Chocolates | Image: André Karwath aka Aka
Most of us, when thinking of our list of dream jobs, skip possibilities because we can't even conceive of the luck some people have in finding their chosen professions. For example, how would you like to work at tasting chocolate? As a career? Talk about a sweet job!
In the article linked below, Bon Appetit acts as a platform for professional chocolate taster Georg Bernardini to detail his delicious duties. Is the job every bit as wonderful as it sounds? Read the piece and see. Below is a rich and tasty teaser:
"Hand Georg Bernardini, a professional chocolate taster and tester, a bar of Hershey’s milk chocolate and he’ll unwrap it, smell it, examine the surface and texture, and then bring it to his ears to listen to it break. Finally, he takes a bite, letting the chocolate melt almost completely before he chews, deliberately. His review for the milk chocolate is unrestrained: “Extremely rancid—cheesy…Inedible.” Then on to the Cookies ‘n’ Creme: 'Oh dear, oh dear, the ingredients list reads like the list of protagonists of a chamber of horrors…I don’t like it.' The only explanation for why people in the U.S. must like it 'is that there were no alternatives,' he guesses.
Bernadini consumed 70 pounds of chocolate—4,200 chocolates from 70 different countries—a year this way. He evaluated everything from flavor, taste, appearance, melt, ingredients, and quality to determine which chocolates are really the best in the world. And he put it in his new, ultimate chocolate guide, Chocolate: The Reference Standard, now available in English. What’s it like to be Bernadini? Sometimes a total nightmare, and other times super sweet."
What are the downsides of Bernadini's job? How does it affect his diet? What are the hallmarks of the best and worst chocolates? Read answers to those questions and more here.