So You Don't Like Dark Chocolate
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Time to read 3 min
When you walk through our doors at The Chocolate Dispensary – and after we’ve given you a delicious sample of craft chocolate, of course – you may hear us ask you, “So, what kind of chocolate do you like?”
Seems like an easy enough question, right? Sure! Within the multitude of answers we hear regularly, there is one that stands out. Ok, two. The first is:
“I really like Belgian chocolate.” Please click here to read our thoughts on that!
The second is: “Definitely a milk chocolate person. Dark chocolate is so bitter.”
Waaaait a minute. Did you just say you don't like dark chocolate because it's too bitter?!
What if I told you that it doesn't have to be that way? That it really shouldn’t be?!
Great! Now that I have your ear, let me tell you a little about the flavors of dark chocolate, why it's great (and great for you!), and why you've probably just been eating bad (read: commercial) chocolate, my friend!
Not All Dark Chocolate Tastes the Same
It’s often helpful to start by making a coffee analogy here. Take Starbucks, for example. From Los Angeles to Singapore, Paris to Manila, Starbucks coffee is the same no matter where you drink it. It’s the same because that’s exactly what the corporation is going for. They are not looking for unique and nuanced flavors because their customers aren’t looking for that either. Starbucks coffee is bitter because it’s roasted – well, over roasted really – in order to achieve the uniform taste consumers expect from the brand.
It’s the same with chocolate.
That "bitterness" you're reacting to (other than naturally occurring bitterness in the bean) is created by over-roasting low-quality beans, usually gathered from multiple origins, to create a uniform taste. This is what the mega-brand Lindt does, for example, and why their dark chocolate bars are practically inedible: devoid of all nuanced taste and, well, yeah, bitter. If you take ethically sourced beans, ferment and dry them well, and roast them carefully, you should get an absolute rainbow of flavors that runs the gamut from fruity to spicy to herbal, and so much more. If you want to see all the many different flavors cacao can give you, check out this flavor map from the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (IICT).
Learning to Taste Beyond "Bitter"
I encourage folks to leave the “B-word” at the door because not only should craft chocolate not really contain much bitterness, it’s also an umbrella word that deters you from finding more specific words to describe a taste, words like: citrusy, astringent, bright, acidic, intense, and so on.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you begin to embrace dark chocolate.
- Start slowly. If you're skeptical about dark chocolate to begin with, maybe don’t dive right into a 90% or 100% chocolate (click here if you want to learn more about what that percentage on your chocolate bar really means). Start with a Dark Milk or a lower percentage dark chocolate bar. My current favorites are Sirene's Limited Edition Rose Dark Milk and Karü's 60% Dark Milk Chocolate.
- Try everything twice. One of my exes used to say this, and it’s stuck with me ever since. We often have very knee-jerk reactions to things: we like them or hate them right away. But with craft chocolate, the tastes evolve over time, and so I always encourage those who are new to a particular type of chocolate to take their time with it.
- Explore origins. Cacao, like coffee, has origins. Some boast brighter, fruitier notes (like Madagascar and Tanzania), while others are darker, fudgier, and more chocolatey (Dominican Republic and Haiti tend to exhibit these flavor characteristics). If you don’t love the first origin you tried, try another.
- Taste with others. If you taste alone, your brain and your palate will be restricted to your own experience and vocabulary. Tasting with others can massively expand your appreciation and experience of tasting because it will open you up to other flavors you might not have considered on your own.
- Don't judge yourself! If you end up not liking dark chocolate after all this, that’s fine! Some folks don’t. It doesn’t say anything about your worth as a human, we promise!
And there you have it!
