Blind tasting #1

While at Grand Valley my professor set up a blind chocolate taste testing between a few of my colleagues and myself. The next few blog posts will review the eight chocolates we tasted and our opinion of each. We looked at the appearance, touch, sound, aroma, mouthfeel, flavor and aftertaste of the chocolate. 

Chocolate #1

Appearance:

This chocolate's appearance was consistently described as dark, dull and appeared to have a matte finish. A few tasters also noted crystals in the chocolate.

Touch:

 The chocolate had a hard and dry touch, and it seemed rough when rubbed between your fingers. 

Sound:

All of the tasters thought this chocolate created a crisp breaking noise when it was snapped into pieces.

Aroma:

The smell was described as intense with earthy undertones. Some noted nutty smells as well.

Mouthfeel:

This chocolate was noted to be smooth, silky, and easily melted in your mouth.

Flavor:

The flavor was described as bitter and very salty. Most people also described it as having a noticeable dark chocolate taste. 

Aftertaste:

This chocolate only allowed for a brief aftertaste that contained salty undertones.

Overall comments: 

This chocolate had exactly a 50/50 split, where half of the judges enjoyed the chocolate and half of them thought that it was not good at all. Those that enjoyed it thought that the balance between salty and sweet was perfect, and complimented each other well.

This chocolate tasted was Organic Dark Chocolate with Natural Sea Salt from Salazon Chocolate Co.

Overall thoughts:

I personally did not enjoy this chocolate but I do know that a few of the tasters considered this their number one out of all eight chocolates.  The pleasure of this chocolate seems to depend on your own tasting pallet. If you prefer salty foods you may enjoy this chocolate. This raises the question though about how fair is the ratting of the chocolate just based upon opinion alone. If I just tasted this I would have given it a 2 out of 10 but other tasters gave it a 9 out of 10. When trying to truly evaluate things, such as chocolate, it sometimes is more than just personal preference of taste that comes into play. This concept many people forget, especially because you only want to spend money on things you like, but it is something I hope to expand on in the future.

This chocolate is sold for $3.29 for 2.75 ounces, which is $1.20 / oz