Why You Shouldn't Overthink Starbucks Chocolate
I've been procrastinating a lot this month. There are two things that I do when I procrastinate: eat chocolate and fixate on stuff I find online. And that's how I found myself unwrapping about a dozen five-gram chocolate squares (each one with a funky cacao-pod design indented in it along with the words STARBUCKS CHOCOLATE) while watching a PR video.
The new Starbucks Chocolate line is old chocolate news by now: Cybele at Candy Blog rated everything in the lineup on a scale from one to ten, and Chocophiliac Clay Gordon tried to untangle the complicated corporate web that is Artisan Confections (that is, the confederacy of Hershey-owned subsidiaries Scharffen Berger, Joseph Schmidt, and Dagoba) to figure out who's actually making this stuff. But I wanted to conduct an in-depth analysis myself. So I poured myself a glass of water and cut up some crusty white bread (good palate cleansers) and sat down in front of my laptop with my Starbuck's samples.
Tasting the Chocolates
First up in the promo video for journalists that I like to call "Like Starbucks for Chocolate" was Anthony Carroll, a quality control maestro for Starbucks ("slurping and spitting is part of Anthony’s daily grind," reads the guy's bio) whose job it is to warm up the crowd with shots of Caffe Verona before Ann Brinkerhoff, Master Chocolatier for the Hershey Company, takes over.
Starbucks chocolate uses a "different bean blend," she says, but she doesn't explain where the beans come from or even what variety of cacao they are. The dark chocolate square is 55 percent cacao, which she describes as "approachable." Then she instructs her audience (reporters assembled in a studio space in New York) to unwrap a square, look at the appearance, break it in half, and listen for a sharp snapping sound. Participants then looked at a tasting wheel to identify the flavors they were inhaling. "Big brownies with nuts!" a gentleman shouted out. "Raspberries!" cried a lady. As they placed the squares on their tongues, Carroll chimed in again to suggest taking another sip of the Verona. Before the movie's credits started rolling, Brinkerhoff lead the crowd through a tasting of the milk chocolate square, which, she explained, was made of the same mysterious signature blend as the dark chocolate though it came across as "warmer."
There was even more for me to try: chocolate covered espresso beans, chocolate squares with bursts of passion fruit and citrus flavors based on certain Tazo tea varieties, vanilla-pod- and tea-cup-shaped chocolate morsels filled with sugary goo. And there were three more videos! But was it really worth getting back on that flavor wheel?
Starbucks Chocolate: Now Available at...Duane Reade?
Hershey and Starbucks, the mother and father of the Starbucks Chocolate line, will readily admit that they're not making the highest of high-end products here. They don't even sell them at Starbucks! They sell them at places like Duane Reade. Snacks you buy in the drugstore are not worth analyzing that much. I put away the water and the crusty bread, and I packed up my box of samples and delivered it to a room full of undergrad writing students. They ate every single thing in the box. No complaints—but no mention of raspberry notes and warm tones either.
About the author: Emily Stone, proprietor of Chocolate in Context, is a chocolate enthusiast, itinerant traveler, and a lover of literature who lives in Pittsburgh. She's been a movie reviewer, a reproductive health researcher, and an independent bookstore owner. Her writing has appeared in the magazines Budget Travel, Travel + Leisure, and Time Out New York, as well as on the websites World Hum and Epicurious.
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3 Comments:
If the dark is only 55%, it is not worth my time. Starbucks or no.
jdshd at 11:39AM on 04/23/08
Hershey's attempt at the whole "upgrading thing" failed miserably last year. The campaign was launched with much panache and fanfare, but was not carefully separated or "totally " divorced" from the "Hershey" name. And we all know what happens to quality control once "Pa Pa" bear starts giving the orders. The proof is in the pudding. While the Starbucks chocolate is indeed a step in the right direction, the whole "thought process" involved was devoid of some simple basics.......common sense for one! The American consumer is NOT STUPID!
Boscompb at 3:07PM on 04/23/08
I know this post is really old, but as to what kinds of chocolate you can find in a drugstore, I know my local Duane Reade sells Lindt bars which are really amazing. And they sell a lot of varieties too. Don't be too quick to discount your local drugstore when it comes to chocolate.
Chocolette at 7:25PM on 02/16/09