Simple tips to identify good quality Chocolate

There are many brands of Chocolate available in market. Price range of chocolates largely varies based on quality of chocolates and its packaging. Paying high price can be one parameter to ensure you are buying high quality chocolate, but it is not always true. Sometimes you may pay high but end up buying mean quality chocolate. Here are some simple tips to judge quality of chocolate.

Ingredients

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans. So anything made from other than cocoa beans is not chocolate. Milk chocolates are made from milk and sugar; those are called chocolates but are not real chocolate. Cocoa solids and cocoa butter are basic ingredients of chocolate.  So first thing to check is what ingredients are listed on chocolate wrapper or box. If percentage of cocoa solid and cocoa butter is more, chocolate is of good quality.

Touch

Cocoa butter melts at our body temperature. Good quality chocolate should start melting as you touch it. Its touch should feel smooth to hands. It should not be grainy.

Appearance

Surface of chocolate should look glossy and shining. If there is bloom or grey/off white dots on surface of chocolate, you can conclude that it is not handled or stored well or it is not fresh. Old chocolates develop this kind of bloom.

Aroma

Chocolate should have aroma chocolate. If it has some other smells, you can conclude that it is stored with some other food or substance. Chocolate quickly acquire smells of other substance it is stored with.

Snap

If it is chocolate bar, you should be able to hear good snap when you break it. If it is chocolate cube, it should make snap once you break it by teeth. If it is not making snap, it is not tempered well. So it is not a good quality chocolate.

Taste

Chocolate should taste like chocolate. Once you place chocolate on tongue, it should start melting. It should create silky smooth feeling in mouth. Chocolate should fill your senses with its aroma. It should not create sand like or grainy feeling. You should not need to chew it.

You can now select good chocolate and enjoy it.