Online Chocolate Tasting with Katie Chan
Article by Jane Meijnen
I was curious and keen to join the Chocolate Tasting Workshop – I know a little about the health benefits of proper dark chocolate and have made delightful chocolate morsels in a previous profession, so am attuned to the fun and joy the cocoa bean can bring.
I tried to persuade a friend to join but it seems this humble bean has earned a reputation of being a vice to avoid.
Rest assured this is a specialty in its own right, as our journey for the 2 hours with the certified chocolate connoisseur would reveal.
Anticipation was ignited with the advanced package of the Chocolate Tasting Kit, which included 5 packets each with squares of different chocolate, a packet of cacao beans, a tasting mat (with the instructions “We taste … Don’t eat”), tasting note sheets, and a cacao fruit instruction card with tips for storing the chocolates until the day of the workshop.
With the squares of single origin chocolate placed in their appropriate position on the tasting mat, Katie Chan of The Chocolate Club Hong Kong launched the Zoom workshop. She talked us through how chocolate is made, where the cacao beans originate, and their related distinguishing flavors and quality from the different geographies.
We came to learn of the differences between craft chocolate (also known as single origin and fine chocolate) and commercial chocolate. Katie took us through what to look for in the packaging, pointing out that only commercial chocolate bars show a picture of the actual chocolate. Fine chocolate on the other hand depicts images that evoke the country of origin, and typically includes tasting notes on the package.
Next came the ingredients and the percentage of cacao including coco powder vs cacao butter, the latter being the key ingredient that makes chocolate melt on the tongue. As a top tip, the fewer ingredients the better! As for the health benefits: dark chocolate of at least 70% has high antioxidants, and minerals such as magnesium and potassium; it contains good unsaturated fats…and does not make you fat!
Katie introduced us to the humble bean itself, with great images of the many vibrant colors of ripened pods, each pod containing 30-40 seeds. We were taken through the various stages of fermentation, drying, roasting, cracking and winnowing. We tasted one of the beans from the Tasting Kit, and surprisingly it could be a tasty snack!
The final adventurous part of our journey was now upon us – The Tasting. Which started with an outline of the Testing Steps: sight, snap sound, smell, taste (including texture, refinement, particle size), and the length or aftertaste. This was where my education began – I had not fully appreciated the breadth of character, taste and texture the cacao bean can bring. With quality, I have previously only focussed on the pleasure…
