Box of chocolates from Bouchon Bakery in New York City. Photograph taken by Robyn Lee. What makes a great chocolate great? Taste? Texture? Aroma? Snap? Marketing? Beans? Fermentation? Roasting? Something else? All of the above? Identifying great chocolate is sort of like knowing art when you see it. It's hard to describe but instantly recognizable. And answering the question of what attributes constitute a great chocolate brings us no closer to an understanding of what it takes to actually make a great chocolate (bar or confection). It is my belief that while selecting a "best" chocolate is a personal and subjective decision—it's all about individual taste preferences—identifying great chocolates is objective in the sense that a group of trained...
Continue reading »
