Chocolate Tasting Party

I recently hosted a chocolate tasting party. It was a great time and a perfect get together to get rid of the winter blahs.  I based my party and menu from a book called Tasting Club by Dina Cheney.  This book is full of information and a great guide for hosting tasting parties including:  wine, chocolate, cheese, honey, tea, extra virgin olive oil, cured meats, balsamic vinegar, apples, and beer.

Our menu…

Appetizers

Croutes with Blue Cheese, Toasted Walnuts

and Port Wine Reduction

Manchego and Drunken Goat Cheese

with Quince Paste and Sea Salt Crackers

Dates Stuffed with Gorgonzola, Bacon and Chives

Opera Primo Muscato

Chocolate Tasting

Green and Black's Organic White Chocolate

Godiva Milk Chocolate

Green and Black's Organic Milk Chocolate

Ghirardelli Intense Dark Evening Dream

World Classics - Chocolate Obsession

Green and Black's Organic Dark Chocolate

Green and Black's Organic Dark Chocolate

Lindt Excellence A Touch of Sea Salt

Lindt Excellence Chili

Afterwards

Mini Dark Chocolate Cones w/Creme de Menthe Filling

Chocolate Covered Bacon w/Almonds

Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

And for a finale...

Angelic Hot Chocolate!

A few of my guests brought dessert wines and we sampled them with our chocolates as well. We used baguette slices and clementines to cleanse our palates between tastings. I must say I never thought I would say this but "Wow, that was a lot of chocolate!"

A few random thoughts...

I'm glad we started with non-chocolate appetizers.  The strong flavors were a great prelude to the chocolate.

Nine chocolates were probably a little too much.  Because I didn't want to limit to just milk or just dark I chose the whole spectrum, from white to dark.  Next time I would focus on only milk, only dark, or something like only Swiss chocolate, and

probably limit to 6 chocolates. 

Directions on how to do a proper tasting and a place to record your notes is essential.  It really is amazing the differences you can notice in chocolate if you really pay attention.  For example, many of the chocolates tasted different if you let them melt on your tongue versus chewing them. 

The wrong pairing of wine with chocolate can be really bad.  Some of the wine and chocolate pairings were not so good.  The raspberry wine was OK with most of the chocolates, but definitely better with the dark chocolates.

Chocolate covered bacon...you either like it or you don't.  It goes along with the whole sweet and salty thing but it IS different.  I don't know if it would be my first choice but I'm glad I tried it.

Overall it was a great night...you can't go wrong with good friends and chocolate!