January 11

Today we tasted four different types of white chocolate. I was excited about today because white chocolate is by and far my favorite type of "chocolate". There has been some debate over the last week as to whether white chocolate can technically be considered chocolate. My answer: I don't really care if it's chocolate or not, I just love to eat it!!! Today, we tried four different types of White Chocolate (WC): Michel Cluizel, Green and Black, El Ray, Amedel. The Cluizel was a little more bland and less flavorful than most WCs I've had in the past. It was soft and had a slightly bitter aftertaste, but was way sweeter than both the milk and dark chocolates that we had tasted in previous classes. The Green and black had a great snap to it and was way sweeter then the Cluizel but didn't have the bitter aftertaste. The El Ray had a very peanut buttery taste to it. It was much more similar to milk chocolate in that it had a more chocolaty/buttery taste. It seemed that the consensus of the class was in favor of the El Ray, but I was not a big fan. The final brand was the Amedel which had a very soft texture and much less taste than the others. It tasted a little milky, but also very, very, fatty. I did not like this chocolate at all.

From there, we moved on to cheese tastings. All of these types of cheeses I did not think I was going to like because of the names. The odd thing about my family, is that I am so different from them, that If they tell me I am going to like a food, I am generally going to think it is gross (and vice versa). This concept especially goes for cheeses! So over the years, I have evolved a distrust of any new form of cheese that I have not tried before. So imagine my surprise when I am presented with four exotic sounding cheeses (exotic to me) and come to find that I truly liked all of them! The first type we tried was Gouda which was very good! It did not have much taste at first, but then had a bit of a bitter, cheesy, taste at the end. The second type, Havarti, also had a slightly delayed taste, tasted sharper and slightly more acidic. Overall, it tasted a lot like Swiss. the third type was Fontina which was softer and more unique tasting, but was still very good. it was a little more fruity and acidic, but still tasted alot like Swiss. The third, and final type of cheese that we tasted was Manchego. It had a fruity smell, was harder than the rest, and tasted a little more bland. It too had a more unique taste which made it really stand out when eaten on bread. Overall, I liked all of the cheeses and plan on trying them all again, on my own.