How to Host a Chocolate Tasting

Chocolate offerings have become increasingly sophisticated over the past few years. Long gone are the days when the American notion of chocolate was synonymous solely with the classic Hershey's bar. The range of chocolate available now is huge (including Hershey's list of premium offerings). And a savvy pastry chef or consumer needs to understand what to look for. Not only are there cacao percentages to wrangle with but the new new chocolate often comes with a country of origin noted on the label—Madagascar, Brazil, Ecuador, the list goes on. With these factors influencing the flavor of any given chocolate bar (let alone those flavored with nuts, fruits, and flavorings), there are plenty of good reasons to sort through the offerings to see what you like, what you don't, and what you would want to use in a given baking situation. And there is no more fun way to do this than by hosting a chocolate tasting. PastryScoop.com recently spoke with our friend Wine Spectator's features editor Owen Dugan, who is also their resident chocolate buff, to find out how to set up a tasting and what wines he would recommend bringing into the mix. The results provide a thoughtful guide to exploring and enjoying the tasting process. Gather your friends and colleagues, and let the tasting begin!

A few chocolate rules to go by:
1. Keep the selection small. Your mouth will inevitably grow weary, so six to eight chocolates is plenty for one tasting. Feel free to taste fewer; you can always do more another time.

2. Make sure pieces are large enough to allow tasters to break their piece before consuming. Experiencing the snap of the chocolate is an important part of the evaluation.

3. You should be prepared to evaluate the following characteristics that experts use when making their assessments: appearance, aroma, snap (texture when bitten), mouth feel, flavor, balance, and finish. You can informally discuss these with your fellow tasters or make up your own sheets for each taster to mark and make notes on. Dugan recommends taking notes. "Not only does doing this give you a record but it concentrates the mind on the obscure science of sensory evaluation. You will be lazier in speech than you will be on paper. It is less sociable though, of course."

4. Think like your ninth grade science teacher: Have a control. Try to get chocolates that are similar in all respects except one. For example, choose bars from a single premium producer from the same place of origin but of varying percentages of cacao. Or same place of origin, similar percentages of cacao but from different producers. According to Dugan this allows you to really see the differences between each piece of chocolate you taste.

When it comes to pairing wine with chocolate, there is much disagreement as to what the general guidelines should be. One of Dugan's: All bets are off until you're at the table tasting. Hard and fast rules aren't easy to come by; matching to chocolate is like hitting a moving target—you can't always predict how a particular chocolate is going to interact with a given wine. Tasting is where you really find out what works and what doesn't. Dugan's recommendation is to approach the experience without looking for justification of your prejudices. An unbiased frame of mind opens you up to the possibility of discovering happy surprises. All the wine options listed below will give you something to think about as you taste—"nothing offensive and some may even pop." The fun is finding out for yourself which combinations you like.

Good quality chocolate that's not too sweet will coat your mouth and take over your senses. You need something strong enough to cut through all that. Chocolate generally will have some combination of nutty, berry, caramely, coffee notes that can potentially be mirrored in your wines. A handy rule for general tasting is to choose wines that are sweeter than your chocolate. Avoid dry reds. Occasionally fruitier examples can work but usually they turn harsh, metallic, and bitter and can make your chocolate unpleasant. Dugan finds surer bets among fortified wines. His two favorite categories are Port and dessert Sherry.

For Sherries, Dugan has two crowd-pleasing picks: Pedro Ximénez, which can taste caramely with notes of burnt sugar, coffee, and nuts. These notes can act as a good bridge between the chocolate and the wine because they often match notes in the chocolate. Dugan's second pick is Malmsey Madeira, which has more tropical flavors, such as coconut and citrus. Both these wines can be palate stimulating, which will help you make it through all your tasting rounds.

Then there is Port. Dugan suggests trying an LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) Port. He says experts give this category short shrift, but that they can really shine with chocolate. These wines tend to be very jammy with berry flavors but with enough acid structure, too. Chocolate can refract flavors, unleashing complexity in a wine that may not be great by itself. Another option is Tawny Port. It doesn't have as much acid bite and has flavor notes that can include orange peel. Many consider orange a classic match with chocolate, so if this is a combination you enjoy, you may want to try this route. Its honey and almond flavors also tend to work really well with chocolate.

Some tasting camps recommend sparkling wines from Italy to pair with chocolate. For this category, Dugan says you want to go with something sweet over say Champagne. What you're really looking for here are the bubbles. They help strip the mouth of the chocolate and refresh the palate. Others would recommend lighter dessert wines. Often the chocolate overwhelms them, but Dugan says you just have to try them out. "Sometimes wines that shouldn't work do, so don't be afraid to grab a few to test." Two lighter dessert wines Dugan likes are Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and Vin Santo. Muscat tends to be lightly sweet and refreshing and can have slightly floral and citrus notes. It has a good lip smacking quality, too. And it's not packed with alcohol, which is nice. Vin Santo is made from dried and crushed grapes, and so it can have a raisin-y quality that can key into some chocolate. "It's delicious. What more can I say?" Dugan enthuses.

Pick two to three fairly different wines to taste with your chocolate. Sample all your chocolates by themselves first, using water as a palate cleanser. Afterward taste your wines separately before tasting each chocolate with your wine picks. This way you can assess your chocolates individually before playing around with how each chocolate interacts with each wine. Tasting your wines before mixing will give you a better understanding of how the wine is impacted by the different chocolates you try it with.