• 4 days
  • Tue - Fri, 22 - 25 Apr 2025
  • 10:00am - 6:00pm
  • Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
  • Full price: €995
  • Early bird: €895

Combined Foundation and Intermediate level courses in Cacao Evaluation and Flavour Profiling.

 

Book now

Full price: €995/person

Early bird price: €895/person

Reserve by 31 Dec 2024 for early bird price.

Course details

Elevate your understanding of fine chocolate and cacao with our combined Level 1 and 2 Certificate in Cacao Evaluation and Flavour Profiling course.

The Cacao Evaluation course applies the IICCT sensory approach and profiling system to give you a comprehensive view of the flavour potential of fine cacao, cacao production, cacao varieties, and common cacao defects.

The course will be taught in English. Training material will be provided in English and in Thai.

Exams will be taken in English (please note that translation tools are not permitted during the exam). No discount is offered if you do not pass the course and retaking the exam will cost €100. Retakes can also be taken online with a surcharge to cover the cost of the shipment.

Lunch is included. Please let us know any dietary requirements or allergies.

Level 1 & 2

About the course

The IICCT Certificate Course in Cacao Evaluation and Profiling is an advanced sensory training course suitable for anyone wishing to develop a deeper understanding of flavour in fine cacao and wishing to explore the role cacao flavour potential plays in developing the flavour of finished fine chocolate.

The Certificate Course is based on the concept that the quality of fine chocolate is measured by the enjoyment of its flavour and that cacao with the potential to make good chocolate will also have a pleasurable, complex or distinctive flavour.

The Cacao Evaluation course will help to develop the sensory skills needed to assess cacao quality through its flavour, the potential transformation of cacao flavour into finished chocolate and how cacao flavour relates to technical methods of evaluating cacao.

The course will be based around extensive tasting of example cacaos, including reference high quality cacao and cacao samples that represent common defects. The tasting methodology uses the Institute’s standard cacao sample protocols, including as unprocessed cacao and various finished stages of cacao-to-chocolate production.

The evaluations made during the course are made using the Institute’s electronic sensory evaluation method, which is based on an understanding of cacao flavour and quality that can be applied with any sample preparation protocol, including dried cacao, cacao liquor and sample or retail chocolate.

Our approach recognises that cacao is a crop grown to produce foods giving us hedonistic pleasure and an enjoyable eating experience. Products made with fine cacao focus on improved flavour that is directly related to the flavour of the cacao. We use basic tasting principles to determine if cacao has an enjoyable flavour or has defects to create a comprehensive flavour profile and to generate a quality score.

The course will also include background sessions on the cacao trading market, the supply chain from farmer to bar, how to source and buy cacao and recommended sources, fermentation and post-harvest processing, cacao varieties and their historical distribution around the world and other useful background topics in short presentations as breaks between tasting.

Assessments

Certificates will be awarded on a pass of a multiple choice exam for Level 1 and a pass in the Level 2 multiple choice exam and tasting assessments.

Entry requirements

There are no previous entry requirements for this course. An understanding of fine chocolate is recommended, which can be achieved through our Certificate in Chocolate Tastings courses.

Please note that there will be some repetition of Level 1&2 Chocolate Tasting material explaining the IICCT sensory approach and profiling system. For the online version of the course, Chocolate Tasting students may skip the relevant webinars, sections or lectures if they have previously covered this material.

What's included
  • Training the senses to appreciate cacao flavour
  • Sensory exploration, practice and the brain science of cacao tasting
  • What is fine cacao and how we define it
  • Tasting of example cacaos and sample protocols
  • Origins and varieties of cacao and their history
  • Cacao production, quality and flaws
  • How cacao is processed and how this affects flavour
  • Cacao sourcing and direct trading
  • Tasting practice and profiling with our online system
  • Understanding and tasting flaws and defects in cacao
  • Cacao farming, economics and trading
  • History of cacao growing and distribution around the world
  • Take away study guides
  • Certificate for exam passes
Who should take this course?

The course will help your development and flavour understanding for:

  • established chocolate makers
  • start-up chocolate makers
  • chocolate tasters
  • cacao trader or commercial grower
  • cooperative technicians
  • NGO staff members
  • anyone with an interest in cacao flavour and quality