Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Quarantine Adventures: Chocolate Tasting

 One of the virtual alum events that Carroll University offered was a virtual chocolate tasting. We had to buy several different kinds of chocolate and then Bryn Kirk would walk us through the art of tasting chocolate. Hello... Chocolate tasting.. right up my alley. 

Half the adventure was buying the chocolate. We need to get 4 dark chocolate bars and 4 milk chocolate bars -- 2 in each category of 4 categories. We were told we could get them at Walmart, grocery stores, etc. The only brand I heard of on the list was Lindt. Everything else I never heard of -- Theo, Green and Black, Chocolove, Divine, Alter Ego. Walmart, Meijer, Pick n Save really only had Lindt and maybe Green and Black. I ended up getting most of it at Woodman's. And each bar was at least $3 on average. This was not a cheap chocolate tasting. 

Then came the actual tasting. The hubby was home. So while we were in the process of putting a shelf in my new office space we tasted the chocolate.

Apparently there is a method to chocolate tasting. Break off a piece of the two types you were going to sample. Let it melt in your mouth and then just before it's gone, bit the second piece. Repeat. This was to get the most flavor out of each type of chocolate.

I flunked out of Chocolate University. I could not really distinguish between flavors. At one point I thought the chocolate tasted like dirt. I never got hints of banana, fruit, or nut flavors. Guess I don't have the taste buds for a professional chocolate taster.

The hubby and I both decided that we didn't care for the Lindt chocolate. Chocolove Milk Chocolate was his favorite for milk and I would have to agree. 

For the dark chocolate, I went with 2 85% dark chocolate and 2 70% dark chocolate. The Theo was better than Divine in the 85% category. Green and Black beat out Lindt again in the 70% category.  The Theo was probably my favorite. 

It was a good night of tasting chocolate. In the future, I'm just going to buy what I like and not worry about what hidden flavors are in my chocolate.

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