Step 1
Reset
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. Take a small bite, let it melt, and see which part of the wheel sounds most like what you notice.
How to taste
Four easy steps
Step 2
Smell
Take a slow breath before you bite. 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 for the full experience. No gobbling!
Step 4
Explore
Start with the big category, then find a word that fits in the outer ring.
The wheel
Explore
Like wine and coffee, chocolate is a fermented food with a big range of flavors and notes. Eight categories cover almost everything you can notice. Six are flavors you might know from food you already love. Two are about the taste on your tongue and the mouthfeel as it melts. Bitter and astringent (a dry feeling) are normal parts of chocolate, not mistakes.
Going further
Try it with wine
After your second taste of a chocolate, take a small sip of wine just as the chocolate is about to dissolve. Something magical can happen: a chocolate that is bitter or astringent on its own may bring out something special alongside the wine.
Taste it for yourself
Find your favorite
Now that you have the words, try them on a bar. Our chocolate is made from scratch in Portland, Oregon.
Shop bars