How To Host A Virtual Chocolate Tasting: The Melt Way

Let’s admit it – we are all guilty of purchasing a chocolate bar and gorging on it without much thought; after all, chocolates are one of the most delectable sweet treats out there (in our opinion, of course – can’t help being biased!)

Nevertheless, when it comes to luxurious chocolates, we can’t deny that they deserve more than just a couple of minutes before being swallowed whole.

We believe that holding a chocolate tasting can be an excellent way to unearth the texture and deliciousness of high quality chocolates – without the risk of wolfing them down absentmindedly. Mind you, once you host a tasting you’ll never look at these mouth-watering treats in the same way!

That said, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide for you on how you can host a virtual chocolate tasting the Melt Chocolates way.

Let’s dive in.

1. Create the Perfect Setting

When it comes to hosting a virtual tasting, your room’s setting plays a very important role in your overall experience.

A good example here would be choosing a restaurant for dinner. Put simply, you’d prefer going to a place that has appropriate lighting and nice seating as opposed to somewhere with bad lighting and messy tables.

Now, we aren’t asking you to add new, cosy furniture in your home before hosting a virtual chocolate tasting. However, you might want to rethink the setting of your room, since it can influence the way you and your guests view chocolates.

That said, ensure that you’re dimming your lights and playing soothing music in the background to complement the ambient setting (don’t forget to ask your virtual guests to do the same). In doing so, you can make sure everyone feels at ease and the entire focus is on the virtual tasting experience.

2. Choose the Right Chocolate

It won’t be possible to host a virtual tasting with just one chocolate to select from.

While the number of chocolates you want to taste is completely up to you, we’d recommend you to try at least 8 to 10 different flavours.

Additionally, while sending samples to your guests, ensure that you aren’t choosing chocolates that have highly contrasting flavour profiles. Instead, go for flavours that complement one another or come up with a specific theme surrounding the tasting experience.

Having said that, chocolate tasting is not only about tasting unique and wonderful flavours – you could also try out the various types of cocoa beans.

For this, you can use a selection of white, dark and milk chocolates from the best single-origin estates and explore the taste of cocoa beans in new and surprising ways.

If you’re looking for high quality chocolates for your virtual tasting, then visit our website and order from our range of gourmet chocolates today!

Alternatively, you could choose from our “done for you” virtual chocolate tasting experiences and pick an individual set where we provide you with 8 different chocolate flavours to taste from.

3. Have a Palate Cleanser At the Ready

When it comes to chocolate tasting, it’s important to ensure that you’ve got a palate cleanser at the ready to ensure each chocolate is a unique, individual experience.

This is because if you fail to cleanse your palate after each tasting, the lingering notes of an earlier chocolate will end up affecting the taste of the next one. For instance, if you taste a dark punchy chocolate immediately after eating a sweet white one, then you’ll find the former one to be more bitter.

Here, some of the best and easiest cleansers that you and your virtual guests could use are:

• A jar of water filled with lemon slices – The lemon’s sweet acidity refreshes your mouth’s palate with just a few sips.

• A small glass of milk – You can use this as a cleanser especially when you’re serving spicy chilli chocolate. This is because the protein present in the milk alleviates the heart of capsaicin – the compound that gives chillies their heat.

• A piece of cracker or bread – These are also considered as good palate cleansers since they help absorb the oil.

However, if none of these cleansers are available, then you could even use fresh foods like sliced apples, celery or melon to refresh your palate for the next treat.

4. Begin the Virtual Tasting and Tap Into Each of Your Senses

Once you’ve got the setting, chocolates and palate cleanser ready, it’s time to begin your virtual chocolate tasting.

However, as we mentioned at the start, luxury chocolates need more than a few minutes before being gobbled down. This means, when you host a tasting, make sure you’re tapping into each of your senses with every chocolate and taking your time.

Here are the 3 senses you should tap into when conducting a tasting.

Smell

Have you ever thought about smelling chocolate before actually eating it? Perhaps not. Do give it a try during the tasting session because it truly helps kindle your taste buds.

This is primarily because chocolates contain beta-ionone (a chemical usually found in essential oils and perfume) which makes you want to eat the chocolate.

Moreover, encouraging your guests to smell their chocolates is an essential part of this experience because that’s what makes the entire virtual tasting experience more exciting.

Sound

Sound plays an important role in lifting up the chocolate tasting experience.  However, we don’t expect you to start holding up the chocolate to your ear. The sound stems from the snap you hear when you break the chocolate in two.

If you hear a satisfying snap, then it means the chocolate really is of high quality; so do ask your participants to hold the piece close to their ear and snap it into two.

Although this step might sound a little silly, it does impact the chocolate tasting.

Taste

While this is an obvious step in a virtual chocolate tasting session, it doesn’t mean you should necessarily eat your chocolate in one bite.

The right method is to place your piece of chocolate on your tongue and let the subtle notes of cocoa slowly release. This way, not only do you savour your chocolate for a long time but also enable your other senses to pick up on its qualities.

When You Can’t Host a Chocolate Tasting of Your Own – Sign Up for Melt’s Onsite Experiences

Hosting a chocolate tasting at home requires some time and effort.

However, if you want to avoid all the major steps involved in orchestrating a chocolate tasting experience, why not sign up for one of our virtual, onsite experiences?

At Melt, our experienced chocolatiers can teach you how to taste chocolates the right way while also savouring its complexity and different notes.

So, visit our website and book a virtual tasting experience today!