I wanted to have multiple kinds and ended up deciding on a white, a milk, two darks and then two flavored chocolates. I bought one large bar of each. To prepare them for the party I cut them each in half and then used those squares. One square was left whole and the rest were cut into tasting sized pieces.
Each attendee was able to use the square to smell the chocolate before they tasted a separate piece. We started the tasting with the 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (Valor Chocolates), then moved down to the 51% Cocoa Dark Chocolate (Perugina). Now it was time for the milk chocolate and after looking around the store I learned that most milk chocolates are 31% Cocoa. For variety, I chose the Godiva bar. Then it was the White Chocolate (also Perugina), which contains vanilla flavor and cocoa butter.
Then it was time for the two flavored chocolates. There were so many different flavors in the store to chose from, but everyone loved the two that I did pick. Because it was creamier, and more like the milk chocolate, the next one sampled was the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Cabernet Matinee. Everyone tasted the fruit, but only one boy guessed correctly that it was blackberry. As in the name, it also contains the flavor of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. The last one (and my personal favorite) was a 50% Dark Chocolate with Pear and Almonds (Heidi Grand'Or).
It was a great program, and everyone was able to taste the differences between the bars and note the texture as the level of cocoa decreased. We all learned something today. Of the 10 attendees, I took an informal poll and the Cabernet Matinee was the favorite with a three way second place tie for the 70% dark, milk and white chocolate.
I am so thankful for having a store like For the Love of Chocolate close by! I could have spent hours in there picking out different kinds of chocolate to taste. It was hard enough to decide on the 6 bars that I did. Maybe next time I will be brave enough to get the Chili flavored one.
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