Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and many of you will be receiving chocolates as a token of your inamorato’s love. Now, as experienced wine devotees, we know that price is not always indicative of quality; how much the person spent on wine as a host gift or romantic token is not a reliable gauge of how he or she loves or esteems you. Still, we make judgments. Call it a necessary evolutionary adaptation. So here’s how to feel, sniff and taste chocolate so you can tell if he or she should be kicked to the curb or into your bed. Not surprisingly, much of the same vocabulary and methods used to evaluate wine apply to chocolate.

For starters, reading the label will not always clue you into quality. You’ll see phrases such as “single origin.” Like “single vineyard,” that doesn’t necessarily mean diddley. You’ll see 66%, 77% and so on; that does tell you how dark and potentially deep the chocolate flavor will be, but it doesn’t tell you the quality of those ingredients or the skill of the chocolatier.

The most important factor in chocolate quality (and this is rarely communicated on American chocolate labels) is the percentage (and quality) of cocoa solids (the chocolate stuff) versus its sugar content, and the percentage of cocoa butter (the natural fat of the cocoa bean). Inferior chocolatiers will use sugar to mask inferior cocoa solids or roasting methods, and use vegetable fats rather than (expensive but heavenly) cocoa butter. So let’s toss that deceptive wrapper away and evaluate the chocolate for ourselves.

To the eye, the chocolate should be evenly colored. A bit of a red hue in the chocolate can be a good sign. There should be no cracks, air-holes, blemishes or white streaks and blotches (called bloom, indicating sugar separation). 

Your chocolate should be silky to the touch, not sticky. One reason chocolate is a sensuous delight is that cocoa butter melts at exactly human body temperature. So it should begin to melt if held between your fingers for a few seconds. Now sniff. Is it pleasing to you? Is it bittersweet, not overwhelmingly sweet? Is it mellow, yet with a suggestion of spice? Do you detect vanilla, berry-fruit and caramel? Is good. Or is it more cardboardy, chemical-y (from imitation vanilla) and artificial? Is not so good.

Now break off a piece. It should break with a clean snap; that means the cocoa butter quantity is high. If it’s bendy, crumbly or splintery, cheaper fats were used. Now, place a piece on your tongue. As noted, it should start to gently melt. Again, look for that balance of bitter and sweet, full chocolate flavor, nothing out of balance or overpowering, the mellow vanilla and caramel notes a bass note, not a soloist. If it has a waxy feel, that indicates the use of vegetable fats. If it has a gritty or grainy texture, it indicates too much sugar was used. The finish should be pleasant and long-lasting; if there is any artificiality, it will definitely manifest in the finish.

These criteria are all, strictly speaking, applied to simple bar chocolates. But much of this applies to bon bons—truffles and filled chocolates you’re more likely to receive as an assortment. If that cherry center is gritty and too-sweet, if the ganache (the term for the creamy center of a truffle) is gummy, gritty or faint of flavor….he’s just not that into you.

 I recognize that it’s too late for Valentine’s this year, but here are some sources for outstanding chocolates. I welcome your recommendations as well.

Jacques Torres

Francois Payard   

Fritz Knipschildt  

Andrew Garrison 

Vosges

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