1st Law
Open your mouth… expand your mind… & grok the chocolate
2nd Law
Trust Your Pal (palate, that is)… good is what you like
3rd Law
There are standards & some chocolate is better than others; recognize quality even if you don’t like it
4th Law
Qualia – demand & seek the finest – sourced directly from suppliers of integrity, utilizing best-practices so that whatever you got will buy a lot
5th Law
Resist Madison Ave’s ‘we can make you like what you’ll like’ – don’t let them… the C-spot’s™ very reason for existing, borrowed from I Thessalonians 4:13, “For I would not have you to be ignorant…”
For example, marketing hype surrounding cacáo-content. The ‘greater the firepower – the better’ largely holds true… unless & until it reaches overkill & becomes self-defeating. Chocolate derives from seeds that are bitter for a reason – to ward off predators. Only with appropriate levels of components & time-lapse technology are they transmuted it into a refined specialty.
6th Law
Fool others, never yourself: do what so-called experts do: when in doubt, call it ‘complex’
7th Law
There’s no great chocolate per se, only great bars… in the 3-way interaction to orchestrating flavor development – a) genetics; b) terra; c) processing – a great bar-smith can do little with a bad seed; a mediocre bar-smith can ruin a truly good one
8th Law
PS/b – Purity – Simplicity / balance
9th Law
U-N-I = 1 People<->1 Planet<->1 Prosperity
10th Law
The all-important alpha-omega principle: As in the beginning, so in the end, the only taste that matters is your own.
READER’S COMMENTS: 1 – 10… brilliant. Love the Laws. All critical to the new wave of chocolate evolution. You nailed it. — FS; 4/16/13