I had my chocolate tasting in a friend’s home, about an hour before dinner.
For my chocolate tasting, I bought all the dark chocolate brands that are found commonly in a Singaporean supermarket. There are not many, I was disappointed to find. I also chose a common milk chocolate to be the first one.
This was the order that I required my tasters to taste the chocolate. I also insisted they drink room temperature water in between tasting each chocolate.
- Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate
(S$1.45 for 50g, or 29 cents for 10g)
This was the most recognizable of all the chocolates firstly because of the colour. It was pleasant, milky and smooth, very sticky with some dryness and sweet almost to the point of too much. Liked by the 7 year old and man, unfortunately not so liked by most of the women.
- Goya Dark Chocolate confectionary
(S$0.85 for 38g, or 22 cents for 10g)
This was the worst of the lot for me. I realized after it had just too many additives and preservatives in it. It was very musky and earthy and had an awful aftertaste of palm oil and had a floury, diluted and waxy texture. In all, not a pleasant experience.
- Dars Bitter Chocolate Morinaga brand
(S$1.95 for 45g, or 43 cents for 10g)
This had a strong intense aroma, which was surprisingly easy to eat. It was on the sweet side for most of the women and was fruity with a hint of wine. While some found it to be grainy, others thought it was smooth and slightly waxy.
- Hershey’s Dark Chocolate
($1.70 for 41g, or 41 cents for 10g)
This had some strong opinions from one taster who totally disliked its taste and grainy texture. It had a slight minty taste, with a smokey and rich flavor. There was some powdery texture, and was generally not liked.
- Droste Holland Dark Chocolate Pastilles
(S$3.50 for 100g, or 35 cents for 10g)
This had a mild scent but was strong in taste. Bitter and smokey with tobacco undertones, and some describing it as medicinal, with an mild disinfectant aftertaste. However, one woman did like the taste but most did not.
- Morinaga Bitter Chocolate
(S$2.30 for 60g, or 38 cents for 10g)
A mild iron aroma in this one that had the right amount of sweetness for most of the women, and melted easily. Rated highly in taste.
- Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate
(S$1.70 for 41g, or 41 cents for 10g)
This one also had a minty taste and was similar to the other Hershey’s sample. It had slight earthy, woody aroma and taste, with a floury, waxy and sweet aftertaste.
- Bakeway Dark Chocolate Couverture
(S$12.90 for 1kg, or 13 cents for 10g)
This chocolate had a earthy, musky aroma and an intense and bitter flavor. Melts smoothly, slightly dry with a clean astringent aftertaste.
- Tudor Gold Dark Chocolate 55% Cocoa
(S$1.75 for 55g, or 32 cents for 10g)
This sweet and fruity chocolate had a slight medicinal aroma and although smooth and melts easily, had a sticky and grainy aftertaste.
10. Cadbury Old Gold Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa
(S$5.50 for 200g, or 28 cents for 10g)
This smoky tobacco intense dark chocolate has got musky and earthy undertones and feels very much like a macho kind of chocolate. Grainy and rough texture.
11. Belgian No Sugar Added Dark
(S$4.95 for 100g, or 50 cents for 10g)
Woody, minty and fruity with a light acidity and medicinal quality, this chocolate also tasted like sweeteners, which is not too good.
12. Frey Classique Noir 72% Cacao
(S$3.50 for 100g, or 35 cents for 10g)
A robust pleasant chocolate with a strong fruity aroma had a smooth texture and bitter aftertaste.
How many chocolate samples do you feel are appropriate for a chocolate tasting?
No more than 10.
I used 12 and after a while we struggled with our descriptions and our taste buds!
What size would each sample be?
Just a small square. About 5g.
What would you use to deliver and label each sample so your tasters could keep them separate?
I used 12 separate little Tupperware boxes and yellow post it notes. We all ate them by numbers, so 1, then 2, etc. So it was kept very separate. Still, sometimes the tasters needed to take 2 pieces to double check!
What information would you include about each samples?
I didn’t want them to see the packaging so we didn’t give them much information. I think it’s not necessary to give too much information if you want their truthful answer.
On your tasting sheet what would be the main flavor categories that you would be asking people to taste for?
Aroma, Taste and Texture. I also asked them to rate it from 1 to 10. I also gave a list of the descriptive words to use. Eg. Fruity, robust, caramel tones, smoky, balanced, smooth, melts easily etc. so as to help them with their descriptions.
How many people took part in the tasting?
Seven people of different cultures and ages.
A 7 year old girl of mixed parentage
An Indonesian woman in her 20s,
A Filipina woman in her 40s,
An Englishman in his late 40s,
An Australian Caucasian woman in her 40s, who is a chocoholic and
2 Chinese women in their late 30s, one being me.
Which chocolate was the most popular and why?
For the 7 year old it was just the only Milk Chocolate. She gave it a 9.
The man, unfortunately was confused. Eg. His description for no. 9 – “Flowers of spring mixed with mud”, no. 12 – “Slimey tadpoles in a Wellington boot”. In the end he said he had no favorite and they all tasted the same!
But for the 4 older women, they all liked no. 8, which happens to be the couverture that I will be using to make the chocolate! I think the reason why is that it was the one with the least flavorings. I also thought it was similar to no. 12, except it had a more astringent aftertaste.
How was this formal tasting received by your tasters? What were their comments?
I think they were very excited about it, and found it was interesting and refreshing to know that dark chocolate could taste so different from one another. I had to first brief them about how to describe it with the terminology in the Grand Cru module and at first they used it well but soon they preferred to use the 1 to 10 ranking to help themselves rank the chocolate in order of their preference. What was surprising also was how many of the chocolates were “Smoky”, with “Tobacco notes” and had an “Astringent” aftertaste. However, I think we were all too full for dinner afterwards!
How did this formal tasting increase your knowledge of the products you tasted?
I think I could never buy store bought chocolates again! Especially not the cheaper ones. It was amazing that the 2 Hersey bars which I had thought had to be good were the most expensive but yet were the most disappointing of the lot. The brands are very commonly bought in Singapore, and a lot I’ve eaten before, but never together. It was definitely an eye-opening exercise.
And a lot of them had many preservatives and other flavorings to make it last longer or taste different. That was disappointing. In the end, I realized that one had to go to a more upscale supermarket or specialty stores to get the more high-end chocolate.
Lessons Learned.
What do you think about the way the chocolate industry describes the flavor and aroma of the different chocolates?
Initially I thought it was a bit snobbish and contrived but after having to describe them myself, I thought it was very apt and suitable descriptions! I could smell the earth and taste the tobacco undertones too. That made me feel very 'educated'!
What did this tasting teach you about people and about tasting chocolate?
I learnt that many people have similar tastes and tasting chocolate is very much more complicated than I first thought.
My observation is that many people in Singapore are not exposed to the different kinds of chocolate out there – even myself and some chocolate fanatics, because they were just too difficult to find, or just too expensive. So we loved chocolate, but knew nothing about it. I think people in Singapore also may not be prepared to pay so much for good chocolate.
On a side note, I think maybe generally men and children prefer sweeter chocolates, whereas women tend to like them less sweet. Maybe it’s because of dietary or health reasons, or maybe they just don’t like the sweet taste. All 5 women in my tasting found the milk chocolate to be just too sweet.
What lessons did you learn about holding a chocolate tasting and would you change in the future?
Yes I think I would buy some better brands of chocolate, and of more vastly different grades. I would probably invite more chocoholics! I think the next time I conduct a chocolate tasting, hopefully it would be all chocolate flavors that I will be making for the testing.
Next time, I would have to taste all the chocolates first before the tasting and compare my notes with the notes of all the participants. I think that people in Singapore might have different taste from people in other parts of the world too, and I would have to use my own tasting palette to judge whether my taste is comparable to the general public. Hopefully it is!
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