Learning Objective: Conduct a chocolate tasting and report on the findings.
Discussion Assignment: Report on Your Chocolate Tasting
Expertise derives from taste experience so you will complete this assignment by conducting a formal tasting comparing dark chocolates. On our Supplies page we suggested that you include both grocery store chocolates and couvertures to your tasting. You can add varieties of milk or white chocolate to your tasting as your budget allows but they are not required.
Conduct a Chocolate Tasting
You can do this alone or you can invite other people to the tasting. Having more than one person means that you will have more than one opinion - as Martha would say - A good thing!
As you remember from the Student Supplies list, we suggested you have the following on hand for your tasting assignment:
- At least 4 - 6 different brands of dark chocolates to taste and compare with each other, including the chocolate you've chosen to work with in chocolate making. A 100 - 250 g ( 4 - 8 oz.) sample of each chocolate will give you enough for a series of tastings.
- 1 package of Bakers or Nestle Semisweet chocolate squares or another type of baking chocolate found in your supermarket.
- 1 inexpensive Lindt, Toblar, or Sucard solid semisweet or bittersweet chocolate bar that you find in drug stores, markets or delis.
- 1 100 - 250 g ( 4 - 8 oz.) sample of semisweet or dark confectioner's coating* chocolate. This is usually available as wafers in kitchen shops.
You will need to develop the guide or rating sheet for your tasters to jot down their impressions of the chocolates during the tasting. I suggest you research the following information from these lectures in this Module to help you:
- The description of how chocolate tastes as described in the lecture Module 3: Develop Your Tasting Palate.
- The manufacturers descriptions of the flavor of their products on information page Module 3: Describing the Flavor of Grand Cru.
Report on Your Chocolate Tasting
Report on the results of your chocolate tasting. The following is an very basic example of the results of a Sunset Magazinetasting.
A bittersweet tasting - Sunset, the magazine of Western living We invited chocolate amateurs and professionals to rate two dozen plain bittersweet and semisweet chocolates in a blind tasting. The professionals were precise about what they liked - rich, balanced overall flavor and a smooth, pleasant meltdown in the mouth. They downgraded chocolates with off-flavors from the beans or flavor defects from processing. The amateurs just went for taste and texture. Their collective favorites, in alphabetical order: Belgian Recipe Gourmet Chocolate. Good base chocolate flavor for chips. Nice acidity, along with citrus and honey flavors; smooth. Callebaut Bittersweet Chocolate. Robust chocolate flavor with vanilla; complex; melts nicely. Droste Bittersweet Pastilles. Vanilla and slight raspberry or almond flavors; melts nicely. Lindt Excellence Swiss Bittersweet Chocolate (Criollo beans from Central America). Mild and pleasant, caramel flavor; melts smoothly with just a little graininess. Michel Cluizel Chocolat Amer Brut. Ends nicely with strong chocolate flavor, bitter edge. Valrhona. Equatoriale (beans from South America, Africa): basic chocolate flavor with citrus and hints of other fruit, smooth. Le Noir (beans from Trinidad): fruity, winy, spice notes. Le Noir Amer (beans from Venezuela): clean, sharp chocolate flavor on the acidic side, fruity, winy, smooth but waxy at the start. Le Noir Gastronomie (Criollo beans from South America, Forasteros from Africa): good base strength, good vanilla, fruity, winy, smooth; melts nicely. |
To complete this assignment, include the following in your report:
- How many chocolate samples do you feel are appropriate for a chocolate tasting?
- What size would each sample be?
- What would you use to deliver and label each sample so your tasters could keep them separate?
- What information would you include about each samples?
- On your tasting sheet what would be the main flavor categories that you would be asking people to taste for?
- How many people took part in the tasting?
- Which chocolate was the most popular and why?
- How was this formal tasting received by your tasters? What were their comments?
- How did this formal tasting increase your knowledge of the products you tasted?
In the same report, answer the following questions under a heading of: Lessons Learned.
- What do you think about the way the chocolate industry describes the flavor and aroma of the different chocolates?
- What did this tasting teach you about people and about tasting chocolate?
- What lessons did you learn about holding a chocolate tasting and would you change in the future?
Note about the Lessons Learned section. We want your observations on your chocolate tasting- I've given you some suggested questions to answer but feel free to simply give us your feelings and observations. Take time to think about the results.
Note on your report content: what we are looking for is a concise report on your research or practice coupled with a thoughtful response to our questions. We are grading strictly on content - not how well or how much you write. There is a maximum of 1500 words allowed in the box but we are in no way expecting or want you to fill it.
Click on the "Add Submission" button below to submit your assignment.
When you click on the "Add Submission" button - a text submission box will appear at the bottom of the page. You may have to scroll down to see that. You have a choice of typing your report directly into the box and then clicking the "Save changes" button below it to submit.
OR WE VERY, VERY HIGHLY SUGGEST that you create your assignment report in another editor in your computer and save that.Then copy and paste the text in your saved report into the submission box and click the "Save changes" button to submit. This process makes sure that you have a saved copy of your report in case something happens when you submit.
Confirming your assignment submission and viewing grades:
Once you've submitted your assignment, A message appears that says "Your changes have been saved". Also you will see under the Assignment Due Date a new line that starts with"Last Edited....". That confirms that your assignment has been submitted and when.
Don't forget to be generous and share a copy of this assignment report with your classmates by posting it to the Chef's Table in the appropriate assignment discussion.
About Discussion Assignments: They are graded on a complete or incomplete basis only. If you complete the assignment by the due date you will receive the full points.
We wait until after the Assignment due date (see below) to start grading the assignments - you can expect to see your grade posted within 10 working days after the due date has passed.
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