We shared our chocolates with two other homeschooling families today. I think everyone had a great time sampling and rating eight different kinds of chocolate. There were definitely a few surprises. One was that I forgot to take my camera out and photograph the process!
We set up a graph for each family using worksheet works, a website I use frequently. To keep the pandemonium to a minimum, we worked with just a few children at a time. Using a scale of 1-5, with one being disgusting and 5 being the best ever, we rated each bar and chose favorites.
Here are the final scores.
Ghirrardelli 60% 4
Castillo Coffee and Cashew (yellow label) 1.5
Castillo Coffee Bean (blue label) 2.66
Castillo 50% (pink label) 2
Ghirrardelli Luxe Milk 4.5
Lindt 34% Hazelnut 4.25
Cadbury Caramello 4.25
Hershey Bar 3.75
We also had some m&ms and Nestle' semi-sweet chips on hand for those who weren't really interested in trying exciting new taste sensations (i.e., Mal).
The Castillo bars were from Nicaragua, a gift from globetrotting Christine. They were so incredibly different from anything we were used to eating. The coffee and cashew bar was very grainy and yet airy at the same time. One child spit it right out. The coffee bean was a whole 'nother candy bar with whole roasted beans and completely different texture. A couple of the older boys gave it a four. That was a surprise. It was much smoother chocolate. Another interesting note was that after tasting Ghirrardelli, Cadbury, and Lindt chocolates, Hershey was a lot more mediocre than previously thought.
Tonight at dinner, Xav told daddy that number one was disgusting. It came out of nowhere and he had no idea what Xav was talking about. It was pretty funny.
My personal favorite chocolatier is Ferrero. We didn't sample any of those today, but on a scale of 1-5, I would give nutella, rocher, and rondnoir each a 10!
Now go eat some chocolate!
