Taste: Chocolate Orgasms & Thirsty Mayans

The thing that embarked Pete Slosberg on the road to becoming “Cocoa Pete,” he says, was the sound of an orgasm.

Not the sexual kind, mind you, but the pleasurable moans produced by a woman eating—and apparently enjoying—chocolate. Anything that could stimulate such a spontaneous, almost primitive reaction, he figured, was something worth investigating. And besides, during visits to Belgium in his previous guise of “Wicked Pete,” founder and father of Pete’s Wicked Ale, Slosberg had become, in his words, “pissed off” that the ordinary, everyday chocolate of the Belgians, Côte d’Or, was to his taste exponentially better than its American equivalent.

Thus “Wicked Pete” was consigned to history and “Cocoa Pete” was born, along with a line of fun and unpretentious, but unabashedly epicurean chocolates bearing names like Nuts So Serious and—perhaps in winking homage to the sound of his own epiphany—Caramel Knowledge.

Apparently, Slosberg isn’t the only American to find himself of late seduced by the allure of quality chocolate. According to Forbes, sales of premium chocolate in the United States have outpaced those of conventional “candy bar” chocolate five to one. In a $15.3 billion U.S. chocolate industry, sales of premium chocolate totaled $1.2 billion in 2005 and are expected to reach $1.7 billion by 2009. Defined as having a higher-than-average cacao content, (upwards of 50 percent compared to minimum industry standards of as low as 10 percent for milk chocolate and 35 percent for bittersweet dark chocolate), premium or gourmet chocolate is on a roll.

Driving this change in tastes is the same factor leading people to better wines, craft-brewed beers and artisanal cheeses—namely the urge to explore the upper echelons of flavor. Because while a Hershey bar may be fine for a sugar rush and perhaps a momentary surge of endorphins, a full appreciation for one of the world’s most complex foods may only be attained when there’s plenty of cacao content.

THE MEAN BEAN
Grown only within 20 latitudinal degrees of the equator, and mostly in the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia, the cacao tree is the source of the bean that gives chocolate its richness and flavor. But getting from bean to chocolate is hardly a simple process, requiring considerable manual labor and a lot of patience.

First, pods that each hold about 20 to 40 seeds, or beans, must be harvested by hand, since there’s no way to mechanize the process. Then each pod is manually split and emptied, and the seeds fermented and dried for shipment. This part of the process alone can take from two-to-three weeks and involves scores of laborers—so many workers that the Ivory Coast government estimates half its 14-million people depend in some way on the cacao industry for their livelihood.

Once they make it to the chocolate factory, the beans must be sorted, roasted and gently crushed to rid them of their thin shells. Then the real process of making chocolate begins, as the cacao “nibs” are further ground into a paste known as “chocolate liquor,” which is then put through a press that separates the cocoa butter from the cocoa solids.

Once this separation is complete, the chocolate maker adds cocoa butter back into unpressed chocolate liquor, along with sugar and other ingredients, to create a mass that will remain solid at room temperature. Three further time-consuming steps follow—as the chocolate is rolled, kneaded, blended and repeatedly heated and cooled—before it’s finally ready to be poured into the mold.

SETTING THE BAR
Given this procedure’s elaborate nature, it should come as no surprise that bar chocolate is a relatively new invention. In fact, from sometime before 600 B.C.—when the southern Mexican Olmecs introduced it to the Mayans—until about 150 years ago, chocolate was consumed exclusively as a beverage.

Today, of course, the majority of chocolate is enjoyed in bar form, and on that count, the Swiss take a back seat to none. The world’s number-one consumers of chocolate, every man and woman in Switzerland devours almost two pounds of chocolate per month, or twice what the average American consumes. Which adds up to a whole lot of chocolate, and presumably an almost equal number of pleasurable moans.

PERUSING THE CHOCOLATE AISLE
Approaching the gourmet-chocolate section of your local deli can be a daunting experience, especially with the hefty price of even two- to three-ounce bars. Attempting to make some sense of it all, I undertook a tasting of nine popular ultra-premium bars, each with a minimum of 70-percent cacao content. What I found was that—like wine or whiskey—each has its own defined character and is suited to different occasions.

Amedei Porcelana (Italy, 70 percent)
Characterized by a roasty aroma holding hints of espresso and tobacco, this bar explodes in the mouth with spicy, chai-like flavors and notes of coffee and roasted bean. It’s an impressive chocolate for almost any occasion.

Chocolat Bonnat Madagascar
(France, single-estate chocolate, 75 percent)
Although the nose is light and fruity, this is a winey chocolate with soft astringency, but also a beautiful, rich, buttery flavor and full-on roastiness. It should be a nice complement to a glass of single malt or cognac.

Domori Carenero Superior (Italy, 70 percent)
The aroma is curious—simultaneously soft and sharp—with fruity notes backing anise-accented spice. The body follows suit, with a roasty, almost-burnt note accompanying the fruit and spice. This is best categorized as a dessert chocolate.

Dolfin Noir (Belgium, 70 percent)
This one is a fine choice for those making the transition from commercial to gourmet, containing a rounded, fruity aroma that leads to a sweet, lightly sugary flavor with notes of ripe fruit and faint roast.

Green & Black’s Organic Bittersweet Dark Chocolate
(English label, made in Italy; 70 percent)
This one is an aggressively roasty chocolate with a slightly burnt edge on the nose, a firm acidity and earthy, almost smoky, notes in the body; certainly for after-dinner only.

Scharffen Berger Bittersweet Pure Dark Chocolate (U.S.A., 70 percent)
Fruity and somewhat mocha-ish in aroma, this iconic American chocolate balances sweetness and roast, with plenty of spiciness in the middle. A mid-afternoon-pick-me-up chocolate.

Valrhona Guanaja (France, 70 percent)
There’s a lot of roasted cocoa character in this bar, with an intensity of flavor and aroma that’s hard to match without risking it overwhelming the chocolate experience. Citrus-peel notes balance a full, hot-cocoa-ish creaminess. Best enjoyed by itself or with a coffee.

Michel Cluizel Noir de Cacao (France, 72 percent)
Both the aroma and flavor of this wonderfully rounded chocolate are robustly fruity and rich, with a hint or two of roasty spice appearing at the finish. It’s a chocolate for after-dinner with a glass of port.

Lindt Excellence (Swiss, 70 percent)
With a fairly straightforward, buttery, sweet aroma, and a soft, gentle palate offering some reserved acidity, this is an approachable chocolate for the candy-bar set.