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> From there, Toth suggests placing a square of chocolate into your mouth, breaking it into small pieces with your teeth, and letting it melt. No chewing. This

by cwkoss 9y ago

> From there, Toth suggests placing a square of chocolate into your mouth, breaking it into small pieces with your teeth, and letting it melt. No chewing. This is some 'shaken but not stirred' nonsense. How do you break something into small pieces with your teeth without chewing?

magic_beans 9y ago
Chewing means mashing it up repeatedly until it becomes a fine paste. The guy means just break it up into large chunks and let them sit on your tongue until they dissolve, without further maceration.
- stouset 9y ago
  Yeah, I don’t get the problem. He’s just trying to get across the point of chewing just a small amount, instead of mashing it into paste. If you don’t think this makes a difference… even if you’re right, you’re wrong. As Serious Eats points out with their articles on Mexicoke[1] and eggs[2], our enjoyment of food is inextricably linked with our emotional perspective on where the food came from and how we’re eating it. The simple act of caring about how you chew a bar of chocolate actually increases your subjective enjoyment of it, even if a hypothetical double-blind experiment would show no discernible difference. You could immediately follow that tasting with another bar for which you give exactly opposite instructions: macerate quickly, trying to expose as much of the chocolate’s surface area as possible in order to maximize the evaporation of volatile oils. I would wager heavily that the explicit difference in instruction and focus on a different aspect of the experience would heighten the taster’s appreciation of both bars. [1]: https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/09/the-food-lab-drinks-edition-is-mexican-coke-better-than-regular-coke-coke-taste-test-coke-vs-mexican-coke.html https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/09/the-food-lab-drinks-e... [2]: https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-c...
- cwkoss 9y ago
  Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.
williamscales 9y ago
> How do you break something into small pieces with your teeth without chewing? Simple, you merely palp it with your teeth. /s
JonnyNova 9y ago
A buddy of mine has a theory that every great product needs a gimmick. It needs something that makes it seem like it stands apart from similar products. Going to sell a pen? No! Sell a pen that appeals to someone's sense of a adventure, even if it (and the person buying it) will spend its entire life sitting on the desk at the office. That is the whole no-chew thing - the gimmick.
ashelmire 9y ago
Well yeah, you have to be a great snake oil salesman to sell a $290 bar of chocolate.
mortenjorck 9y ago
It's not that hard. This isn't something invented by Toth but is rather just a standard part of chocolate tasting. You don't need a $300 or even $10 chocolate bar to benefit from this technique - it brings out the flavors of a $3 Trader Joe's 85% cacao Colombian bar just as nicely.
- atwebb 9y ago
  Really, really off the point but is your 85% $3? Ours is 2, I only recognize it because of the absurd amount we eat.
  - mortenjorck 9y ago
    You know what, I think I was recalling the price of a different bar they introduced more recently. The 85% Dark Chocolate Lover's Bar is still $2 here.
  - majos 9y ago
    Ours is 1.70 or so. Trader Joe's has a bad record for suddenly ceasing production of stuff I like, so I buy a few dozen bars at a time. There's a noticeable difference between the first bar of a purchase batch and the last a few months later -- less fruity glossy snap, but I also find it more "cocoa"ish.
  - nasredin 9y ago
    "absurd amount"? Huh. FYI Trader Frank's has the Pound Plus Bar for IIRC about $5. Probably less fancy than the 85% one, but cheaper.
    - atwebb 9y ago
      Yeah we're on the whole low carb thing and it's relatively low carb while being cheap and delicious, couple that with living a distance from TJs, we tend to stock up and then our lack of will power comes into play...
PhasmaFelis 9y ago
Hold it between your teeth and push on it with your tongue until it snaps, or put it between your incisors and bite it in half.

by cwkoss 9y ago

magic_beans 9y ago

Chewing means mashing it up repeatedly until it becomes a fine paste. The guy means just break it up into large chunks and let them sit on your tongue until they dissolve, without further maceration.

stouset 9y ago
Yeah, I don’t get the problem. He’s just trying to get across the point of chewing just a small amount, instead of mashing it into paste. If you don’t think this makes a difference… even if you’re right, you’re wrong. As Serious Eats points out with their articles on Mexicoke[1] and eggs[2], our enjoyment of food is inextricably linked with our emotional perspective on where the food came from and how we’re eating it. The simple act of caring about how you chew a bar of chocolate actually increases your subjective enjoyment of it, even if a hypothetical double-blind experiment would show no discernible difference. You could immediately follow that tasting with another bar for which you give exactly opposite instructions: macerate quickly, trying to expose as much of the chocolate’s surface area as possible in order to maximize the evaporation of volatile oils. I would wager heavily that the explicit difference in instruction and focus on a different aspect of the experience would heighten the taster’s appreciation of both bars. [1]: https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/09/the-food-lab-drinks-edition-is-mexican-coke-better-than-regular-coke-coke-taste-test-coke-vs-mexican-coke.html https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/09/the-food-lab-drinks-e... [2]: https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-c...
cwkoss 9y ago
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

williamscales 9y ago

> How do you break something into small pieces with your teeth without chewing? Simple, you merely palp it with your teeth. /s

JonnyNova 9y ago

A buddy of mine has a theory that every great product needs a gimmick. It needs something that makes it seem like it stands apart from similar products. Going to sell a pen? No! Sell a pen that appeals to someone's sense of a adventure, even if it (and the person buying it) will spend its entire life sitting on the desk at the office. That is the whole no-chew thing - the gimmick.

ashelmire 9y ago

Well yeah, you have to be a great snake oil salesman to sell a $290 bar of chocolate.

mortenjorck 9y ago

It's not that hard. This isn't something invented by Toth but is rather just a standard part of chocolate tasting. You don't need a $300 or even $10 chocolate bar to benefit from this technique - it brings out the flavors of a $3 Trader Joe's 85% cacao Colombian bar just as nicely.

atwebb 9y ago
Really, really off the point but is your 85% $3? Ours is 2, I only recognize it because of the absurd amount we eat.
- mortenjorck 9y ago
  You know what, I think I was recalling the price of a different bar they introduced more recently. The 85% Dark Chocolate Lover's Bar is still $2 here.
- majos 9y ago
  Ours is 1.70 or so. Trader Joe's has a bad record for suddenly ceasing production of stuff I like, so I buy a few dozen bars at a time. There's a noticeable difference between the first bar of a purchase batch and the last a few months later -- less fruity glossy snap, but I also find it more "cocoa"ish.
- nasredin 9y ago
  "absurd amount"? Huh. FYI Trader Frank's has the Pound Plus Bar for IIRC about $5. Probably less fancy than the 85% one, but cheaper.
  - atwebb 9y ago
    Yeah we're on the whole low carb thing and it's relatively low carb while being cheap and delicious, couple that with living a distance from TJs, we tend to stock up and then our lack of will power comes into play...

PhasmaFelis 9y ago

Hold it between your teeth and push on it with your tongue until it snaps, or put it between your incisors and bite it in half.