Panellist training or experience

Some form of intensive training is required for cocoa mass assessments whilst training for chocolate assessment is very desirable. Only Hedonic (preference tasting) can be done with an untrained panel.

A detailed guide for panellist training and selection for flavour testing is given in Sukha et al (2008). As a summary, sensory panellists can be trained in identification of basic tastes using aqueous solutions such as sweet (sucrose at 5.0g/500 mL), bitter (quinine chloride at 0.072g/500 mL), salt (sodium chloride at 0.8g/500 mL), acid (citric acid at 0.25g/500 mL), astringent (maleic acid at 0.25g/500 mL) as well as flavour attributes associated with cocoa mass (fruity and floral at a concentration of 2 mL/500 mL of kola flavour and orange blossom water, respectively). 

This can be followed by identification of acid, bitter and astringent tastes at threshold level concentration using citric acid, quinone chloride and maleic acid (at 0.1, 0.009 and 0.15g/500 mL, respectively) in solutions to gauge the sensitivity of individuals to these attributes.

A critical element of panel training is flavour association to flavour descriptors. In this regard, physical reference cocoa mass standards play a crucial role in sensory evaluation training. These should be used after the initial taste identification part of training to associate specific flavour descriptions for cocoa mass samples together with previous taste experiences so that all panellists gain agreement on the same sensory language. 

These physical cocoa mass flavour reference standards should be obtained from recognized sources (such as the Cacao of Excellence Programme) to cover the nine core flavour attributes considered viz. cacao, acid, astringent, bitter, fruity, floral, nutty, woody and spicy flavours, as well as, identifiable off- flavours such as smoky, hammy, mouldy and unfermented. 

Panellists should also be encouraged to identify any other complementary flavours or defects that are apparent in the cocoa mass samples, (recorded under ‘other’ flavours).

Training for chocolate tasting should include an exposure to a wide variety of different origin chocolates to build a mental library of associations linked to key chocolate flavour descriptors.