Business Photo Slideshows

Introduction

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

Once simply the stuff of Easter eggs and Hershey bars, chocolate has become a foodie fetish. It?s sniffed and paired, judged for texture, aroma, and subtleties of flavor. Chocolate isn?t just chocolate anymore -- it's limited-edition, 64-percent-cocoa bars from beans harvested at a single estate in 2005. If Willy Wonka were a real person, he?d be out of a job.

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The Basics

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

Chocolate comes in three forms — dark, milk, and white. Dark has less sugar and milk, so it tastes stronger and appears darker. Milk chocolate has a lower dose of cacao, tastes milder and sweeter, and appears coffee-colored instead of dark brown or black. High-quality white chocolate contains a high percentage of cocoa butter, which makes it smooth, but no cocoa solids.

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Need-to-Know Number

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

The percentage of cacao in a dark chocolate bar has become a snob index. While 70 percent is currently trendy (so 30 percent of the bar is composed of other ingredients like sugar, vanilla, and lecithin), some bars have cacao content as high as 100 percent. These bars taste almost bitter. If that’s not your thing, don’t feel déclassé: Many experts argue that sugar brings out chocolate’s flavor.

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Bean to Beat

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

Commercial chocolate is made from three kinds of cacao beans: Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario. Criollo beans are prized for the light, aromatic chocolate they make, and sell for up to $15,000 a metric ton. Forastero beans are used in most of the world’s chocolate. These beans cost less than $1,900 a metric ton. Smack in the middle is the Trinitario bean, which sells for between $1,900 and $5,000 a metric ton.

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"Organic" Gimmick

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

Don’t fall for products—even from high-end chocolatiers—labeled “organic.” The beans may have been grown without pesticides, but nearly all commercial chocolate beans are sprayed with methyl bromide at the shipping port, at the factory, or both, to remove insects and dirt. To ensure your bonbons are bromide-free, look for brands that say “nonfumigated” instead.

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Singular Sensation

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

Single-bean chocolate bars are all the rage. The trend started when small farms in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela started producing exclusive-derivation bean shipments, meaning the beans all come from a small grove of identical trees within a certain area. Each microclimate has beans with particular genetics, and each climate creates a specific flavor, whether peppery, earthy, or vanilla-y.

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Good Save

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

Chocolate can be stored for well over a year, if the spot is cool and dry and the temperature constant. Changes in temperature result in “bloom”—white patches that make chocolate look moldy but are just the cocoa butter coming to the surface. Make sure chocolate is wrapped and stored away from pungent foods, as it absorbs flavors. If the chocolate crumbles instead of melts in your mouth, it’s old or of poor quality.

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The Payoff

Photo by Kenneth Chen; Styling by Brett Kurzweil

To best enjoy chocolate, eat it at room temperature: too cold and it’s waxy; too hot and it melts. The best chocolates melt quickly—the human body is just warmer than the melting point of chocolate—and have a powerful aftertaste. For a diverse tasting plate, assemble chocolates from different growing regions and compare, as with cheese; dried fruit (like apricots) and nuts (like almonds) make good accompaniments.

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