Chocolate Expert Guesses Cheap vs. Expensive Chocolate | Price Points | Epicurious

I'm Amy Guittard and I'm a chocolate expert I can't go away bacon chips otherwise known as chocolate chips which if you're a home baker you're probably super familiar with these right out the gate they both look pretty similar not too much of a color difference they both have nice little tails which is what we call the tip of the baking chip so this one has a little bit of a white note to it it's called bloom it looks kind of like a white powder some people might think it's mold if the chocolate is in a hot environment and then it cools down in a not proper temperature it'll get bloom so since these look so similar let's move into tasting so first I'm gonna try this guy over here so this is a little bit sweeter the grind itself is a little bit coarser the first thing I'm tasting is not chocolate it's sugar so when you're making chocolate first you take your beans and you roast them after roasting you grind them up and make cocoa liquor or unsweetened chocolate much the same way that one would make peanut butter from peanuts you grind your peanuts to make your peanut butter you grind your cocoa nibs to get your unsweetened chocolate if you're refining on a shorter period of time your grain or your particle size is going to be larger which means that the fat that's being released in the mass itself is gonna have larger globules for it to cover so when it's on your tongue it's not going to melt as fluidly as if it were smaller particle sizes with more cocoa butter covering them so in the case of this particular chocolate I'm tasting more sugar which means that not only is the mass have a higher content of sugar but I'm guessing that maybe in the refining stage they didn't refine it as finely as another brand might sugar is probably the cheapest ingredient that you'd be adding so if a company is making a ton of chocolate chips and just pumping them out the door they might be using more of the cheaper ingredient and trying to cut down their production time which would be in the refining stage for instance which is where you're going to have something that's a little bit more sugar and a little bit larger particle size so now I'm gonna go ahead and taste B so this chocolate when I first taste it it's a really nice rich chocolate note it lingers a little bit longer on my tongue I'm tasting sugar much like I tasted this but it's certainly not the first thing I'm tasting and also as I eat this chocolate it melts really evenly on my tongue I'm not tasting a lot of particle size in it this is this is a nice standard rounded beautifully flavored cookie drop I can't go away I think B probably has been refined a little bit more I'm thinking it probably has less sugar in it than a and I'm thinking the origins that they're using are a little bit different than a as well so I'm gonna go ahead and guess that I think B is probably the more expensive one but let's do that make me feel oh it is but just by a little bit huh the shape is the same this has white on it but I don't think that it's due to bloom it might be due to just scuffing and transportation this particular chocolate is very sugar forward and the grains in the chocolate as it melts on my tongue are really prominent so for your bang for your buck you're getting a whole lot more flavor for just $1 more in these guys than you are for these guys so it looks like we've got some milk chocolate here and I can figure that out just by the color and just off the bat taking a look at them the color is pretty similar this is a little bit lighter brown this is a little bit of a darker brown but what I'm noticing more other than the color is just the texture that you have in the chocolate itself in the case of this one you can tell that the particle size is a little bit larger and so when you break it and you've got that rough edge that to me is a clear sign that there might be a lesser quality milk chocolate happening here typically with a milk chocolate you can have dark milk so you can have lighter milk so just in looking at these one might think that just because it's darker it might have more cocoa in it but the only way to find out is to taste it so let's start with a I'm gonna do chocolate you have to let it melt on your mouth so what I'm tasting with this it's a really bright fresh berry note with milk chocolate you're not necessarily looking for chocolate flavor you're really looking for milk flavor that complements chocolate so in this case it's a really upfront fresh dairy note the chocolate flavor is there it's a nice clean palate it lingers quite nicely on on my tongue as I let it melt and this is a really nice even melt as well now let's try beep gosh this is so soft so this is um super almost like metallic II I don't really get chocolate I don't really get milk I get a really sort of burned in the back of my throat flavor so my guess here is that the dairy that's being used in this might be coming from a higher quality dairy farm versus the dairy that's being used in this this could very well be grass-fed dairy versus this although sometimes that really affects the flavour sometimes it doesn't this might be a happier cow than this guy so I'm guessing that with be the processing has probably been shortened a little bit maybe the refining process wasn't as laborious or thoughtful as it was in a but let's do the big reveal as suspected a definitely is the more expensive with be the particle sizes again are quite large which makes it a little bit difficult to melt evenly on my tongue and it's also impacting the total fat that's in the product and how it melts on my tongue which is giving again that waxy note which is all a product of how it's being manufactured or produced in factory my biggest hunch about this significant price difference is not only the quality of dairy that's being used but also the time that's going into manufacture this something with this level of graininess and sort of lack of depth just in the general delivery of milk and chocolate leads me to believe that it's probably more of a commodity that they're just pumping out large volumes of this particular chocolate as opposed to this this is really an art and a science it's being delivered here in the case that maybe you're doing a lot of volumes say with s'mores I would maybe consider going with with the cheaper version but in most cases you're really going to be able to tell the difference from a really high quality milk chocolate versus a lower quality cheaper milk chocolate so if you can handle the price difference I would always say with try and go it to go with the more expensive one okay so we've got white chocolate the elusive white chocolate well first of all you can't call white chocolate white chocolate with the word chocolate in it unless it has 20 percent minimum cocoa butter what does someone maybe replace the cocoa butter with something that's probably cheaper which is oftentimes like a vegetable fat these are both white products whether they're both white chocolate we'll soon find out this is an even white color this is more of a yellowish color which leads me to believe that it might be more natural so when you think chocolate you think Brown and that Brown is coming from the solids that are in the unsweetened chocolate with white chocolate it's white because it doesn't have any of the cocoa solids in it it's just made up of cocoa butter which without the solids is clear this particular product over here is so bright white that it might have an additive added to it to even out the color and drop out any off colors that one might not want in their end product so now it's time to taste I'm gonna actually start with this one over here just because I think it looks tastier um why not so as suspected it is melting quite evenly on my tongue fun fact cocoa butter melts at your body's temperature so this particular product is melting quite quickly I can taste some sugar but for the most part it's a really fresh dare you know it has a little bit of citrus to it and it's a really creamy mouthfeel it's really clean moving on to B let me taste this one now I'm a little scared because it looks a little bright wait it's always scary when it comes to food mmm this is not melting as easily and fluidly as this one which makes me think that this probably is not a white chocolate I'm thinking this is probably has a fair amount of vegetable fat in it alternatively to the cocoa butter so I'm thinking this is probably a compound I also think that this is a fair amount of vanilla added into it it's that's pretty much all I'm tasting is vanilla and sugar when I taste this guy and again the most important sort of cue to me when I'm tasting this is that it's not melting evenly it's really sticky and waxy on my mouth and the roof of my mouth so I'm gonna go ahead and say that this is probably a compound this is probably a white chocolate and I'm gonna say that this is probably significantly more expensive than this one okay big reveal aha so this as suspected is a bit more pricey than this one you don't have twenty percent minimum cocoa butter in your final product you can't call it chocolate and most of the time if something is a pure chocolate it's got a little bit of a yellower hue to it you add vegetable fat in you're replacing the cocoa butter with something that is more stable might not require tempering as I thought this probably has a significant amount of sugar in it compared to this which it has some cocoa butter in it some sugar and just a really beautifully made white chocolate okay so it looks like we've got some cocoa powders here I guess first things that I notice about these guys is that they look like they're natural cocoa powders I say that because most of them are a little bit they're both a little bit on the lighter side if something's Dutch twitch means adding sodium bicarbonate it's a dutching agent which makes the cocoa powder turn a little bit darker I'm also noticing that this one over here is slightly darker than than this one here if they're already natural cocoa powders they tend to have more moisture in them the moisture tends to make the cocoa powder a little bit darker cocoa powder is made by taking unsweetened chocolate and putting it in a hydraulic press and pressing it with so much pressure that you're separating your cocoa powder from your cocoa butter so you're basically you have your solids and your fats they're both sort of light and fluffy they've got some grain to them but I guess the next step for me to figure out which one is better is if I taste them hey Justine thought it a little bit jerky so the first thing I noticed when I taste this one is that it's really quite burned so that means that they were probably roasting the liqueur quite high before they made the cocoa powder and the other thing that I noticed is that the flavor profile on my tongue doesn't linger it sort of sort of hits my tongue and then the chocolate flavor stops okay now I'm gonna try this other one I don't know why I can't do this without my own when I taste this one the first thing I'm tasting it's a nice rounded deep chocolate note it's not burned it's a really sort of light fresh it's still chocolatey and you can still taste it's been roasted but it's definitely not a high roasted liquor that's probably being used in this I'm also noticing that the flavor once it hits my tongue lasts a little bit longer it lingers a little bit more and that's a sign of some of a higher quality cocoa powder as well when you're trying to select which cocoa powder to use your want to have make sure that it's got full flavor full chocolate flavor as well as a nice long lingering flavor profile I'm gonna go ahead and say that B is probably the more expensive of the two yep B B it is so this one's definitely obviously more expensive I didn't think that it was gonna be that much more expensive but I think some of the things that might be happening here is it could very well be an organic cocoa powder it might have some certifications on it as well like a fair trade or rain forest Alliance certified the really important part is that it's delivering a really strong chocolate flavor with Dutch cocoa powders you're oftentimes getting more of a cocoa flavor cooked salty flavored in a the flavor profile of the chocolate isn't super chocolaty it's more burned than chocolate but there's definitely some some uniqueness going on here that's lacking in this one which is probably where the price difference is coming from okay so it looks like we have a super dark chocolate here a chocolate bar the other thing that I'm noticing with this as well is this one over here on it B has a fair amount of air bubbles in it the air bubbles don't necessarily affect the quality of the chocolate but it definitely impacts my perception of the quality of the chocolate so in this case with the air bubbles there it makes me think that maybe there was something that was lacking in the way that it was processed or the attention to detail that went into making this chocolate so let me go ahead and taste this one so I'm guessing it's probably in the 80% range I knew it was a dark chocolate by the by the color of it but it's definitely a really deep rich dark chocolate there's not a lot going on in terms of complexity there's a little astringency at the end of it but the flavor the deep chocolate flavor notes is really coming up upfront and then it lingers throughout as I'm finishing eating it so this definitely tastes like something that I could eat a lot of we call that Moorish where you just want more of it and if it's not something that you can eat a lot of it might be a single origin we call that sipping chocolate where you might just want a little bit and you're satisfied you can't have too much of it now I'm going to go ahead and try this one B so this is very different from this one it's a little bit more extreme it's not a really rounded flavor profile it I think it's probably a single origin I definitely wouldn't be able to have a lot of this so when I taste both of these they both melt rather evenly on my tongue there's not a significant difference in terms of particle size like we are commenting on earlier the main difference is just flavor development on my palate when I eat them my guess is that B is probably more expensive but I really have no idea so I guess let's take a look and see what the difference is oh my goodness why is that say five hundred and fifty dollar the bar I thought there would be difference but I didn't think it would be this much this is surprising I didn't even know there was a bar that was five hundred and fifty dollars maybe they have a direct relationship with the farm and there might be a component like an heirloom cacao component to this I'm not entirely sure I don't think the air bubbles necessarily affect the quality but it definitely gives an appearance of a lower quality chocolate bar I might just want a really delicious chocolate bar that I can eat in one or two or ten bites I might want this for a special occasion where I'm pairing it with something at a dinner party I don't know if I would pay that much personally don't forget this is still a seven dollar chocolate bar which isn't a cheap chocolate bar from the grocery store it's still a really high-quality chocolate but you know the big takeaway here is that you know you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to buy a really good bar of chocolate there's a time and a place for when you would want to buy an expensive chocolate bar whether it's seven dollars or in some cases what is it 550 so I'm hoping the big takeaway from today is that prices and everything that it's really important to taste the chocolate that you are choosing between if you want to go with an 89 cent chocolate bar great if that satisfies your craving if you want to spend five hundred and fifty dollars on a single origin chocolate perfect hopefully you learned something here that will make it easier when you're at the store trying to make some decisions around what chocolate to buy

Channel: undefined

Views: 7,730,991

Rating: 4.8187647 out of 5

Keywords: cheap, cheap vs expensive, cheap vs expensive food, chocolate, chocolates, cocoa, dark chocolate, expensive, expert, milk chocolate, taste test, white chocolate, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, chocolate bar, chocolate expert, cheap chocolate, expensive chocolate, cheap chocolate vs expensive chocolate, chocolate taste test, amy guittard chocolate, amy guittard, guittard chocolate company, guittard chocolate, epicurious, cooking, recipes, price points

Id: JZ2fRE_nkak

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/PrinceFlatulence]

Pfft. Chocolate expert? What a load of shit.

13 minutes later

Oh my

[u/[deleted]]

I love how happy she looks when she gets it right.

[u/makber]

I like this format. It brings the subject and the expert forward while giving it a little game-like quality to keep you engaged.They don't unnecessarily exaggerate the guessing part. It's like chocolate. 100% chocolate is inedible and 10% chocolate is not chocolate anymore. This video is a moreish 70% chocolate.

Edit: Fixed the percentage signs.

[u/Lord_of_the_Dance]

She is very good at putting those flavors, textures and details into words. I can identify all of those things but I can't always put a feeling into words.

This video also made me crave chocolate enough to open up my fancy chocolate to enjoy

[u/TheStorMan]

The woman in the video is Amy Guittard, of the Guittard Chocolate Company

As the fifth generation involved in the business her great-great-grandfather started in 1868, Amy Guittard has an innate passion for cocoa and chocolate. She worked in marketing at Clif Bar before joining Guittard’s marketing department shortly after receiving her MBA. Her involvement at Guittard includes marketing activities, sourcing, and sustainability, as well as serving on several committees for the World Cocoa Foundation and traveling to meet with farmers, buyers, and traders. She is the author of the Guittard Chocolate Cookbook: Decadent Recipes from San Francisco’s Premium Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Company.

[u/AmericanIdiom]

$550 chocolate bar? Too rich for my blood.

[u/[deleted]]

I love this series. For the uninitiated :

Cheese https://youtu.be/lR-oJvKJyUY

Processed Meat https://youtu.be/LnA7Au-DLUM

[u/inaspacesuit]

What a pleasure to see a subject-matter expert talking.

[u/lumaco]

Bon Appetit visited her factory and had her as a guide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCMGU846iTI