Health Benefits
Matt Kramer, a local wine critic, once wrote of the health benefits of chocolate as they relate to wines generous antioxidants. He quoted a study comparing chocolates antioxidant compounds to those of wine. The health benefit of wine was first identified in the mid-1990s as the “French Paradox,” showing that the French live and love longer than Americans. Of course, we know now that dark beer has many of those same phenolic compounds. The small pieces of chocolate we suggest here provide one with about 205milligrams of these antioxidants, close to the amount found in a glass of dark beer.
Chocolate has very little caffeine and no cholesterol. The active ingredient is theobromine, which acts like caffeine—giving it zing—and, incidentally, is good for asthma. The ratio of theobromine:caffeine is 10:1, and there’s about as much of the two in a standard chocolate bar as the caffeine found in a bottle of Coke. There are other interesting elements, such as trace amounts of anandamide, similar to marijuana’s infamous THC!
Tasting Chocolate
Like beer, chocolate should be tasted carefully, using the same criteria. Remember?
Well, according to the Weihenstephan Brewing School, Munich Technical University, all five senses must be used in tasting beer: “to sight it must ring clear as a bell, it must snap in the ear, feel pleasantly sticky between the fingers, smell fresh and tempting and taste heavenly. The foam must be sprightly, upstanding and crackling; it is as important as the bead on old ale or wine. The connoisseur can tell much about the body of the beverage by the mere sight of the white collar. Exactly the right shade is as important in judging beer as in judging diamonds.”
Applying that to chocolate: How does it look? It should have an even, glossy surface. Lack of shine indicates staleness. It should “snap” on breaking; if it splinters, it is too dry; if it is slow to break, it is too waxy; if it folds, forget it.
It should smell clean and pleasing, with no off aromas—only the bouquet from the roasting of the beans, blending, etc.
The texture or mouthfeel (dry/gritty, moist/smooth) is an indication of how long it has been “conched,” i.e., made smooth by being moved around in shell-shaped copper vats. If it takes a long time in your mouth to coat your tongue, it hasn’t been conched long enough, and if it rushes down your throat, it has been over-conched or conched-out.
The taste is a factor of sweetness, mostly sugar; chocolatitude or chocolateness (mostly due to the percentage of chocolate liquor); and finally, the bouquet from the quality of the beans roasting time and the blending formula.
Specialty Chocolate Items
In our tasting below, one of the items (No. 7) is to match a good strong barley wine with “pepper fudge,” which is usually not available commercially but is very easy to make at home (see recipe box). If you can make or get pepper fudge made, by all means do so. The heat in this goes down ones throat surprisingly easily; it isn’t noticed until its on the way down, and by then it is a delight. The recipe box has two other simple chocolate dessert recipes that also do well with the heavier beers.
Music
Adding music to the tasting will take it to another level entirely. Mozart or the Beatles make good companions. Match each beer with carefully selected pieces (see box.). If Mozart sounds like too much trouble, you can use the Beatles; they have a lot of “love me” type songs that work well with Valentines Day themes. A perfect ending for a perfect tasting.
