I found lots of good information on the differences between white, milk, and dark chocolates as well as an explanation of what the cacao percentages given on the labels meant on thestoryofchocolate.com. They also have some good info: tips on how to best appreciate chocolate during a tasting, info on how chocolate is made, etc. I made up a little handout condensing some of this information and also shared the most important bits in a quick 2-minute explanation before we started tasting. I'm not sure that the teens really read the handout, but it made me feel good to have the information available.
I borrowed the basic structure of the initial formal tasting from the Dating Divas, who suggest using a chocolate tasting as a part of a romantic evening. I made my own tasting mats and scoring sheets rather than using theirs, but the divas have some good suggestions for how to structure a program like this.
After a the quick talk about how to do the tasting, we sampled six different types of chocolate: One white, two milk, and three dark. I basically raided the candy aisle at Walgreens and bought several "nicer" bars of chocolate. The chocolates were also all different brands and one of the darks was organic, so we really got to try a wide range of different chocolates.
I made labeled tasting mats and set the chocolate out ahead of time. The chocolate bars had to be cut into small pieces. I generally got 8-10 pieces of chocolate out of each bar, depending on how the bar was sectioned off. We tasted each piece one at a time, taking a sip of water between tastes to cleanse the palate, and ranked them on a scale of 1-5 in terms of smell, texture, and taste. We also gave each chocolate an overall score and voted on which one was the group's favorite. (For the record, the group preferred the Lindt White Chocolate and the Godiva Milk Chocolate.)
After we finished the formal tasting (it took about 15-20 minutes), we basically spent the rest of the hour eating! I made chocolate fondue and provided lots of yummy things to dip in chocolate: Pretzels, bananas, strawberries, marshmallows, chocolate cake, and Rice Krispy Treats. There were also lots of truffles and other chocolate treats to try, most of which I purchased in bulk at my local grocery store. I even made chocolate covered bacon and chocolate dipped potato chips so we'd have some more unusual treats as well.
A program where teens can eat and hang out? Yup, it was a surefire hit.
I did require registration for this program so that I would know how much chocolate to buy. I ended up having 17 registrants, 12 of whom showed up. That's a pretty good number for my library!
This was actually not a very difficult program to set up, but unfortunately it wasn't cheap. Chocolate is a relatively expensive food and I knew that the teens would eat quite a bit. Despite the huge amount of food purchased for this program, there was very little left over. I would definitely do other tasting programs in the future, but foods like cookies might be a more economical choice than chocolate if money is tight. You could also probably save a little money by doing a tasting with cheaper chocolates from Hershey or Mars.
As a side note, a few of the teens preferred to make art with, rather than eat, the super-rich 90% cocoa chocolate. Turns out that chocolate makes a decent crayon! Perhaps this is the making of a future program?
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