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R&D: Taza 60% Ganache Taste Test

By December 31, 2011October 13th, 2014Chocolate Party, Events, Homemade Chocolate

Poprock-Photography-Yelp-CMYE-Chocolate-TastingWe are always testing new thoughts, tastes, creations, ideas.. Many of them will never see the light of day but many others we will put out to select groups to taste and let us know course corrections.  This is one such trial.

Taza Chocolate 60% Truffle

I really enjoy Taza chocolate.  It’s made through some old mexicano style of stone grinding. This gives Taza a rather grainy grit, texture, and you can hear the sugar crystals crunch. It’s pretty neat but for many it’s a binary experience (either you like it, or you don’t.)  We wanted to see how their chocolate operated in a truffle.

During a Yelp Chocolate Event we had one station where people could try a Taza 60% ganache, we, The Secret Chocolatier made.

Ganache Taste Test Comments

  • Like berries, awesome, neat texture.
  • A bit gritty at first, rich, bit bitter (good), nom.
  • It tasted a little bit too strong for me.
  • Creamy, fruity, nice texture.
  • A very dark chocolate flavor. Prefer something a little sweeter.
  • Bitter and strong, not as sweet as I hoped.
  • Creamy with nice fruity backgrounds. Taste doesn’t last as much as I would like.
  • Nice texture. A little too bitter for me.
  • A good texture, I could thing of many uses for it.
  • Love the flavor. Really brings out the fruitiness but I’m still not crazy about the texture of the Taza sugar grains. Great finish though!
  • This is a little strong; however it would be awesome as icing on a very sweet chocolate cake. Yum!!
  • Perfection!

If there is anything we learn it’s that our tastes run the gamut. There are a few distinct points of view that coalesce. Flavor, texture, sweetness.

This was one of the chocolates we were thinking of replacing our imports with. Since there was enough dissonance with the texture and sweetness we decided not to use Taza as our main chocolate provider.  However we do use Taza in many of our chocolates because there are places it fits well.

Fruit & Dark Chocolate

Candied citrus and ginger we use Taza 80% dark chocolate.  It just sings. Bright acidities are tamed with a very dark chocolate.

Tres Incendios Chili Chocolate

Tres Incendios, spicy chocolate truffle. We found that the Taza guanjillo chocolate (a sweet, tangy, umami profile), with As Hot As Possible’s ancho peppers (raisin, smokey), and Robin & my home grown serrano (clean stable heat) made for a delicious addition to our case.  Everything married real well for that truffle and we encourage you to try it if you like anything with a bit of spice.

Chocolate Testers

Testing recipes and new styles is a lot of fun when we have people to be guinea pigs–er–testers. If you’re on our newsletter make sure you check the Parties and Events box and we’ll invite you to our next gathering.

Andy

Andy is a jack-of-all trades. Technologist, designer, super palate enabled crazy individual. He is like a madman helping The Secret Chocolatier reach new heights and when he's not doing that, or entertaining his new son, he might be falling out of nearly perfect airplanes.