Today's taste testing was interesting. We began with a normal chocolate taste testing, including: Caracas (Trinitario), Venezuela (Trinitario), Madagascar (Criollo), and Indonesia (Criollo). All of the chocolate samples were 75% coco, but I was able to make distinction between the four we tested. The first, Caracas, was mild and pretty plain in my opinion for a dark chocolate. The Venezuela chocolate was bitter and had a somewhat liquorice taste. The Madagascar was light, with a fruity/acidic taste, and finally the Indonesia had an earthy/woody taste. This taste testing proved to me that the location of where the coco bean is grown does have a significant impact on the taste of the final product that we sampled today. Overall, my favorite was the Madagascar. I was excited that me and Aften were able to snag the leftover Madagascar samples. I enjoyed it. However, the mystery chocolate for today was not enjoyable. It was 100% chocolate with coco nibs. I don't understand how a company somewhere makes any profit on this. It was the most bitter thing I believe I have ever eaten!
The next taste testing was the interesting part for today's class. After our usual chocolates we tasted olive oil, yes olive oil! At first I thought it was going to be unbearably gross, but using the bread to dip in the samples of the four oils made it actually taste good. The oil on the far left of the photo is Badia a Coltibuone. To me it had a strong peppery taste. The next one in the photo is the Masseriei di Sant'erame, and to me it tasted distinctly leafy. The third in the photo is Bertolli, which is the only one I have tasted before today. The Bertoli had a floral and familiar taste that I foud the most desirable of the four samples. The final bottle on the far right is the L'Estornell, which for me was too mild. It didn't have much of an 'olivey' taste compared to the other three. Following the olive oil tasting we did a tasting of olives. I have never been a fan of olives. It is usually just one of those toppings I have always just picked off the top of my slice of pizza because they make it taste funny. So just bringing myself to try all five of the olive samples itself was a feat. For me the olives unfortunately all had the same extremely salty, olivey taste. However, the distinctions I did taste were the black olives were milder and more gentle on my palate than the green olives. The olives we tasted were: Kalamata, Ripe Black, Nicoise, Queen, and Manzanilla.
After we finished with the olives and oil, we finished with a cheese tasting, but this just wasn't any cheese tasting. It was the cheese tasting that the majority of the class has been anticipating, Cheddar day! We sampled four different cheddars: 3 months aged, 6 months, 2 years, and 3 years aged. Personally, I enjoyed the youngest aged cheddar cheese called Boar's Head. I formed my opinion before Dr. Sloan revealed the age of each sample so I don't believe it was biased. However, I find it funny that the older cheddar is the more expensive it is. Once again, I like the cheap stuff better!
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