Chocolate tasting

Decadence. We bought 5 different single-estate chocolates. After fruit, pate and cheese, Jody, Stephanie, Gary and I proceeded to tasting the main course. These descriptios are weird, until you actually taste these for yourself. Each bar only has 4 ingredients: cocoa, cane sugar, cocoa butter, Bourbon vanilla pod.

• Maralumi, New Guinea. Most of us thought the smokey tobacco taste was overpowering. Probably our least favourite.
• Los Ancones, Santo Domingo. Starts with earthy and green olive notes, finishes fruity.
• Tamarina, Sao Tome. Sea-salt and iodine, followed by grass.
• Concepcion, Venezuela. Caramel dominates, then dried fruits.
• Mangaro, Madagascar. The fruitiest of the ones we tasted, it was by far the most appreciated.

Next time, we’ll consider cutting the squares in half and/or holding these tastings in the afternoon. All that chocolate made it difficult to sleep!

After a first round of tasting, we decided to try some again, and the tastes differed significantly. Our palates were getting used to these weird and exotic chocolates, revealing new intricacies.

These are all expensive chocolates, but the whole collection cost less than $45 - or about what people would pay for 2 to 3 bottles for a wine tasting.