Quality and storage

How should you store chocolate, what is bad for chocolate ... How can you see the quality of the chocolate. You can find out in the articles below.

Storage of chocolate

chocolade-uitslagMoisture and heat are the greatest enemies of chocolate and can both cause a wax on the chocolate. If the chocolate is white because of the heat, it is because the cacao butter crystals have come to the surface and one has been recrystallized. The taste is not affected by this.

If the haze is the result of moisture, then it is worse. Then the sugar crystals have come to the surface, where they have come to the surface in the humid atmosphere and have been recrystallized to an unrivalled grey layer.

Because it also affects the structure and taste, this chocolate has to go into the dustbin. The ideal temperature is 10-15°C, and the humidity 60-70%.
Chocolate also absorbs odours from the environment, so airtight packaging is the message.

 

Quality of chocolate

All our senses play a role in assessing the quality of dark chocolate.

chocolade-puur2Appearance: the chocolate must be smooth, high gloss and mahogany brown to black.
 
Smell : the chocolate should not smell too sweet
 
Sound : the chocolate must clearly crack when breaking. If it shatters, the chocolate is too dry, if it does not break, it is too waxy.
 
Feeling : Chocolate with a high cocoa content melts quickly in the hand. In the mouth it should feel soft, certainly not granular and it should melt quickly.
 
Tasting : chocolate contains a range of flavours and aromas that continue to develop in the mouth. The most important ones are bitterness, with a hint of accidity, sweetness with a suspicion of sourness and a miscurable bit of salt, which releases the aromas of cocoa, vanilla, pineapple, banana and cinnamon.