Myth: Do Not Chew Your Chocolate!
Image by Bean To Bar World
It’s sad to me that even in 2024, I still come across poor quality and antiquated information within the craft bean-to-bar chocolate world. Having an open forum where anyone can tune in and share is wonderful, but sometimes much of that information is not vetted, and finds itself in the game of broken telephone (a game where the more information is verbally passed along from person to person, the higher the chance the message becomes distorted). The parroted phrase “don’t chew your chocolate!”, offered with good intention, is one of those tidbits of information that has been misused and misunderstood.
Why say it if it’s untrue?
Too much broken telephone. The craft bean-to-bar world is very new, and has a long way to go before we have a greater degree of quality information. Image by @viniciusamano
Well, there is some truth to it, but it’s not about the chewing itself that is the issue. Most people are used to mindlessly engulfing an entire bar of chocolate in one sitting. There is not much thought put into what one is tasting in that moment. Fine chocolate requires you to only take a couple small pieces and to pay attention to the flavour as you slowly enjoy it. On top of that, people do not have the same respect for chocolate as they do wine or fine cheese where you take your time to enjoy small sips or bites. So this idea to not simply inhale your chocolate is good advice, and telling people not to chew was a way to get them to slow down is perfectly fine advice. Often when people begin to chew they automatically want to swallow right away. So this idea of not to chew your chocolate comes from a place where, in a very simple and quick way, you can encourage tasters to slow down and enjoy their chocolate in order to analyze and articulate the flavours.
The problem arises when people begin to think the chewing itself is the problem. Remember, it’s simply a way to get people to slowly eat the chocolate and not gulp it down the way a seagull throws back a fish. However, chewing is not going to diminish ones flavour experience. As adults we can control when we swallow and what we do with the food in our mouth. It’s very easy to chew a few times without swallowing. And that in fact is what the “no chewing” is about. It’s a quick way communicate to someone have some self control and not quickly swallow the chocolate. However, as I mentioned, the problem arises when people don’t understand why they are told not to chew, and when they are lead to beleive that chewing itself is somehow an unsophisticated way of eating fine chocolate. Side note, slurping your soup is often deemed as rude or unsophisticated in some cultures, but in fact this actually allows you to capture more flavour in each spoonful. One other problem arises when in addition to this notion that chewing is an inadequate way to enjoy your chocolate, is that this phrase “do not chew your chocolate” has been strung alongside other ideas that have no logical basis in regards to olfaction and flavour development.
Other ideas tied to not chewing
Along with not chewing chocolate, there are other ideas or tips which usually follow. Most chocolate maker websites and even some certification courses encourage you to:
NOT chew your chocolate
Let it rest and melt on your tongue
Savour the flavour
All three of these will certainly diminish your experience with the chocolate. The concept of not chewing your chocolate, and letting it sit on your tongue like a lazy frog on a log, is information that is guaranteed to limit the flavour one can capture from fine chocolate. On top of that, the phrase “savour the flavour” is meaningless. It doesn’t offer any practical technique of what you should do when the chocolate is actually in your mouth (and yes, there are things you need to do once it’s in the mouth). These three points you see on most chocolate maker websites do absolutely nothing to help people increase the aroma concentration in the mouth, to allow the olfactory nerves to capture as much of the aroma molecules as possible, or to help articulate it in your brain, all of which are crucial to flavour development. What exactly does “Savour the flavour” supposed to mean? What exactly should you do with the chocolate in your mouth. It would be like saying to a new artist, here, hold this paint brush and savour the moment. What the student actually needs practical tips on techniques, how to hold the brush, and so on.
Mouth movement and exhaling is key
Instead of letting the chocolate sit on your tongue, you need to move it around in your mouth as it melts. Mouth movement is key. And instead of “savouring the flavour”, you should be exhaling out through your nose over and over as the chocolate moves around. In fine wine and coffee tasting there is a lot of swooshing, maybe slurping, or anything that incorporates air and movement of the drink. Why? Flavour is not picked up in the mouth. The identity of our foods and drinks are put together in the brain, and a great deal of that information comes from the nose, or nasopharynx, via the olfactory nerves. It’s the olfactory nerves which pick up the specific aroma compounds in our food which give it distinction beyond simply sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savoury. Therefore, the more movement there is in the mouth, the more the air in the mouth is concentrated with aromas from the chocolate. And then, the more we exhale, the more we send this aroma saturated air to where it needs to be most: in the nose, not the mouth. This isn’t going to happen by letting it sit on your tongue and waiting for something magical to happen. You need to help it out. For some reason, this information has not found it’s way into much of the craft bean-to-bar world, even though this is quite basic when it comes to our body’s physiology.
Exhaling from your nose as you move the chocolate around in your mouth (retronasal olfaction) is often overlooked, and is a crucial technique to capture the full flavour of your chocolate. Image by @elidefaria
Chewing the chocolate a few times without swallowing, helps to release the aromas, which in turn help our brains “visualize” the flavour of the chocolate. Chewing breaks up the chocolate into smaller pieces and allows it to melt more evenly around the tongue and mouth to be captured by all the taste buds. It also helps to start the digestion process (the saliva in our mouth contains an enzyme that breaks down fat called lingual lipase), and moving it around helps melt and warm it up which aids in the release of these volatile aroma molecules. Even if you do not want to chew your chocolate because you feel you can’t control yourself, at the very least you do need to move it around as much as possible while you exhale, and not simply let it rest on your tongue.
Chocolate needs to move
On top of that, unlike wine and coffee which are liquids, the aroma molecules in chocolate have little trouble bouncing around and finding their way into the nasopharynx. Chocolate is a thick heavy fatty substance, even when in liquid form, and requires to help to lift move and release those aroma molecules. Alcohol and hot beverages evaporates easily carrying the aromas around in the buccal cavity and into the nasopharynx where the aroma molecules are picked up by the olfactory nerves. The concept of letting it rest on your tongue, no mouth movement, and no retronasal olfaction (exhaling through the nose) is equivalent to chugging your wine, going to an art gallery with very poor lighting, or to a music concert wearing earmuffs. Essentially, you’re going to miss a lot of what you came for. The same is true for chocolate if you limit mouth movement and exhaling.
Focus on exhaling
I often see on social media or website no mention of retronasal olfaction (exhaling) as part of the tasting process, which is THE most crucial part of capturing the most flavour within your chocolate. Perhaps it is assumed people will do this, or perhaps they simply don’t know of its importance. People in my tastings are always surprised how much something as simple as exhaling, and exaggerating that exhaling, will help with discovering and articulating the flavour in the chocolate. And this is no secret. Mouth movement and retronasal olfaction while we eat has been in research literature for decades (at least 50 years) with the literature I have come across. Pick up a text book on flavour and olfaction, search for research articles on flavour and olfaction, and you will find this information very easily. This is not something I came up with, but something that is common knowledge in the realm of flavour science. Why it is not being used in the realm of chocolate tasting is mind boggling. This is why you swish, slurp, and incorporate air when drinking wine and other fine beverages. The importance of mouth movement, incorporating air, and exhaling is no less important for chocolate. In fact, it is more important to exaggerate these in order to help the aromas out of this heavy fatty substance.
So why keep using this antiquated information?
It’s not deliberate, but a consequence of pressures within the fine chocolate sector to grow quickly and the idea of running before one can walk. Keep in mind that the bean-to-bar world is very new. This idea of small-scale craft chocolate makers and fine chocolate tasting as we know it today is perhaps only a couple decades old (it differs from the age of French/Italian fine chocolate of the 90s and earlier). When tasting certification courses started up not long ago, the pool of people who built the curriculum was extremely small, insular, and the information they had at the time was very limited. Much of their curriculum has been based on information taken from other food sectors (wine, coffee) and improperly fitted onto chocolate, while other information was simply passed down by those within the industry who heard it from someone else (the idea of broken telephone). Hence, a very limited curriculum based on decent but not always accurate information. But this is what the industry has had, and this is what has been used and promoted even today.
In regards to the idea of not chewing your chocolate, as mentioned earlier, it was used as a quick and decent way to get consumers to slow down and not scarf down their chocolate. The problem is the negative association chewing itself has garnered. It’s not the chewing that is the real issue, it’s the quickly swallowing the chocolate before you give the aromas a chance to enter into the nasopharynx. However, over time the act of chewing your chocolate became associated with being unsophisticated or as an improper way to consume chocolate, when neither is the case. Chewing does not diminish flavour, it enhances it, as long as you take your time with it and refrain from swallowing it right away. The chewing itself is not the issue. Chewing chocolate and any food will enhance aroma release and heighten flavour perception. So it is not the act of chewing that is the problem, but the fact that most people mindlessly swallow quickly after chewing. However, once one knows that it’s the quickly swallowing it that is the issue, one does not have to feel as if they are doing something wrong when simply chewing their chocolate a few times while they enjoy it.
So what’s the secret to tasting fine chocolate
There is no secret. If you want to get right to the point of proper tasting techniques, you can visit this tasting guide here.
If you are tasting with friends, hosting a tasting, or selling your bars at a farmers market, sometimes you only have 1-2 minutes to get them to to properly experience the chocolate, So make sure you encourage people to move the chocolate around as they exhale over and over nice and strong as they try to articulate flavours they experience beyond just “cocoa”. This will greatly improve the chance of them picking up the incredible flavours of the bars. So if you had limited time, this is what you would say:
Sniff the chocolate, get your brain ready for what you will taste
Chew a few times, but don’t swallow
Move the chocolate around in your mouth (this helps to release the aromas and saturate the air in your buccal cavity with the aromas of the chocolate)
Exhale over and over through your nose WHILE you move the chocolate around. Every exhale sends new aroma molecules to the olfactory nerves, so each time you exhale you get another rush of aromas and another chance to enjoy, explore, and articulate the flavours of your chocolate
Learning to taste fine chocolate is like learning an instrument. You will only learn so much through theory. The real learning comes from doing, from practising. Money that go towards certification courses are better used to buy an array of chocolate bars. This supports makers and also allows you to practise your tasting skills on a regular basis. Image by @cbyoung
The fact is, unbiased and quality information isn’t always very sexy or exciting. It just is. Many people who pay exorbitant amounts for tasting certificates and courses are often looking for the exciting secrets. But, there are no secrets. However, our bodies work the same way regardless of what we eat or drink. A true quality certification course should include a heavy dose of history, the botany and science of chocolate making process, a ton on the science of flavour, and then practical techniques to improve chocolate tasting. In my opinion, no certification course today does this, and/or the price is limiting to most people and doesn’t match the value of the information. This doesn’t mean certification courses can’t be a good place to start, but don’t assume everything you learn there is accurate, as many aspects of chocolate are quite debatable and more research is required to make any definite conclusions.
Even if you do take a tasting course, it is only scratches the surface of your chocolate tasting knowledge. Constant practise of tasting the same chocolate and new chocolate as much as possible over years is key. Chocolate tasting is about knowing what to look for, but also committing yourself to mindfully tasting and recording. Think of it like learning an instrument. Can you really become a pianist and start playing songs from a crash course that took a few days or a week. Not likely. In the same way, the basis of what you know comes from you rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work over and over again. You have commit yourself to it. But it all starts with good information and good guidance of where to find it.
Many of the gimmicks in the chocolate world such as not chewing, holding your arm out, pinching your nose, making polenta to cleanse your palate are there to get attention, and do not really teach you any practical skills that will enhance your tasting abilities. The information is already out there, and has been for a long time. In fact, I do my best to present it to you for free or at a fair price. Here is a list:
The Free Learning Center. A growing portal of quality chocolate information to digest over time. Improving tasting also comes with knowing what you’re tasting from both a historical and science perspective. If you plan to host tastings and teach others, this information is crucial and will help with your confidence as the questions come.
Within the learning center, be sure to check out the Chocolate Tasting 101 pages on this website for lots of free information on how to taste fine chocolate.
Also check out the Blog for lots of science-based research summaries. It’s always important to go to the source of the information when possible, as opposed to someone’s interpretation of it. Even if you have taken some certification courses, you need to supplement them with more information that goes beyond the scope of these courses if you wish to grow your knowledge and confidence in chocolate.
You can purchase the Bean To Bar Compass, which is a tool I developed to help you build your tasting confidence, but the same information is found on this website also. The book just gives you a concise place to find the tools you need in one place and to record your thoughts (important to progress in tasting).
Use flavour wheels and tasting tools that suit you! There is no perfect flavour/aroma wheel or map (in fact, when eating chocolate you’re dealing more with the concept of flavour than picking out aromas, but more on that another time). Use the ones that you feel help you articulate the flavours you’re experiencing.
The book Neurogastronomy by Gordon M. Shepherd is also a fantastic tool itself. It doesn’t focus on chocolate specifically, but it doesn’t need to. It will really open your eyes into the world of how our bodies receive and create the perception of flavour. It should be required reading of all tasting courses. It goes over fundamental points of how we perceive flavour without being too technical or text-book like.
If you are a true geek who loves to dig deep, consider looking into the Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation to truly blow your mind in regards to flavour, and be able to spot inaccurate information in regards to chocolate tasting when you see it.
Consider booking a guided virtual chocolate tasting where you can experience and ask questions. These are great for beginners!
And last but certainly not least, taste! Purchase fine chocolate bars and taste with the tools offered above. You can purchase bars from this website, or download the Free Bean To Bar Map App to find a maker near you to support. Think of each bar as a new book. The best thinkers have libraries of books to help them build their knowledge. When it comes to chocolate tasting, you require a library of chocolate.