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7 Tips Towards Becoming a Pro Chocolate Taster
Developing your palate for chocolate takes time and practice. Some basic knowledge about chocolate can help you develop your palate, provide you some tools to better describe what you're tasting, and help you better understand what chocolates you like and why you like them. Tasting Wheel, Blommer Chocolate, http://www.blommer.com/collateral/Flavor_wheel_cho...Tasting wheels like the one shown above are [...]
Read MoreTerroir and Chocolate-Just a Bunch of Bananas?
I taste a lot of chocolate that comes my way. I also used to do tastings regularly several times a month for clients or tourists who came in to our shop when we lived in Ecuador. We regularly tasted the same chocolates, so it´s easy to tell if the same products really taste the same [...]
Read MoreChocolate Percentages-What Do They Mean?
You've probably heard a lot about dark chocolate, that you should eat chocolate that is 70% or higher in cocoa content. There are health benefits from dark chocolate and you want to get them. A lot of information and buzzwords are tossed around on food labels too: "raw," "gluten free," "vegan." Do any of these [...]
Read More5 Questions for Your Chocolate Maker
The chocolate bar section of your local grocery, special store, or retail shop is already a crowded space, and growing increasingly more so. There are new bean-to-bar brands popping up daily, new products incorporating chocolate coming out all the time, and new packaging and product selection makes distinguishing quality chocolate more and more difficult. Fierce competition for shelf space means you [...]
Read MoreHow Do You Define Raw Chocolate?
I get lots of requests for raw cocoa beans or products, see lots of raw claims, and continue to wonder what the *&@* raw is…you probably do too. I’ve read that foods remain raw if the food has not been heated over 118°F, or 114°F. Supposedly this protects any naturally occurring enzymes as well as [...]
Read MoreHow Cocoa Beans Are Made Into Chocolate
The journey the cacao bean makes, from the tree all the way to the chocolate bar on the store shelf, is a long one. But you'll have a basic understanding of what happens after you've read this post. To make chocolate, you need cacao beans, sugar, and the right equipment.Cacao beans are first harvest from [...]
Read MoreWhat is Raw Chocolate?
Raw food products have gained a popular following among consumers and the market for raw products seems to be expanding. But there is very little clarity or definition in what is considered raw, and that goes for chocolate too. Raw really has not been defined clearly, there is no officially recognized industry organization putting a [...]
Read MoreWhat Are Cacao Nibs?
Most people know what chocolate is-at least they know what chocolate tastes like, that it usually comes in a bar, and is considered a sweet treat in most cases. Chocolate is usually consumed by itself or in a dessert combined with ingredients to make cakes, cookies, brownies, or even some fruit desserts. Chocolate is also [...]
Read MoreHow to Hold a Chocolate Tasting Party
After spending seven years in Ecuador making chocolate, exporting chocolate, teaching about chocolate, leading chocolate tours to cocoa plantations and factories for consumers and industry professionals, I want to share some of that knowledge with you. Living in Ecuador was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work, but I was happy to [...]
Read MoreWhere do Cacao Trees Grow?
Where do cacao trees grow? Cacao, also known as Theobroma Cacao, is a tropical plant. The growing area for cacao ranges from approximately 10° north to 10° south of the Equator. Most cacao is grown in Africa but cacao is now also cultivated in a tropical belt worldwide. The Ivory Coast and Ghana are the [...]
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