Enhancing the Chocolate Experience with Sound

Cadbury

There has been transitory discussion on the pairing of taste and sound. When it comes to taste and flavour perception, sound is the sense that most often gets overlooked. Though its affect on taste is not unheard of, the other senses just tend to win more of our attention

Cadbury Dairy Milk took the thesis of amplitude, frequency, volume and pitch making or breaking our perception of taste. And so, behold the pairing of chocolate and classical music; a pairing I particularly enjoy

London Contemporary Orchestra (TimeOut)

Vivani 50% Dark Milk with Coconut Blossom Nectar

Vivani is a German chocolate company, of whose chocolate can be found in Planet Organic, Wholefoods, most health-stores in the UK. All the ingredients in this chocolate are organic: coconut blossom sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cream powder, bourbon vanilla. The use of coconut blossom sugar is particularly interesting, I know that it isn't as sweet as cane sugar and contains more health benefits than cane sugar. Vivani pride themselves in not using soy lecithin

An aroma of flowers, vanilla, coffee. In taste there was bitterness, flowers, vanilla, dairy (ricotta), smoke. There's a distinct bitterness (far from unpleasant!) because, even though sugar is the first ingredient, coconut blossom isn't as sweet as cane. I don't suppose much of the Panama comes through, but none the less it was a good chocolate. A chocolate that would appeal to those who solely like dark and solely like milk chocolate

Naive Honey

Naive tell a wonderful story upon this bar, here. Lots of pretty words, a story behind chocolate invites me, always. This chocolate is Tanzanian cocoa beans, sugar, 5% wild forest honey, pure cocoa butter - pressed by Naive - and sunflower lecithin; all organic

A beautiful aroma. Earthiness, honey, Venezuelan chocolate, tobacco, pure cocoa butter (Willies Cacao El Blanco), caramel

The taste was cocoa, honey, bitterness, flowers, coconut blossom sugar, so floral, Willies Cacao Milk of the Gods. In essence, it was a smooth flavoured chocolate

The mouth texture was smooth-ish. The finish was long lasting cocoa. Overall a great chocolate. Admittedly at times it reminded me of advent calendar chocolate, but then I was reminded of the quality of ingredients, and my perception went beyond what I could taste. I think that happens a lot with craft chocolate 

Blanxart 71% Filipinas

Blanxart have been making chocolate in Barcelona since 1954. The back packaging flatters the San Isirdro cooperative, giving mention to their contribution in the quality of cacao in the Philippines. Blanxart's ingredients list is all organic: cacao, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla

The 125g bar had the familiar unattractive mould, first seen with Blanxart's Peru 77%. The aroma was minty, peppermint, almond, vanilla. The taste was lightly hazelnut, fatty (thoughts of Nutella®, coconut and palm oils), ganache-filled chocolate, the texture was like ganache too. There was no bitterness at all

Overall, this chocolate is not complex. It is boring, but yet so easy to eat, which then in this sense makes it enjoyable. A paradoxical chocolate, and I felt it to be very "traditional European"

Tadzio Chocolate and Yuzu Truffles

Tadzio is a London craft chocolate maker, making chocolate in micro nano pico femto atto zepto yocto batches. He's new and there is no finalised packaging or branding YET, but the chocolate quality is sensational. I couldn't not write about it