Tasting chocolate is an art. A specialist gives us her technique for enjoying your little square with “increased pleasure”.
What if we were programmed to eat chocolate? This is a guilt-free theory that the chocovore community would happily rally behind. And all things considered, there may be some truth in it. First argument, the one put forward by nutrition experts, chocolate is good for you, both in terms of cardiovascular health and morale. Well, especially if you set your sights on those with more than 70% cocoa – because white chocolate, failed, doesn’t count. A little slack or a big blues, presto, a square to reactivate the synthesis of dopamine, and off we go again. But it’s really the second argument that hits the mark: your mouth is at exactly the right temperature for the aromas of the chocolate, trapped in the bar, to be released. A little miracle of nature that is well worth experiencing…
And how do you bite your chocolate bar? Mechanically, in the evening on the sofa, more absorbed in contemplating the small screen than in your little square? Gradually, at snack time, by placing a bar on your buttered toast to bite into it? Meticulously, with your lunchtime coffee, little by little, to make this special moment last as long as possible? Addicted to cocoa (or not, for that matter!), know that there is an infallible method to increase your tasting pleasure tenfold.
Valentine Tibère is a chocolateologist. Just like an oenologist deciphers wine, his mission is to taste the different bars produced around the world to establish their aromatic profile. Interviewed for the podcast What I bite from Éthiquable, she reveals her method for learning to listen to the delicate “chocolate song”as she likes to say.
First recommendation from the specialist, do not bite into your square, but let it melt so that all the aromas are revealed. She also advises to come “inhale a little oxygen to ventilate the palate” and optimize the perception of flavors, that is to say aromatic characteristics, through retro-olfaction (retronasal route).
Another crucial element, the temperature of the chocolate: “if you taste a square at 15°C, the aromas are completely closed”, explains the expert. The ideal? Enjoy your tablet between 20 and 23°C, in order to “enjoy this crunchy side of chocolate and all the pleasure of melting in the mouth”. Finally, the chocolateologist’s last tip: always taste twice, as the full complexity of a chocolate is not apparent from the first encounter: “you will have a first impression, but perhaps you will not be able to grasp, put into words all the sensations you will have”, she specifies. Finally a valid pretext to grant you a second square!
