Online workshop4 classes
Find out, then train it. Learn to evaluate cacao and chocolate with a professional method: the skill a master chocolatier relies on to decide which cacao to buy, how to formulate and when a product is ready.
Sound familiar?
Is this supplier selling me good cacao, or just a good story?
Why did my chocolate come out bitter when my cacao wasn't?
Where is that aftertaste coming from?
Which sweeteners actually work in a no-added-sugar chocolate?
Why doesn't this couverture behave like the last one, when both are 70% cacao?
Is my product ready for market, or do I just think it is?
You can chase each answer separately in books, forums and videos. Or you can train the one skill they all come from: a palate that knows what it's looking for. Professionals call it sensory analysis. And contrary to what most people believe, nobody is born with it: it's trained.
More than
The supplier's spec sheet tells you the fermentation percentage. The scale tells you the weight. But no piece of paper tells you whether that cacao has potential, whether your formula needs adjusting, or whether your chocolate has a defect your customers will notice. There are defects a lab can't detect but a trained palate can.
That's why sensory analysis runs through the whole chocolate process: buying the beans, processing, formulating and the final validation. It's the thread that holds the craft together. Those who train it decide with information others don't have. Those who don't are working blind, fingers crossed.
The workshop
Four no-nonsense classes to answer the question and, above all, to train the palate behind the answer. Because this isn't a pass-or-fail test: it's where every taster starts. You'll know where your palate stands today, how to train it with the same method professionals use, and how to use it for the decisions you currently make by intuition.
Each class leaves you with something real you can apply in your home kitchen, production kitchen or factory, with equipment you already own or that costs very little.
The path
Why a trained palate is the skill that runs through every stage of chocolate making, and how it changes the way you work from day one. You'll understand where chocolate's flavors really come from (what happens during fermentation and drying explains what you later taste in the mouth), why a chocolate can taste of mint with no mint in it, and what it's telling you when that happens.
The heart of the workshop. You'll learn the language of cacao (the attributes that raise its value, the defects that give it away, and what went wrong at origin when they show up), and you'll set up, step by step, the basic taste test used to screen professional tasters: blind, coded, and at the concentrations set by the international standard. When you finish it, you'll have the answer to the question this workshop asks. Fair warning: many people are in for a surprise. And whatever your result, you'll know exactly how to train your palate.
The 10-minute evaluation to gauge a cacao's potential before you pay for it: no panel of tasters required, just two appliances you probably already have in your kitchen. Plus: how to source good raw material when you don't have access to beans (and the most common mistake when buying cacao liquor and cocoa butter), and the 4-step methodology for developing products built to last in the market.
How sensory judgment guides formulation: why two “70% cacao” chocolates may not be interchangeable, and what to check before swapping one for the other. The uncomfortable truth about supermarket “sugar-free” chocolate, and a combination of 3 sweeteners, with starting ratios, that works very well on the palate. The class closes with a real case: how we validated the relaunch of one of our best-selling bonbons with hundreds of consumers.
The two hands-on exercises
Classes 1 and 4 build your judgment. These two put it in your hands.
Exercise 1 · Class 2
The same basic taste test the industry uses to screen panelists, adapted so you can set it up at home: a scale, five substances, blind codes and the exact concentrations of the international standard. Includes the concentration table, the scoring sheet and the code generator.
Exercise 2 · Class 3
Before you pay for a sack, you'll know how to read it: main descriptors, defects that point to problems at origin, and a clear buying decision. No panel, no lab.
The complete basic taste test
Method, international-standard concentration table and scoring sheet, as PDFs.
The code generator for blind tastings
And why you should never label samples with letters or sequences.
The 10-minute evaluation
To gauge a cacao before you buy it, with its evaluation form.
Cacao's attribute families and defects
What each flavor means, and what to decide when it shows up.
A 3-sweetener combination
With starting ratios, for no-added-sugar chocolate that works on the palate.
The 4-step methodology
To develop and validate products before you launch them.
It's not for you if you're looking for recipes to copy and paste. This trains the judgment to write your own.
Meet your instructor
I'm Sonia Da Cruz: an electronics engineer by training, a chocolatier at heart. I grew up among ovens and molds in my parents' pastry shop, and I ran a chocolate factory for six years, getting my products into more than 500 retail outlets. Today I share that knowledge with chocolate makers in more than 50 countries, combining technical rigor with real factory experience.
The skill that changed the way I understand cacao is the first one I look for in anyone who wants to work seriously with chocolate. It's the one we train in this workshop.
The only way to build sound judgment for developing chocolate is with data, and sensory analysis is what gives you that data.
Train Your Tasting Palate
Sensory analysis of cacao and chocolate
Less than a kilo of good cacao. And it pays off on every kilo you buy after this one.
Secure payment via Stripe. Your access arrives by email within minutes.
Whenever you want. You pay, receive your access by email, and can start class 1 today. You go at your own pace and your access never expires.
That's exactly the misconception this workshop takes apart: a taster's palate is trained like a muscle. The test in class 2 tells you where you stand today, and the workshop itself gives you the method to train it. Nobody “fails”: everyone leaves knowing their starting point and how to improve from there.
No. If you already work with chocolate you'll get value from class 1 onward, and if you're just starting out, this is the right order: judgment first, recipes second.
Things you probably already have or that cost very little: a small precision scale, cups and, for the bean exercise, two of the most ordinary kitchen appliances (you'll see them in class 3, and they'll surprise you). Materials and quantities are detailed in the downloadable worksheets.
Only for the exercise in class 3, and a small sample is enough (30 to 50 beans). If you don't have access to beans, that same class explains how to source good raw material anyway, and the exercise will be waiting for whenever you need it.
No. This workshop trains the skill everything else rests on. Full manufacturing processes, machinery and production are covered in other courses.
In English. Every class has full English audio, and the templates, worksheets and tables are in English too. If you'd rather hear Sonia's original Spanish with English subtitles, that's one click in the player.
One-time payment · instant access · never expires
The question isn't whether you have a taster's palate. It's how much longer you'll keep deciding without one: which cacao you buy, how you formulate, when a product is ready. In 4 classes you'll have the professionals' method up and running in your kitchen.
We use cookies
Essential cookies are required for the website to work. Analytics and advertising cookies (Meta and Google) are only activated with your consent; some involve data transfers to the U.S. (EU-US Data Privacy Framework + SCCs). Closing this notice or continuing to browse does not count as acceptance.
Analytics and advertising cookies (Meta and Google) only with your permission; they involve data transfers to the U.S.
