shall pm you soon for some tasting tour.
this goes to any of you interested to share chocolate knowledge and improve your experience in chocolate quality and say goodbye to chocolate compound made of vegetable oil. Chocolate is made purely with their very own cocoa butter and liquor.

This post has been edited by missysleepy: Dec 25 2014, 05:26 PM

How come no one mention cote dor geh? So sedap frm the rest

The Ciollo, forestero and trinitario differenciation mirrors arabica, robusta, liberica.. somewhat... Just to qualify, I've made it a point to visit the plantations in central america, africa and asia, spent a couple weeks in costa rica few months back to visit various planations and the regional CATIE headquarters. http://www.catie.ac.cr/en/products-and-ser...ocoa-collection

Those categories (criollo, etc) are now superceded with some 25+ and counting dna groups. The situation is not as clean cut as wine varietals, as it is common for a single plantation to have up to 20 clone types. These clones are identified by unromantic names like CR15, BR01 etc.. Situation is the same in malaysia, I have visited two of the cocoa board HQ and they are giving out multiple clonal material to farmers, KKM25/22, PCB123 etc. In the past there could have been more cocoa hybrids as farmers were not trained on grafting. But it is safe to say that most productive farms, especially new farms now are relying on clones (much like durian), not hybrids. Assuming by hybrid you were not referring to Trinitario.

This means that the general grouping of criollo F and T is still useful in discussing in general terms the traits related with these groups, but not necessary relatable at the plantation level.

Speaking in these general terms, it is worth pointing out that the Forestero was bred out of the Criollo, and the generalization is that it was bred for larger bean size, yield, cocoa butter, desease resistance, self-polinating traits, adaptability to lower altitudes, etc, and not so much for flavanoids. In truth, the same mindset is being perpetuated here and now, where breeders are prioritizing for these quantitative traits over qualitative ones.

Interesting facts. Is there any chance we could get criollo pod in sabah? Yeah, pardon my mistake , instead of hybrid, it should be clone instead . Im a bit skeptical about the cloned cacao tree, i believe the aroma wont be that good as compare to those from africa and america. Well you knows better and ahead of us in the characteristics of the beans. Lets hope we could gather more people to share the chocolate knowledge and experience.

Hi there, don't think I'll call those specialty chocolates, I could be wrong...
What other chocolates have you tried?

Would anyone else here be interested in a chocolate tasting session to taste and evaluate different chocolates from around the world?

Lindt choco - go for the highest choco (taste bitter) and healthy.

85% choco 100g rm14.00 - taste very bitter
99% choco 50g rm1400 - taste extremely bitter

take choco, take the most pure choco and not those fatty milk, high sugar, etc ingredient in choco

I have something to add for discussion sakeA couple of american chocolatiers i knew dont really like the taste of commercial Lindt chocolate made for the mass market. First of all, the aroma is too subtle and not even present to some . The taste of it some attest it tasted metallic or plastics. Lindt is swiss and they were famous for their milk chocolate. Do take note of other things like melt in mouth experience . Even whitakers with cocoa butter will not have good melting point due to different types of emulsifiers or additives added for shelf life . Highest percentage of cocoa can be consider good if you eat almost daily and provided you dont eat junk or fatty food like nasi lemak, it wont happen. it wont affect your overall health if lifestyles does not change.

haha, if I"m honest with myself, I enjoy ideally 75-85. Sometimes I love chocolate as low as 65 but
only if the origin and aroma is amazing. But if I'm honest with myself, the 99% or 95% is just not pleasurable
to me at all. I would taste it but I won't buy it for enjoyment.

Do you seriously find the 99% pleasurable? There are other ways to reap the benefit of cocoa without having
to eat a 99% bar, which is to incorporate cocoa nibs into your diet, you can use it as a topping in your
yoghurt, or put it in your cereal, muesli, coockies, nut mix, and vege juice (<- that's what i do).

This post has been edited by nebulaguava: Jan 1 2015, 08:11 AM

Me too, i cant take even if its 85-90 % , first its too bitter and dry . Most of the dark chocolate i made starts from 60% . That way, one might not avoid dark chocolate totally. Imagine if new taster had the highest percentage of choco and dislike dark chocolate totally. When gourmet chocolate is concerned, those who were thrifty will said i dont like it after first try and its very common here. Generalizing is very common and as a chocolatier we cant avoid this stages and accept its reality. Its still an infant market in malaysia. Hopefully we can change that.

This post has been edited by missysleepy: Jan 1 2015, 08:28 AM

haha I love BITTER choco, mostly take 85% due to affordable price, i tasted once for 99% (test water) found it is so so bitter and so love it. I stay away from those sweetening chocolate, anything below 85% choco. When i saw those sweet choco in those shells I feel geri lol

I am also sourcing for pure choco powder for to replace Milx, Tesxo Choco, but I cannot find in market local (tesxo, gixnt, etc). let me know if got recommendation for me on this. I just like pure food as possible.

10years ago Milx bancuh need to add sugar, these day without sugar also feel so sweet, carazy world.

This post has been edited by jimlim007: Jan 1 2015, 03:13 PM

IC. Thanks for sharing. You might be interested to know that Bitterness is a trait that is very easy for a chocolate maker to achieve, regardless of the quality of the bean,
by over-roasting the cocoa beans. Overly black chocolate, therefore is a sign of that. Sure, some people like kopi-o kao, and some look for artisan roast. To each their own.

If I had presented to you with some other specialty chocolates, i wonder if you might like the more flavor-intense chocolate over the bitter-only one.

True. Flavors of the chocolate ,Mouth feel , smell were other significant aspects that determine the art of chocolate making . Found thisin wiki and quite an interesting read up.


Last edited 3 months ago by Deli nk
Mouthfeel
Watch this page
For the Magnapop album, see Mouthfeel (album).
Mouthfeel is a product's physical and chemical interaction[clarification needed] in the mouth, an aspect of food rheology. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite, through mastication to swallowing and aftertaste. In wine-tasting, for example, mouthfeel is usually used with a modifier (big, sweet, tannic, chewy, etc.) to the general sensation of the wine in the mouth. Some people, however, use the traditional term texture. Mouthfeel is often related to a product's water activity, hard or crisp products having lower water activities and soft products having intermediate to high water activities.

Contents
Qualities perceived
See also
Further reading
External links
Qualities perceivedEdit

Cohesiveness: Degree to which the sample deforms before rupturing when biting with molars.
Density: Compactness of cross section of the sample after biting completely through with the molars.
Dryness: Degree to which the sample feels dry in the mouth.
Fracturability: Force with which the sample crumbles, cracks or shatters. Fracturability encompasses crumbliness, crispiness, crunchiness and brittleness.
Graininess: Degree to which a sample contains small grainy particles.
Gumminess: Energy required to disintegrate a semi-solid food to a state ready for swallowing.
Hardness: Force required to deform the product to given distance, i.e., force to compress between molars, bite through with incisors, compress between tongue and palate.
Heaviness: Weight of product perceived when first placed on tongue.
Moisture absorption: Amount of saliva absorbed by product.
Moisture release: Amount of wetness/juiciness released from sample.
Mouthcoating: Type and degree of coating in the mouth after mastication (for example, fat/oil).
Roughness: Degree of abrasiveness of product's surface perceived by the tongue.
Slipperiness: Degree to which the product slides over the tongue.
Smoothness: Absence of any particles, lumps, bumps, etc., in the product.
Uniformity: Degree to which the sample is even throughout; homogeneity.
Uniformity of Bite: Evenness of force through bite.
Uniformity of Chew: Degree to which the chewing characteristics of the product are even throughout mastication.
Viscosity: Force required to draw a liquid from a spoon over the tongue.
Wetness: Amount of moisture perceived on product's surface.
See alsoEdit



Dollase, Jürgen, Geschmacksschule [engl.: Tasting School], 2005 Tre Tori, Wiesbaden, Germany (ISBN 3937963200). German-language textbook by a renowned food critic covering some, but not all of the above mentionend properties/mouthfeelings.
Katz, E.E. and Labuza, T.P. (1981) Effect of water activity on the sensory crispness and mechanical deformation of snack food products. J. Food Sci. 46: 403–409

Choco tasting session? New to this wor. Where? Need$$?

like wine tasting. we can do a small gathering among us. i can bring some chocolates for tasting. you can bring your favourite chocolate if you want . some might not go back to cadbury , kit kat or even beryl base on individual taste bud. when do you guys want to do it? how bout sunday when traffic not so bad , The Curve starbuck ? just some suggestion.

Nice, do you read/speak german? The tasting literature I find useful are mostly wine education (in studying for the courts of masters sommalier certification), Gulp (Mary Roach) and Clay Gordon's book on chocolates. I run tastings almost weekly, had one before christmas at BSC, impromptu, at the wine section. I think coffee would go nicely for a casual session, at one of the specialty brew cafes.

No buddy, i still have lots to learn from you. Coffee indeed , im not good in coffee either but would love to study the pairing with different types of coffee. Mean while thanks for recommending the author to me. Clay gordon, chocolate life .com owner right? His site is wonderdul . We should do chocolate tasting soon.

Hey I'm organizing some chocolate education and tasting with Berjaya Hospitality school at the end of this month 28,29th. Having a guest speaker discuss origins, processes, and chocolate tasting and pairing. Interested to join? I have limited invitations.

Hey great! I would love to join this talk to expand my knowledge and also to get together and introduce ourselves. thanks

Personally I like Royce for the very smooth texture (one of the series; coated with cocoa powder ones). The rest frankly speaking a bit pricey.
Usual day mostly eat Cadbury dark and Ritter Sports.

Ritter have a very wide range of choice. I like the strawberry yogurt and Kakao-Mousse flavor. The Kakao-Mousse ones rather oily texture but smooth and taste good. Not to mention it's very affordable.