The Fine Cooking Test Kitchen

The Fine Cooking Test Kitchen


My Kind of Party: A Chocolate Tasting Party

comments (6) February 8th, 2010 in Blogs
rf Rebecca Freedman, senior editor
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Think you know how to really taste food? Tasting Club shows you how to experience it.
Think you know how to really taste food? Tasting Club shows you how to experience it.

Think you know how to really taste food? Tasting Club shows you how to experience it.

Photo: Courtesy of Dina Cheney
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Whenever I go to a party at my friend Dina Cheney’s house, it’s no ho-hum event—it’s a full-on gourmet food tasting. That’s because she’s an expert on throwing tasting parties. (If you have no idea what I mean, a tasting party is a fantastic way to get to know your palate: along with a bunch of friends, you try, savor, and compare several different types of a particular food in order to find your favorites.) Dina’s book, Tasting Club, guides readers through tasting all sorts of delicious things, whether savory (cheese, olive oil), sweet (honey, apples), or boozy (wine, beer).

Indeed, when Dina throws a tasting party, if I happen to have plans, I change them. Immediately.

This weekend’s tasting party involved something especially delicious: milk chocolate. When we arrived, Dina had already set everything up: She’d arranged six different types of milk chocolate across the table (brands included Valrhona, Amano, Askinosie, and Theo), along with water and bland crackers for cleansing our palates. She also provided us all with tasting sheets so we could record our thoughts.

Throughout the tasting, we evaluated the chocolates based on their appearance, aroma, flavor, texture, and finish. It was amazing just how subjective the tasting was; each guest experienced each chocolate very differently. Guests' descriptions of a flavor could go from the simple (“floral,” “fruity”) to the complex and creative (“hay” and “sunshine”). Despite some disagreements, we all came away with a better understanding of our own personal milk chocolate preferences (which will definitely help me when I go to buy it at the store). 

Now I’m inspired to host my own tasting—though I'm wondering how I could possibly top chocolate as the star ingredient.

posted in: Blogs, chocolate
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Comments (6)

stingray3lf writes: Attended a chocolate tasting this past weekend that had a special twist, it was paired with red wine, port and ice wine! We started with some regular store brand chocolate, then moved to regional fair trade dark chocolates and finished with a foursome of fine truffles . We were to try and figure out what they were filled with, ganache, buttercream, praline and caramel. Not as easy as it sounds but so much delicious fun. Posted: 9:52 am on February 15th

ymashalom writes: I would love to go to a bread tasting or pizza tasting Posted: 7:36 am on February 11th

pwickham writes: Personally, BITTERSWEET is my preferred type of chocolate. And CALLEBAUT is my favorite brand. It was not one of the brands mentioned... a disappointment.

Another type of tasting? How about chili con carne? Participants could bring a sample of their favorite version. Posted: 11:04 pm on February 10th

raitken_fcweb writes: A premium ice cream tasting? I’m so there. Another good one for a summer tasting: Tomatoes. Yum! Posted: 6:17 pm on February 10th

jenniferjazz writes: Well, let's be realistic, you probably can't top chocolate, but olives could be interesting, or premium ice cream in summer. Posted: 3:31 pm on February 10th

Pielove writes: A couple of years ago my husband and I did a bacon tasting:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/82167-report-from-a-bacon-tasting/

We are thinking of doing the bacon tasting again, but with more artisianal and fewer supermarket brands.

We also did a chocolate tasting (on a different date), but with dark chocolate. Our surprise winner was the Polish dark chocolate made by Wedel. We also included a bacon chocolate (made by Vosges)-- very tasty. Posted: 8:48 pm on February 9th

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