Learning to love 100% chocolate

It has taken quite a long time to get to the stage where I can eat 100% chocolate. I started eating 70% about 2 years ago and I found it heavy going. But after a while I moved to 80%, then 85%, where I stayed for months.

I’ve been eating 90% chocolate for a year and as I’ve reduced the amount of sugar in my diet I’ve enjoyed it more and more. I have 2 squares every evening and have a particular method of eating it. I bite each square into 9 small pieces and let each one dissolve on my tongue. It makes my daily treat last longer and I can savour the flavours. I usually drink a cup of Pukka Cleanse herbal tea with it.

The transition to 100% chocolate has been interesting. I have always loved Montezuma’s chocolate. All of their chocolate is amazing whether it is the drinking chocolate or the cherry pie bars (which are just about the only thing on the planet that I cannot resist).

Montezuma’s doesn’t taste burnt like some that I’ve tried, however they don’t do a 90% which is why I’ve been eating Lindt. Of all of the 90% chocolate that I’ve tried Lindt is the smoothest and probably the easiest to make the transition to darker chocolate. I would certainly say that it’s the white t-shirt of the 90% chocolate world. It’s great, everyone likes it but it won’t win any awards for fashion.

However, I ordered some 100% chocolate buttons from Montezuma’s to try them.

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I know enough about chocolate that, in order to get the full flavour, you have to let it melt on your tongue. It takes at least 30 seconds to start to taste the range of flavours.

I’ve written before about my issues with being able to taste things that most other people can’t e.g. that I can taste the re-worked dough in biscuits, tap water tastes either of pure chlorine or mouldy mud and I can tell the difference between different brands bottled waters.

As my diet has cleaned up over the last few months my sense of taste (and smell) has become even more sensitive.

When you eat 100% chocolate you have to shift your expectations before you start. 100% chocolate is not sweet, it’s actually savoury, so if you expect a sweet treat you’re going to be disappointed.

I also learnt that, much like French kissing, the first time you do it you have to run home and wash your mouth out. The second time is much better.

It takes me several minutes to eat one small button but, to my palate, the flavours develop like this:

• When you first put a button on your tongue you smell cocoa.
• After about 15 seconds there is an intensely medicinal taste but it isn’t unpleasant and doesn’t last long. As it melts the texture of the chocolate is smooth.
• After 25 seconds the flavour becomes bitter.
• After another 10 seconds the flavour changes to sour but quickly shifts to an intense nutty espresso.
• At 50 seconds the coffee gives way to a nutty creaminess a bit like Kent Cob Nuts.
• A minute after finishing the button you have the most amazing nutty biscuit taste left in your mouth.
• Another minute later the biscuit taste has gone and a gentle coffee taste returns.
• After another minute or two you are left with a residual cocoa taste in your mouth which is sweeter than all of the previous flavours but becomes slightly salty after a while. I adore this taste and it is the flavour I look for in a dark chocolate.

The thing that I love most about 100% chocolate is that you need so little of it to feel like you’ve had a huge chocolatey treat.