UPDATE: Where do the chocolate aromas come from?

Where do the chocolate aromas come from?

As some of you may already understand, fine chocolate taste more than just… chocolate. Beyond that cocoa flavour many of us are used to, fine chocolate also holds many other flavours you wouldn’t expect in chocolate.

I’m not talking about flavours or ingredients added here. I’m talking about 2-ingreident, plain dark chocolate. Only cocoa bean and sugar, that has notes of banana, orange, cinnamon, or toast. But, where do these aromas come from?

Check out this older research blog summary of mine to get an idea of the aromas found in fine chocolate. Today, we can use tools in a lab to isolate and identify aroma molecules within foods, such as chocolate.

It gets complicated though! Although a food may contain certain aroma compounds that give us the impression of nutty, it doesn’t mean our aroma receptors will pick it up. Don’t worry too much about the details yet. Read the summary and get an idea of how fine chocolate can taste the way it does!