Chocolate Tasting Guide

Here is a tasting guide to help you recognize and identify the many tastes, textures and forms you’ll find when eating Belgian chocolate. The first part addresses tasting chocolate with the five senses. The second part lists the categories and characteristics used in the making and designing of chocolates. And the third part identifies the many flavors and aromas found in Belgian chocolates.

Tasting with the Five Senses

LOOK Look at the chocolate.  Identify the type of chocolate by its color.  Notice its coating and decorations.  Observe its sheen.   A well-tempered chocolate should be bright and shiny. FEEL What does the chocolate feel like: smooth or rough? soft or hard? dry or oily? LISTEN Good chocolate should make a sharp snapping sound when broken. SMELL Smell the chocolate.  Soak up its aroma.  Since taste is 90% smell, you begin the tasting experience with your first whiff of the chocolate.  A fine chocolate should have a rich and deep aroma.  Cheap chocolate will smell of sugar and vanilla. TASTE Begin by biting off a piece of the chocolate.  What do you taste first?  Take a second bite and identify the flavors as they progress.  What is the texture associated with the flavors?

Categories and Characteristics of Belgian Chocolate

Belgian Chocolate Flavor & Aroma Chart
Use this chart to articulate the flavors and aromas found in Belgian chocolates. The categories progress from left to right going from general to specific. For example, if you taste something fruity in the chocolate, try to distinguish the type of fruitiness. Is it berry or citrus?  If it’s berry, what kind of berry? Is it blueberry or strawberry?

Resources

Chocolate’s Flavor Notes
An examination of the 1500 flavor components in chocolate divided into 4 categories: Identifying the flavor notes (presented with a user-friendly flavor wheel), the impact of geography on flavor (regional flavor distinctions), How flavor is added, and describing the tasting experience.

Valrhona Chocolate Tasting
Valrhona (a world renown French chocolate company) has a section of their web site that offers guidance in tasting their eight Grand Crus Chocolate. The guide includes a comprehensive chocolate tasting wheel designed specifically for use with these Grands Crus chocolates.  The section also includes wine pairing suggestions.

CocoBon Chocolatier – Chocolate and Wine Tasting Wheel
Since we’re on the subject of chocolate and wine tasting, CocoBon Chocolatier has a product for wine and chocolate pairing their call “Coco du Vin.” They’ve developed a chocolate and wine tasting wheel for this product that is available online. The idea behind using this wheel is to find flavors in both wine and chocolate and see how pairing the two enhances the flavors.

• Printable tasting wheel (pdf)

Guittard Chocolate Co Tasting Wheel
The California chocolate company Guittard developed a popular chocolate tasting wheel that is accessible all over the Internet except on the Guittard web site. A good place to find the wheel is on the blog Chocolate Note.