Chocolate TASTINGS: THE JOYS OF A LOCAL CHOCOLATE TASTING CLUB
Last month I had the wonderful pleasure of attending a chocolate tasting club here in Phoenix, and let me tell you… I can’t recommend the experience enough. Regardless of where you are on your chocolate connoisseur journey, I will say it unequivocally right now – there is a place for you at chocolate tastings.
It will serve you well, put a big smile on your face, give you an inevitable chocolate high for a few hours, and just enhance your overall well-being. Yes, it’s true, chocolate can be that magical.
Below is a closer look at what turned out to be an amazing morning despite the blazing hot Arizona sun (I think it hit 112 degrees that day).
Tandy’s Café just before opening for the day (photo credit: Tandy’s Café)
Welcome to Tandy’s Café & Embers Chocolate
First things first, let’s start with the great venue – Tandy’s Café in Phoenix, AZ. Our host for this tasting was Tandy Peterson herself, owner of the café, which is a quaint yet comfortable restaurant that also happens to be where Tandy’s chocolate company, Embers Chocolate, makes its own delectable concoctions.
Not only does Embers craft chocolate in the restaurant, it does so for everyone to see, a pretty unique setup that encourages chocolate exploration from the outset.
The Embers Chocolate station inside Tandy’s Café (photo credit: Tandy’s Café)
In addition to the chocolate itself, there is quite an adventurous wall covered with chocolate packaging, mostly donated from my friend Ephi Maglaris’ personal collection (some of you may know Ephi well from her days at the Fine Chocolate Industry Association).
The result is a jaw-dropping viewing filled with “Wows” as you marvel at all the bars, including some forgotten gems from great chocolate makers no longer in business (RIP Letterpress Chocolate and their incredible Ucayali Bar). The video below doesn’t do it justice, as there’s still another side to the wall I didn’t even capture.
I strongly suggest pausing the video above as you go to take a closer look
Into the Ultra Top Secret, Private Tasting Room
Down the hallway peppered with chocolate bar packaging, sits the ultra top secret private dining room. Oh, the chocolate intrigue! Okay, seriously, it may just be a private dining room right past the rest rooms, but tell me ultra top secret private tasting room doesn’t sound better?!
More of the Tandy’s charm… just off the outdoor seating area in back sits this vintage Royal Coffee Roaster
At first, it’s just a dining room with a few of us sitting, drinking our waters, each of our small chocolate stashes in tow… but then our numbers soon double, and in comes Tandy, carrying the motherlode!
I expected one or two bars from each attendee (and for this tasting we focused primarily on female chocolate makers), but lo and behold, Tandy dropped so many bars on the table from Argencove Chooclate that I lost count.
Argencove is a female-owned chocolate company in Nicaragua, with its owners moving to Nicaragua from Australia to start the company. Color me curious, and if ever a chocolate maker screamed PLEASE WRITE AN IN FOCUS FEATURE ABOUT US, it’s probably Argencove (I’ll see what I can do, promise).
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We also had bars from Maeve and J Coco (both from female chocolate maker Jean Thompson), from KESSHO Chocolate (Liang Wang), from Mission Chocolate (Arcelia Gallardo), and from up-and-coming no sugar added chocolate maker Miocene Chocolate, located right here in Arizona (with Rachael herself in attendance bringing the two bars to sample).
I absolutely loved finally getting to try this outstanding KESSHO bar, noted in our Good Food Awards coverage earlier in the summer
As so many Argencove bars were unleashed upon us, we started things off by tasting each of those first, mixing things up a bit by not starting simply from highest cacao percentage and downwards. Tandy suggested we start in the middle for Argencove, so as to not overwhelm anyone’s palate with the heavy hitters in this collection, including a 90%.
So, we started in the middle, and I must admit, I really enjoyed the different approach.
Where the Magic Happens
We tasted so, so many bars, but I will not delve into each one here (that’s not the point of the story today). I will, however, speak to a few of the highlights from the day, starting with the first moment I tasted a bar that was absolutely magnificent.
For many of us at this tasting, the Argencove Apoyo 70% Dark Bar supplied the magic. The taste sensation when you find a chocolate bar at a tasting that just hits all the high notes for your palate… chef’s kiss, and that alone makes tasting parties well worth the while.
The bar that won the day for me
Right after Apoyo, the Batch No. 18 80% Dark Bar also made a run for the top spot, sending us all to chocolate nirvana pretty early into the event.
There’s more to tastings, however, than simply which bars wind up winning you over. When everyone tastes the same chocolate simultaneously, letting the melt lead the way… each person slowly discerning which notes hit, from start to finish… it creates some wonderful moments. You learn along the way too… about the chocolate makers, about the chocolate itself, and about your own preferences as well.
One special highlight for me came from an Argencove bar (I can’t remember exactly which one unfortunately) that triggered a childhood memory in my taste buds… and we all tasted it a second time to see if we could maybe pinpoint what that flavor might be. Despite probably tasting five bites of it throughout the morning, I still couldn’t isolate the flavor memory. I kept thinking it was close to circus peanut candy, but that wasn’t really it. Still, chasing down the memory proved to be quite enjoyable, and trying to chase it as a chocolate tasting team made it even more fun.
Miocene offered another highlight of the day. After tasting more than my fair share of no sugar added chocolate here at the magazine over the years, I slightly dreaded trying the two bars Rachael had set on the table before her. When we eventually reached that stage in the cacao percentage countdown, however, Miocene’s flavor profile struck quite a high note for a no sugar bar.
They use a blend of monk fruit and allulose which, to my elated surprise, translated to a mildly sweet flavor with no aftertaste and no waxy residue either. Both samples were easily the best alternative sweetener bars I’ve ever tasted, and while I know that’s a low bar in some ways, trust me, I was actually shocked to learn there was monk fruit in the bars after tasting them. I can’t wait to try more from Miocene.
The two Miocene Chocolate bars we tasted (photo credit: Miocene Chocolate)
If You Don’t Know, Now You Know
Bottom line: get a group of good humans together in a room with good intentions and great chocolate, and you’ll find a little magic. No matter where you are along your chocolate connoisseur journey, don’t hesitate to bring friends together for your own tasting club.
Typical recommendations are 6-10 people, but honestly, I’d recommend lowering that number to 4-8. That helps keep the setting intimate, giving everyone time and space to enjoy each bar without ever feeling rushed. You’re tasting chocolate, which is a slow, “take a break from the world” kind of experience when done right, and you owe it to yourself and the group to embrace that.
Also, please don’t think you need to be a professional chocolate sommelier to get started! You will learn along the way, or you can attend a professional event or take some training as you go, but regardless, don’t ever let that stop you. All you really need is to focus on the chocolate selection itself (thankfully we’re always here to help on that front), and you’ll figure everything else out along the way, organically, as a group.
So pick up the phone, call or text a few friends, and see how soon you too can bring a little chocolate magic into your neck of the woods.
