The basics of tasting chocolate
Tasting chocolate might seem daunting at first — especially if you’re new to craft chocolate. Will you be able to notice the flavour notes? Do you need a chef’s palate to understand what’s going on?
Not at all.
You don’t need training, food jargon, or a Michelin background. If you can taste the fruitiness of berries in a jam, the toastiness of good coffee, or the woodiness in a barrel-aged rum — you’re already doing it. It’s the same kind of attention that helps you enjoy a ripe peach more than an unripe one, or spot the difference between sourdough and supermarket bread.
Learning how to taste craft chocolate is just about slowing down and paying attention to what’s already there.
Smell it
Grab a small piece and smell the chocolate. Carefully crafted bars made with fine cacao often have amazing aromas — sometimes fruity, sometimes nutty, sometimes earthy or even floral.
When I receive a new shipment, one of my favourite moments is opening the box and being completely surrounded by the aroma from the bars. The aroma is your first clue to what you’ll taste.
Let it melt — don’t chew
Place a piece on your tongue and let it melt slowly. Resist the urge to chew. Letting it melt gives the flavours time to develop and shift. This is where things get interesting.
I know — I also used to struggle with this at first. I thought it was just pompous gibberish. Until I went to a pairing with rum and this chocolate that had a woody profile and notes of caramel — a bar that had never been one of my favourites back then. I couldn’t really identify those notes on my own. It just sounded like pretty descriptions to me.
But during the pairing, that caramel note came through — so clearly, followed by the woodiness in the background. All of it unfolded as the chocolate melted in my mouth after a sip of rum. Yes, rum and chocolate. One of my favourite pairings. (But that’s a subject for another post.)
Try different bars side by side
A long time ago, someone told me to start with the strongest bar first. It’s not a rule — but it’s definitely how I prefer to do my tastings.
People often assume that a higher cacao percentage means a darker or more intense flavour. That’s not always true. It also depends on the cacao variety and how it’s handled.
My personal favourite place to start is with a Forastero bar. Forastero is an Amelonado cacao variety from Bahia, Brazil. It’s one of the most common types of cacao used in the chocolate industry — but in this case, the beans are carefully cultivated and go through the same post-harvest process as fine flavour cacao.
The result? A bar that’s incredibly strong, dark, and woody. I like to start with a piece of Forastero and then move to other bars — whether it’s something fruity, floral, or lighter in profile. The differences stand out more that way, it gives you contrast.
Final thoughts
You don’t need to be an expert to taste craft chocolate — you just need to slow down. Take your time, try a few bars, and notice what stands out. You’ll quickly start to recognise patterns, preferences, and favourites.
If you’d like a simple way to begin, try our Beginners Box — it includes a small selection of bars with different flavour profiles, plus a short guide to help you explore origins and what makes each bar distinct.
