A Buyers Guide to Purchasing Chocolate Online
Some great chocolate advice from our good friend and master chocolatier over at Santa Barbara Chocolate Company...
Master Chocolatier's Tips for Buying Chocolate
Buy Pure:
Buy the purest chocolate you can find. Additives and flavorings are generally used to cover up "off notes" that are found in lower quality chocolates.
Organic First:
Choose organic chocolates with no added lecithin or vanilla - just crushed cocoa beans and organic sugar or organic milk if you like milk chocolate.
Start Light:
When tasting various types of pure chocolate, start with the lighter ones first. Sip a light warm tea to clean your palate between flavors as you work your way up to the darker, higher cocoa percentage chocolates.
Less is More:
Sugar is to chocolate as salt is to food. It should be there to enhance the flavor and not to overpower the natural nuances of the cacao. Not all sugar is the same. Organic sugar is the highest quality and tastes the best.
Ethical Practice:
Make sure the chocolate you buy comes from environmentally sustainable farms and is ethically traded. You'll experience the true nature of the amazing cocoa bean while helping to sustain the environment, its wildlife inhabitants and farm families too.