Chocolate Tasting
Discover the World of Flavour
At York Cocoa Works we're passionate about discovering and sharing more about the journey of cocoa.
We're proud to be part of York's rich chocolate history, and we're committed to shaping its future.
Originally 2 varieties, there are now more than 33,000 different varietals of cocoa each making their unique contributions to our chocolate. Driven by a love of chocolate, and a fascination to unlock the character and power of cocoa and its growing communities, we invite you to discover the flavour for yourself.
The journey doesn't stop there, chocolate ages, matures and develops new flavours once made, releasing volatiles and absorbing new characteristics and balance.
In this guide to tasting chocolate we share some of the ways we explore the flavour of our chocolate. We can examine how it's been made and, more importantly, what we like about it so we can keep making better chocolate for you to enjoy. We hope these will be useful tips to use to explore the world of flavour in the things you enjoy, but more importantly we hope you enjoy your chocolate.
Exploring Origins
We believe we need to work together to make chocolate better.
We strive to involve our farmers in the value added process of chocolate making rather than treating cocoa as a global commodity, we work as directly as we can and pay based on the quality of the beans.
This allows us to operate beyond sustainable certifications by sharing rewards with our farmers for the work they do to create the cocoa we work with.
Through our chocolate making process we explore origins and harvests around the world of cocoa. Enabling us to discover how each variety, landscape, farming process and community all contribute to making unique flavour experiences in our chocolate.
Utilise all of your senses
When we taste food we do so with all of our senses, not just our tongue and our tastebuds, but with our eyes, nose and even our ears as well as the multitude of nerve endings that help us feel our way around.
Our 5 senses give us a powerful set of tools to explore the world, they tell us if something smells appetising and good to eat, or looks inviting and indulgent, or even warns us to stay away, and not to go near.
Mapping Flavour
By using our senses we build a picture of how the foods we eat taste. We store these experiences and allocate flavour memories to them. When we experience those sensations from a certain food time and again in a certain way we come to expect how it makes us feel and we develop a preference for some tastes over others.
Flavours help us recognise the experiences we anticipate and help us define and share what we experience with others.
Chocolate is unique because it draws together sour, sweet and bitter taste sensations while also sharing a range of flavour experiences that we can explore to find the ones we enjoy most. Chocolate is a complex food with so many layers there is something for us all to enjoy!
Join our Chocolate Manufactory Tasting Journey
To delve into the taste of chocolate further join us on our Chocolate Manufactory Tasting Journey.
You will discover the secrets of our cocoa and see how it's transformed into chocolate, then indulge in a tasting journey through its varying strengths and flavour notes.
