The Chocolate Tasting Guide

By Eagranie Yuh

A renowned chocolate expert teaches you to savor the subtleties of fine chocolate in this accessible and comprehensive booklet.

The best (and most fun) way to learn about chocolate is by eating it, and this guide provides curious gourmands and budding chocoholics with all the tips they need to become cacao experts. Author Eagranie Yuh, one of the world’s leading chocolate educators, introduces the enticing complexity and diversity of chocolate She includes information on buying and tasting chocolate as well as how to host a tasting party. Let the tasting begin!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452130019

Book preview

Introduction

I LOVE CHOCOLATE. I love its diversity—how there’s delicate, nuanced chocolate that makes me sit and ponder, and how there’s uncomplicated chocolate doped with nuts that satisfies my craving for crunch. I love that delicious chocolate is the result of people’s hard work, passion, and dedication to getting every detail right. I love when I share chocolate with friends and their eyes light up, and when I share it with strangers and make new friends.

There has never been a better time to love chocolate. You can find a decent chocolate selection in most grocery and specialty stores, and even shop at stores devoted entirely to fine chocolate. You can take seminars on chocolate, pair chocolate with beverages, and enjoy chocolate at every stage of a five-course feast.

You can explore chocolate in confections and truffles, or savor the inherent flavors of chocolate by itself. Did you know that chocolate can taste like dried cherries, cloves, caramel—or even mushrooms, rose petals, or toasted nuts? What’s more, these notes are inherent to the chocolate itself, not derived from added flavorings.

Do you prefer bright and fruity chocolate, or dark and earthy? The only way to find out is by tasting. In this guide, you’ll learn how to select, shop for, and taste chocolate. And, to help you get started, I’ve highlighted some of my favorite makers in sidebars.

Taste chocolate. Taste promiscuously. Taste alone; taste with friends. Taste high percentage, low percentage, single origins, blends. Taste chocolate with stuff in it. Taste chocolate that got ace reviews and ask what the big deal is. Taste chocolate you’ve never heard of and wonder why it took you so long to try it.

Taste chocolate. It’s a tall order, but I’m sure you’re up for the challenge.

THE

SECRET

LIFE

OF

CHOCOLATE

IN THE 1500S, the Veracruz coast on the Gulf of Mexico was the place to be. There, Aztecs reveled all night—feasting, dancing, and drinking chocolate laced with cinnamon, anise, pepper, and orange blossoms. Legend has it that the warrior Montezuma consumed fifty chalices of the brew before attending to his harem of wives. History has not recorded their reactions.

A civilization earlier, the Mayans popularized drinking chocolate, sometimes spiked with achiote, which would stain the drinker’s lips blood-red. But the first humans to consume cacao were the Mokaya, a group of fishers and farmers who lived in what is now Mexico’s Chiapas state between 1900 and 1500 B.C.