Episode 1 - Tasting Notes
Episode Highlights
(0:40) Brian and Sunita discuss chocolate tasting notes and compare it with coffee tasting notes.
(3:22) Can we move beyond using words like “chocolate” or “cocoa” when tasting chocolate?
(9:40) Different ways to describe the taste of chocolate: flavor wheels, elevators, and taste memories.
(15:15) Do tasting notes set tasters up for dissatisfaction or failure? How do makers use certain words to gild the lily by making flavor defects sound appealing?
(26:45) How can fermentation affect flavor?
(28:25) How do flavor defects affect supply chain relationships?
(34:27) How does the price of cacao affect the quality of chocolate?
Favorite Quotations
Sunita: “To me, fudgy brownie means the satisfying base lower notes of a chocolate which is traditionally what all chocolate has been because there hasn’t been any more than that in the past.”
Brian: “I see layers of flavor and where they sit as if its an elevator that I’m looking at from a dissection and can see what’s at different levels.”
Sunita: “They’ll talk about a particular emotional experience [when tasting chocolate,] and I love that, and I feel like if I give you a card and tell you this is how you should talk about chocolate, I lose that opportunity to hear how they experience it.”
Sunita: “I feel that we need, if we want a long term healthy ecosystem, we need to have a good connection between price and quality up and down the supply chain to send the signal across the board that this equals quality and this will fetch a premium price.”
Mentions
Projet Chocolat: www.projetchocolat.com and @ProjetChocolat
Colin Gasko of Rogue Chocolatier: www.roguechocolatier.com and @RogueChocolate
Seneca Klassen of Lonohana: www.lonohana.com and @lonohana
C-Spot: www.c-spot.com and @cacaospot
Hazel Lee: www.hazeljlee.com and @hazel_choc
Misto Box: www.one.mistobox.com and @MistoBoxCoffee
Patric Chocolate: www.patric-chocolate.com and @PatricChocolate
Pralus: www.chocolats-pralus.com
Soma Chocolatemaker: www.somachocolate.com and @somachocolate