Chocolate University Online Blog
 I was recently introduced to of Seattle Reign a coffee from North Star Fine Coffees. This morning I sipped a delicious brew of the coffee and quietly ate my chocolate donut, trying to get some work done.
At one point I was rolling the two around my mouth at the same time, coffee and chocolate, chocolate and coffee… Then I experienced a new flavor emerge as I swallowed.
This got me thinking about chocolate and coffee pairings!
I grabbed the first chocolate I could find in my drawer (we all have a secret stash of chocolate nearby, right?) and pulled out a mostly Ecuadorian blend of 73% cacao dark chocolate. I let my coffee cool down just a bit so that I could better taste its subtle flavors.
First, I enjoyed the aroma of the chocolate, identified some familiar flavors and then took a bite. I allowed the chocolate to coat my mouth and took in the smooth texture.
As the chocolate melted, the flavors really exploded. Ecuadorian chocolate has one of my favorite flavor profiles. It is fruity, with a hint of nut, and the finish is intensely chocolate and astringent on the tongue.
Next, I smelled the coffee and identified as many flavors as I could just before taking a sip. Seattle Reign is a gem of a coffee with rich flavors of roasted chocolate, mixed with mild earthy and nutty notes.
The chocolate and coffee blended very well and introduced me to a new level of flavor complexity. I really enjoyed this pairing.
Since I am not as familiar with the flavor profiles of coffees as I am with chocolates, I will need to do some more research and some more pairings. That means spending more mornings drinking coffee and eating chocolate.
Oh darn. 
Categories: chocolate pairings, fine foods & beverages
Tags: chocolate and coffee, coffee, dark chocolate, tasting
The 2010 Winter Olympic Games begin February 12, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. But what, you may ask, does this have to do with cheesecake?
Well, thanks for asking. Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece and was served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C.
In 1872, America dairyman William Lawrence, is credited with inventing modern day cream cheese. He accidentally created it when he tried to reproduce a French cheese called Neufchatel.
 William Lawrence started selling his new invention and called it PHILADELPHIA Brand Cream Cheese. Today, cream cheese is by far the most popular cheese used to make cheesecakes.
I recently enjoyed eating one of my favorite cheesecakes; brownie marble cheesecake. During this most enjoyable experience, I “accidentally” stumbled upon something spectacular. I had a sip of a Pinot Grigio as I took a bite of my cheesecake slice and Bam! The cheesecake/Pinot Grigio pairing was amazingly delicious.
I recommend you celebrate the Winter Olympics with a cheesecake and a Pinot Grigio. Raise a toast to ancient Greece and accidental inventions!
Categories: chocolate pairings
Tags: cheese, chocolate dessert, tasting, wine
Some people compare a fine chocolate to a fine wine. I do too. How about you? If so, isn’t it about time you know what to “look for” and how to “taste” fine chocolate?
The Aroma
Smell the chocolate. Concentrate on the intensity of the aroma and the many different scents you can identify. Some of the most common scents in chocolate are vanilla, honey, milk, fruit, spice, and roasted nut.
If you have trouble smelling something, gently put your finger on the surface and melt a small bit of chocolate to release the aroma and try again.
The Appearance
Look at the chocolate color and shine. The common colors of chocolate include a range of hues in browns and reds. If you see a grayish or whitish layer on the surface, you have detected something called “bloom.”
Bloom is either sugar or cocoa butter that sits on the surface of the chocolate. This off-color is undesirable, but not dangerous. Bloomed chocolate is not chocolate at its best.
A properly prepared chocolate bar should have a glossy surface or nice sheen. A dull or flat finish indicates that a poor technique was used in solidifying, or tempering, the chocolate. A dull looking chocolate is not chocolate at its best.
The Sound
Listen to the chocolate. Break the chocolate and hear the loud, crisp, “snap!” The sound of the snap indicates the quality of the temper.
The Feel
Chew a piece of chocolate. Pay attention to how it feels in your mouth. It should feel smooth not gritty. Also pay attention to how it melts in your mouth. As a piece of chocolate melts in your mouth, different flavors will “come off” at different times. There is the initial flavor, the middle flavor, and the finish.
The Flavors
Eat the chocolate. The first sensations will probably involve sweetness and the intensity of chocolate flavor. Most of the fruity, nutty, and/or spicy notes come off somewhere in the middle. The final flavors could be chocolate or dairy notes and there should be no unpleasant aftertastes.
Categories: chocolate education
Tags: aromas, flavors, tasting
There’s a new candy bar in town! And, she’s looking for some steamy romance…
I’m talking about the new Fling bar, the first new candybar brand from Mars in more than 20 years, which proclaims to be “naughty, but not that naughty.”
OK, before I get into the steamy details, let me back up a bit. First of all, Fling may not actually be in your town yet. She’s been let loose, and is running wild in California, but those of us in other states cannot yet run to the grocery store and expect to see it on the shelves.
When the staff at Chocolate University Online learned about it, we knew we’d have to try it and report on it. Fortunately Jeff found a website (www.flingchocolate.com) that would ship to our door.
Each individual candy bar, affectionately known as a finger, is only 80 calories. So if you can stop with just one your diet may remain intact. If you cannot stop with one, then the bar isn’t naughty, but you might be. Nothing a little extra exercise can’t cure though!
There are three flavors; dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and hazelnut. The packaging describes them as “delicate truffle on a subtle crisp layer enrobed in shimmering chocolate.”
Let’s first look at some of my general thoughts, then I’ll further comment on each flavor independently.
Overall the Fling bars are a tasty snack. The sweetness, the richness, and even the crunch are satisfying. As a chocolate lover I found the chocolate impact to be a bit weaker than I would have liked. I wanted more of a lingering chocolate flavor, prefering that over the lingering sweetness.
The chocolate covering each bar, as well as the truffle filling are quite smooth, a nice mouth feel. Contributing to the smoothness is a low melt point. These bars readily melt in your fingers so I’d recommend keeping each bar in the foil as you eat it.
I also found that the crunchy meringue, unlike a cookie, tended to get stuck in my teeth. That helps extend the lasting sweetness so you might actually consider that good news. For me it was kind of annoying.
Now let’s look at the specific flavors:
Milk Chocolate
The chocolate flavor is present but it has low impact and fades quickly. The lingering sweetness is reminiscent of honey.
This bar does not satisfy my need for chocolate flavor complexity. I would suggest that it is best to satisfy a quick sugar fix that tastes like chocolate.
Dark Chocolate
The packaging mentioned shimmering chocolate. This was more noticeable on the dark chocolate bar, which really did have a shimmer or even sparkle to it. Also more noticeable was the chocolate impact. Compared to the other two flavors this one makes a chocolate statement.
Again, this bar is soft, smooth, even creamy. There is a certain butteriness in the flavor that lingers a bit longer than expected. A bitter note also lingers. That is good since it reinforces the dark chocolate flavor that this bar is supposed to have.
Hazelnut
I love the hazelnut flavor so I am biased toward this particular finger. Although it uses hazelnut flavor, as opposed to actual hazelnut, it still has a good nuttiness and the hazelnut seems to cut the sweetness. (Jeff disagrees with me on this point as he thinks this is the sweetest tasting of the three bars.)
There are hints of coffee flavors, but barely any chocolate impact in this bar. So again I think it really needs more chocolate flavor to satisfy a chocolate urge. Yet this one is my favorite of the three simply because it doesn’t seem quite as sweet.
Categories: chocolate review
Tags: grocery product, tasting
For dessert tonight Bryn’s mother made Rice Crispy bars. She melted some Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips, spread it on the bars, and then put another layer of bar on top. So it was kind of a layer cake, the layers being rice crispy bars and the frosting being semisweet chocolate.
It’s a rather simple dessert, yet quite tasty. But here’s the best part – we had a wine that worked real well with the chocolate. It was a Shiraz from Layer Cake. So with our pseudo- layer cake dessert we drank a Layer Cake wine. There’s something quite appropriate about this.
OK, that’s all interesting, but the reality is that this particular Shiraz combined well with the sweetness of the bars and the chocolate notes, leaving an impression that said, “give me more!” I think I had three bars when my mother-in-law said, “doesn’t anyone want to eat any of these?”
Yikes, if I ate any more, I wouldn’t be able to drive home.
Categories: chocolate review
Tags: tasting, wine
Cruising around the internet looking for interesting news I ran into a headline of an article written by etiquette expert Jodi R.R. Smith. It read, “Diet no excuse for spitting out chewed chocolate.”
Yikes! Who would spit out chocolate? I read on to discover that upon taking a piece of chocolate into her mouth, the woman in question chewed once and then spit out the chocolate into her napkin, apparently deciding in that moment that the chocolate, if fully consumed, would not be worth the calories.
Jodi, the Mannersmith, went on to explain, “For treats and sweets, you should taste them first and decide if they are worthy…” Then if they pass your taste test, go ahead and eat it, but if they do not, you can kindly refuse and not gross anyone out!
That’s the etiquette perspective, assuming you’re eating chocolates in the presence of other people. But what if your chocolate addiction leads you to sneaking pieces of chocolate when you’re alone? (While I highly recommend the social aspect of shared chocolate enjoyment, I understand that some people do crave chocolate especially when they’re alone.)
You probably have your chocolate comfort food, that particular candybar that satisfies anytime. You know you’d never even be tempted to spit that out. But at Chocolate University Online we urge people to move beyond their familiar comfort chocolates and explore the ever-widening array of chocolate options.
What if you have purchased an artisan chocolate or a single-origin bar and you have no idea what it’s going to taste like? Or, what if you’ve been given a box of chocolate candies, you know those mysterious boxes that don’t have a handy key to the mixed shapes within?
The Mannersmith’s advice is still good, at least in part. Take a small taste first following our suggested tasting guidelines. If you like it, great you’ve discovered something new! If you don’t like it, and you’re still alone (or in a small group who have agreed this is OK), then by all means spit it out! Get rid of it. Rinse your mouth. Grab a different piece of chocolate and start over.
My final recommendation is that you always end with a piece of chocolate that you really like. You want the lingering flavor notes to pleasantly stay with you. Of course if you’re with company, tasting an unpleasant mystery chocolate, with no other options, be polite with your first taste and then simply set the chocolate aside, unchewed!
If you’re interested in the original article that spurred this post, please see “Diet no Excuse” article.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate in the news
Tags: tasting
Today we’re going to quickly explore a method for tasting chocolate. I’d like you to have two chocolate bars ready. These should both be milk chocolate bars or both dark chocolate bars. You can pick different brands or pick the same brand with different percentages of chocolate content. We want to make sure you’ll taste sufficient differences.
Now that you have your chocolate ready, you’ll need to pick an appropriate time and place to do the tasting. Well, I’m not really sure there’s a bad time or place to eat chocolate, but some times and places are better than others to experience the best results.
Find a moment when you are relaxed, you’re not hungry, and you don’t already have some lingering flavor in your mouth. Also be away from strong smelling lotions or perfumes that could interfere with your senses.
Ideally you should clean your palate before each taste. Room temperature water is best. Hot or cold beverages will change the temperature in your mouth and cause the chocolate to melt too quickly or too slowly.
Now that you’ve found the right time and place, let’s get started.
Smell the first chocolate. Focus on the aroma and the many different scents. If you are having trouble identifying scents, try putting your finger on the surface of the chocolate to melt it a little, releasing aroma.
Now put a piece of the chocolate in your mouth. Chew a little. Pay attention to the smoothness or grittiness. Before you chew it all, allow the last of it to slowly melt in your mouth. Again feel the texture. During this entire process, as the chocolate melts, different flavors are being released.
At first you’ll probably notice the sweetness and the intensity of the chocolate flavor. Then you might notice some fruity or nutty flavors. Finally the taste should leave you with lingering chocolaty or dairy notes. Yum.
It’s time to clean your palate again and repeat with the second chocolate. See if you can notice different aromas, a different texture, and different flavors released during the melting.
How did the second chocolate compare to the first? Was it very similar or very different?
If you have never taken the time to truly taste chocolates, and compare to others in that moment, you might have been surprised at how different they could be. My recommendation is that you make some notes about this tasting experience. Repeat with more chocolates in the future.
Soon you’ll have record of your own chocolate preferences. You’ll be able to taste new chocolates and understand their uniquenesses without comparing to a second bar. You’ll recall those previous tastings and fit the new chocolate into your chocolate flavor continuum.
Categories: chocolate education
Tags: aromas, chocolate lessons, flavors, tasting, textures
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