Gourmet

If you’re a fan of gourmet chocolates, you definitely should develop the skill of evaluating their quality. Chocolates, like other foods and recipes, are judged according to its look, texture, smell, presentation, packaging, and of course, taste. Gourmet chocolates are expensive because they aim to capture the most pleasant multi-sensory experience of eating. We cannot deny the fact that the quality of chocolates has strongly something to do with their price. What mainly justifies the tag price of high-end chocolate products are large amounts of refined cocoa butter and cocoa liquor that they contain. This however does not mean that the most expensive chocolates are the best chocolates, and that the most delicious chocolates are the most expensive. Quality cannot fully explain price, and price can never completely explain quality. Read below and become a great Gourmet chocolate connoisseur.

The first sense that we will always use in judging gourmet chocolates is our vision. Gourmet chocolates must perfectly be shaped and formed, and free from depressions, cracks, and fragments. Basically, well-prepared chocolates exhibit a pleasant sheen, and amateurish ones do otherwise. In evaluating the color, we should be aware of the shades of different types of chocolates, and determine when a chocolate is too dark or too light or too dull for its kind. Cloudy and gray chocolates are not properly tempered.

Next to the sense of vision is the sense of touch. In judging chocolate bars, excellence in preparation can be distinguished by the chocolates’ ability to create a loud, clear, and hard snap upon breaking. Chocolates that bend or cracks disproportionately are of low quality. To assess the texture of chocolates, we can rub our fingers on their surface and observe what will happen. Poorly prepared chocolates will feel uneven, sticky, and a bit rough, while perfectly tempered products will feel very smooth and soft.

What makes Gourmet chocolates addicting is their rich aroma, and this is why a lot of perfume manufacturers incorporate the scent of chocolates in their products. The smell of fresh, newly-prepared Gourmet chocolates is very strong, but not strong enough to hurt the nose. The best variety of chocolates that can pamper the olfactory nerves are dark chocolates that have 50-60% cocoa liquor. They perfectly capture the most appealing scent of chocolate. Other types of chocolates have lesser or higher content of cocoa liquor, the ingredient responsible in bringing less or more intense chocolate scent.

Last, but definitely not the least sense that we will use is taste. The ultimate sign of a perfectly made Gourmet chocolate is its ability to create a sharp, blissful taste in the tongue that explodes and quickly leaves the mouth. Well-made gourmet chocolates do not aim to prolong the taste of cocoa in the mouth, but to create an orgasmic taste that is worth the short seconds of transition from the tongue to the stomach. The best Gourmet chocolates melts in the mouth smoothly and effortlessly. If we feel any flavorings or aftertaste after eating chocolates, that only means that we’ve eaten products with artificial ingredients and of low quality.