmful.

Cacao: The defining ingredient in all chocolate and chocolate products. The term “cacao” refers to the tree and its fruit and the seeds (otherwise known as cocoa beans) inside the fruit, which are processed to make chocolate.

Varieties of Cacao

• Forastero: The hardiest and most productive of the three or four cacao varieties, Forastero is believed to have originated in the Amazon basin. Today it is grown around the globe and accounts for over 90% percent of the world’s cacao. Chocolate manufacturers value Forasteros for basic robust chocolate flavor.
• Criollo: Considered the rarest and most prized of the three or four recognized varieties of cacao, Criollo is native to either northern South America and or Mesoamaerica. Prized for their fragrance and delicate and complex flavor, criollos are “flavor beans” which account for less than 1% of the world’s cacao.
• Trinitario: One of three or four recognized varieties of cacao, Trinitario is a hybrid of the flavorful Criollo and hardy Forastero. Along with Criollos, Trinitarios are considered “flavor beans” and they account for less than 5% of the world cacao crop.
• Nacional or Arriba: The proposed fourth variety of cacao from Ecuador, otherwise considered a finer strain of Forastero.
• Theobroma Cacao: The botanical name for the tree, fruit, and seeds from which chocolate is made.

Cacao Beans/Cocoa Beans: Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which are the seeds of the fruit of the cacao tree.

Chocolate Liquor: Also known as unsweetened chocolate which is often used in baking, chocolate liquor is pure ground-up cacao nibs (see cocoa nibs). There is no alcohol in chocolate liquor however!.

Chocolate Truffle: A rich confection made from chocolate and cream (ganache), although it may contain butter, eggs, and other flavorings. Truffles may be dipped in chocolate and or rolled in cocoa powder. Although American-style chocolate truffles are larger and may be decorated, the original European chocolate truffle is bite-sized with a rough cocoa-y exterior.

Cocoa: The term cocoa is used in different ways. When it appears on a chocolate label with a percentage, it denotes the total cocoa bean (cacao) content of the chocolate and the term is sometimes used interchangeably with chocolate liquor, cacao, cocoa beans or cocoa solids. Not to be confused with Cocoa Powder.

Cocoa Powder: Used as an ingredient in baking, or the base for a hot beverage. Cocoa powder is chocolate liquor, which has been pressed to remove most of its fat, and then pulverized to a powder. High fat cocoa powders typically contain 22%-24% cacao fat; low-fat cocoa powders typically contain 10% or less cacao fat. Natural Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder that has not been “Dutch” processed or treated with chemical alkalis.

Cocoa Butter: The unique ivory colored fat that constitutes 50 to 54% of roasted cocoa beans. Cocoa butter has little flavor of its own, but it adds considerable richness and depth to the flavor of chocolate. Cocoa butter makes chocolate fluid when melted and crisp when hardened. Chocolate melts readily and luxuriously on the tongue because cocoa butter melts at body temperature. Cocoa butter contributes to the creamy smooth texture and the long finish that characterizes fine chocolate.

Cocoa Nibs: Pieces of hulled, roasted cocoa beans. Nibs are composed of fat called cocoa butter (50%-54%) and non-fat dry solids fat (46%-50%).

Cocoa Mass or Cocoa Masse: An alternate term for the total cocoa bean, cacao, chocolate liquor, or cocoa content of chocolate.

Conching: Conching is the prolonged heating, mixing and scraping or grinding process done during the last stages of chocolate manufacture. Conching produces both a smooth texture by reducing the size of the particles and mixing them, and a smooth flavor by driving off unwanted harsh flavors and aromas.

Couverture: Chocolate with a minimum of 32% cocoa butter. Most couverture these days contains even more than 32% cocoa butter!

Dry or Non-Fat Cocoa Solids: The non-fat portion of the cocoa bean.

Dutch Process Cocoa: cocoa that has been processed with alkali to reduce acidity (and darken color).

Ganache: A mixture of chocolate and cream used as the filling for chocolate truffles, but also for sauces, glazes and cake fillings.

Gloss: The satiny sheen or mirror-like shine on the surface of a perfectly tempered piece of chocolate.

Lecithin: A natural emulsifier added to chocolate to promote fluidity when the chocolate is melted. The lecithin used in chocolate manufacture is derived from soy.

Mouthfeel: The texture of a substance in your mouth; how the chocolate feels as it melts on your palate.

Notes: The variety of distinctive flavors or hints of flavor that one can pick up when tasting and appreciating an individual piece of chocolate. Chocolate, like fine wine, has a flavor profile that’s very individual. It’s common to pick up hints of smoke, coffee, cherry, vanilla, nuts or citrus in chocolate. Further, no two people will necessarily pick up the exact same notes in chocolate, depending on their experience savoring chocolate.

Percentage: The percentage label on chocolate bars indicates the total amount of the bar, by weight, comprised of cocoa beans (including added cocoa butter or dry cocoa solids). Dark chocolate generally features a higher percentage of cacao than milk chocolate. While a high cacao percentage (60% or more) is a sign of quality in dark chocolate, 90% cacao content in a bar is not necessarily “better.” This is because as the cacao percentage is increased, chocolate becomes more and more bitter in flavor to the point that it becomes unpalatable.

Snap: The sound and the feel of chocolate as it breaks or is bitten. A sharp, crisp snap indicates fine particle size, high quality cocoa butter, and good tempering. Dark chocolate generally has more “snap” than softer milk chocolate.

Tempering: The process of controlled heating, cooling and stirring that creates a stable structure of the cocoa butter (fat) crystals in chocolate. Tempering causes chocolate to harden uniformly with an even color, brittle texture (snap) and glossy surface.

White Confectionery Coating: Although apparently similar to white chocolate, white confectionery coating contains no part of the cocoa bean. It is made with sugar, milk and milk fat, vanilla, lecithin, and vegetable fats.

How much do you know about chocolate?

Expand Your “Chocabulary” Expand Yo u r “ C h o c a b u l a r y ”

How much do you know about chocolate?

The Primary Types of Chocolate

Bittersweet or Semi Sweet (Dark) Chocolate: Sweetened chocolate with a minimum cocoa bean or chocolate

liquor content of 35% by weight, and which may contain up to 12% milk solids. Dark chocolate is the latest

rage, often preferred by adults with equally sophisticated food palates. The current trend favors bittersweet and

semi sweet chocolates with far more than the minimum required chocolate liquor content, and with little or no

milk content, resulting in more intense chocolate flavor and complexity, and less sweetness.

Milk Chocolate: Sweet chocolate that contains a minimum of 10% by weight of chocolate liquor, at least

3.39% milk fat, and a minimum of 12% milk solids (inclusive of milk fat). The current trend favors milk chocolates

with more than the minimum of chocolate liquor, producing more chocolate flavor and less sweetness.

White Chocolate: A sweet ivory-colored confection that contains by weight at least 20% cocoa butter, at least

14% milk solids, and at least 3.5% milk fat, and no more than 55% sweeteners.

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