Iris Test #1: Chocolate

As you may know, I write a monthly taste-test column for Seattle Magazine. For a long time it wasn’t available online, but now they’re posting some of them on the magazine’s web site. For example:

* [Ethan Stowell on Olive Oil](http://seattlemag.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=3E1DA341B2834604B64A1EB3BA74CCFB&tier=4&id=21AC832EFED74B3DA8AAB450F804F2F2&AudID=42BFF54AF0444B8F92E1C3E1A324650E)
* [Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez on Sherry Vinegar](http://seattlemag.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=3E1DA341B2834604B64A1EB3BA74CCFB&tier=4&id=C34FF58152D1471DB91624E4A55AA226&AudID=42BFF54AF0444B8F92E1C3E1A324650E)
* [Tamara Murphy on Bacon](http://www.seattlemag.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=3E1DA341B2834604B64A1EB3BA74CCFB&tier=4&id=D4392AE0CACB44F482930394D4EFD3E0&AudID=42BFF54AF0444B8F92E1C3E1A324650E)

You get the idea. Iris has long wanted to come along to a Chef Test, but the timing hasn’t worked out. She suggested the Iris Test after this incident involving canned tomatoes:

> **Iris:** I don’t like these tomatoes.

> **Me:** But they won a Chef Test.

> **Iris:** Well, not with me!

(The winning canned tomatoes, as tested by Jordi Viladas of Cafe Lago, were Del Monte Organic, which you should totally buy regardless of what Iris says.)

So we conducted the first-ever Iris Test, and Iris selected chocolate for the debut. I wanted to include a mix of bittersweet, semisweet, and milk chocolates, including some I hadn’t tried before, so here’s what I came up with, in the order we tasted:

1. Valrhona Le Noir 56% ($3/100g at Trader Joe’s)
3. Hersheys Milk Chocolate, (/1.55 oz at QFC)
2. Valrhona Guanaja ($4.49/75g @ Delaurenti)
4. Hersheys Special Dark, (33 cents/1.45 oz at QFC)
1. Valrhona Jivara Lait ($4.49/75g at Delaurenti)

Trader Joe’s was out of my two favorites of theirs, Valrhona Le Noir Amer and Chocovic Ocumare. But whatever.

Want to know whose chocolate reigns supreme? Listen to the podcast:

[Iris Test #1: Chocolate](https://www.rootsandgrubs.com/podcasts/IrisTest1-Chocolate.m4a) (2.3MB AAC)

Related posts:

  1. Chocolate chip II
  2. Inside the Chocolate Factory
  3. Iris Out Loud #2: The claw game

7 thoughts on “Iris Test #1: Chocolate”

  1. Wendy

    SPOILER!
    So was the final choice Hershey’s Milk Chocolate or Valrhona Jivara Lait? Is Iris a chocolate-eater of the people?

    Maybe my new crusade at camp will be to convince them we have to use fair-trade chocolate for all s’mores. One of our laws is to Use Resources Wisely, after all.

    I wish I was there so I could make my granola for the next test. I once made it for an opera singer, who pronounced it “golden candy”. It would WIN.

  6. mamster Post author

    Apples are a great idea. Iris convinced me to buy her a red delicious the other day, but let’s see what she likes without the skin to identify it.

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