Step 1
Reset
Always start with a clean palate. Rinse your mouth with room-temperature or warm water.
Tasting 101
What do you taste?
There are no wrong answers when it comes to chocolate tasting. Use the steps below to help guide you through the world of cacao tasting.
New to chocolate tasting? Read our guide, Is There a Right Way to Taste Chocolate?, for a few simple tips on exploring chocolate’s flavors.
How to taste
Four easy steps
Step 2
Smell
All cacao has a unique scent — take a slow breath before tasting. What does it remind you of?
Step 3
Melt
Don’t chew! Let a small piece melt and coat your tongue, then take a second taste to let the flavors develop in your mouth.
Step 4
Explore
Use the flavor wheel to help you articulate what you’re tasting. Start in the center and work your way out.
The wheel
Explore
Like wine and coffee, chocolate is a fermented food with a wide range of flavors and tasting notes. These eight categories cover almost everything you might notice in your chocolate. Six are flavors you may already be familiar with from foods you know and love. Two are about the taste on your tongue and the feeling in your mouth as it melts. Bitterness and astringency (a drier mouthfeel) are normal parts of chocolate, not necessarily mistakes.
Going further
Chocolate pairings
Chocolate pairs well with all kinds of delicious food and beverages. Wine, cheese, fruit, coffee — the options are endless.
Take wine, for example. After your second taste of chocolate, take a small sip of wine just as the chocolate is beginning to dissolve. Something magical can happen: a chocolate that might feel bitter or harsh on its own may be tempered by the wine. Or maybe it brings out something new altogether. It’s all about how flavors interact with each other in your mouth.
Try as many combinations as you want — that’s the fun part!
The perfect pairing
Pinot Noir Chocolate Bar
We infuse the entire Pinot noir grape directly into this dark chocolate, creating a fruity, tannic, and intensely winey chocolate bar. It’s wine and chocolate like you’ve never experienced before.
Taste it for yourself
Find your favorite
Now that you have the know-how, try out your new tasting skills on a bar. Our chocolate is made from scratch by people who know a thing or two about flavors.
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