Chocolate is a righteous health food. In fact, it’s one of the healthiest foods you could possibly eat:

• for your heart
• for your emotional state
• for your metabolism
• for insulin control for diabetics
• for your blood pressure
• And even for your skin health!

Good chocolate starts with good cocoa beans. And almost 90% of all the world’s chocolate is made from low quality bulk cocoa beans.

So the question is, who is buying and making chocolate from super fine cacao? Start your journey with bean to bar chocolate makers.

 Bean to bar means these chocolate makers are making chocolate from scratch. The makers start with raw cocoa beans (often supporting direct ethical trade as an added benefit), and refine it to make chocolate. Beans to bars doesn’t t mean it’s better quality or fair trade it just mean someone buy some beans, good or bad, and turn it into chocolate. We can consider than 100% chocolate are beans to bar.

Belgium or Swiss?

To be called Belgium chocolate a chocolate has to be produce in Belgium, same for Swiss, good or bad doesn’t matter.

THE PROVENCE OF BEANS

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The cocoa beans, which are the basis of chocolate, come from “countries around the equator”. It means “that we speak of terroir”, namely “a land, a climate and the work of men”. So “as with grapes, the beans do not have the same taste if they come from Côte d’Ivoire, Venezuela or from Indonesia “. At this level, it is the” perception of flavors “of each one that makes the difference.

VIEW

The chocolate should be shiny. The color of the chocolate already gives indications on the origin of the beans used. A grand cru of dark chocolate must have a black-brown color. The more mahogany nuances, the finer the chocolate.

TOUCH

 Quality chocolate must be brittle and firm. Its texture should be perfectly smooth and you should feel the finesse of the grain. You can take the test by placing a square of chocolate in the

Taste a question of balance

The ideal temperature for tasting chocolate is between 18 and 20C, the best way to taste chocolate is to savor it in small pieces. The taste of chocolate should linger on the palate.  If the fat and the sugar “are flavor enhancers”, the important thing is to have “a balance”, which is important for the taste of the chocolate: “When you have swallowed the chocolate, if you don’t have any left that the taste of sugar, you have to worry.

A good chocolate is defined by the quality of the cacao used and not the cacao percentage.