Chocolate Profile

When accenting a small thing like a petits four or especially a tartlet with a garnish you need to be more aware of the flavour profile for each item you are putting into the small dessert. Chocolate has a very different profile depending on the percentage of cocoa butter in the commercial product. We did a slight taste comparison so I am going to give a few notes on a few different kind of chocolate to help illustrate this idea.

58% cocoa nibs - have a slight bitter taste, but is mostly sweet and creamy. Very reminiscent of what we think of as "good" chocolate.
64% Manjari - From the Valrhona chocolate company, this chocolate is a single origin product. Single origin means it is all harvested from one terroir. This chocolate had a complex fruity taste that started with a deep berry taste and then finished with a citrusy finish. This chocolate would be a good pairing with a fruit dessert to bring out or mimic that flavour without infusing.
72% Araguani - This is also from the Valrhona company. It has a bitter, dry, reminiscent of coffee, tannic flavour. This is what we are more accustomed to call bakers chocolate or unsweetened chocolate. But because of the single origin quality you can pull on more earthy flavours then is usually present in commercial unsweetened chocolates.

http://www.valrhona.com/