Yesterday, we had our first dark chocolate bar tasting. The results are in. But first, here are the contestants:
- Valrhona Guanaja, a 70% criollo bean bar
- Bonnat Puerto Cabello, 75% criollo
- Chocovic Ocumare, 71% criollo
- Michel Cluizel "Los Anconés", 67% trinitario
- Valrhona Noir Extra Amer, 85% African beans
- Scharffen Berger Kumasi Sambiriano, 68% Ghana forestero and Madagascar trinitario
- Chocolove Extra Strong Dark, 77% African and Carribean beans
- Sjaaks Dark, 54% (local chocolate maker; brought in as a ringer)

We had seven tasters. None had ever done a chocolate tasting before. But, we had some excellent palates. The Sjaaks really shouldn't have been in the mix as it's an apple to the rest being oranges. My guess is that the Sjaaks has added flavors where the flavors of the other bars were as a result of the fermentation, drying, roasting, crushing, and conching processes applied to the beans. Fun to see how it compared though.
Here are some common comments about the bars:
- Sjaaks - berry smell, caramel taste
- Chocolove - nutty smell, earthy taste
- Scharffen Berger - bitter smell, earthy/grassy taste
- Chocovic - sweet smell, berry taste
- Valrhona Guanaja - rich smell, caramel/coffee taste
- Bonnat - fruity smell, dirt taste
- Michel Cluizel - bitter/moldy smell, spicy taste
- Valrhona Noir - tobacco smell, pepper taste

I'll leave it to your imagination which bar was compared to the smell of poo. Hint: it was the penultimate scoring bar.

It was agreed that we had too many chocolate bars to taste. Eight was too many. Five seems to be about the right amount. Gives people a chance to retry without getting overwhelmed.

What we didn't realize was how subtle the smells and flavors are. We used a flavor/smell wheel from the Bittersweet Café to help hone in what we were sensing. All chocolates except for the Sjaaks can be purchased on the web at Chocosphere.