- Home study over 2 weeks
- 15 - 30 Jan 2025
- Webinar + home study, Online
- €285 (€239.50 + VAT *)
Foundation level course in Chocolate Tasting.
* Business/professional price outside the EU. 19% VAT added for EU bookings and non-professional bookings outside the EU
– Online home study with tasting kit –
Our fully accredited Level 1 Chocolate Tasting course presented with online learning and home study.
Take our Level 1 course as a flexible program with home study, including your own home tasting kit, combined with online live webinars to help guide you through the essentials of tasting and understanding cacao and chocolate.
Your Level 1 Home study and tasking kit will include:
- All the chocolate you will need for the course
- Examples of award-winning chocolate as well as examples of defects for comparison
- Aroma and taste samples to help develop your sensory skills
- Samples of 6 fine and craft chocolate bars (minimum 20g per sample)
- 2 couverture samples for sensory training
- Samples of ‘not so great chocolate’ for understanding defects!
- Examples of chocolate making stages
- Your IICCT Level 1 course book
Shipping
Free shipping of your tasting kit is included within the EU, Switzerland, Norway and UK. There will be a surplus charge of 50€ to receive the kit in other world regions.
Group webinars
Level 1 online will include three webinars with lectures, group tasting and Q&A and a chance to network with your fellow students. Each webinar will be between 2 and 3 hours long.
The webinars will be on days between the course start and finish dates and with times to work best for students in different time zones. The webinars will be repeated on different dates to give all students a chance to attend. If you miss any of the webinar sessions or can’t make the times, you can watch a recording of the session online. Zoom will be used for the webinars, which is secure as long as you have the latest software version.
Home study
You will also have the chance for home study and tasting between the webinars to hone your skills and knowledge and to enjoy the chocolate samples.
Exam
The course will be examined online and will be moderated by our Institute assessors to our usual standards as an accredited FDQ Learning Centre. The course fee includes the cost of the exam registration. No reduction is offered in the event of not passing the course and retakes will be charged at 85€ (incl. VAT).
Booking deadline
To ensure your place on the course, please book before 8 January 2025. For bookings placed after this date we can not guarantee that your tasting kit will reach you on time for the start of the course.
New to fine chocolate?
If you are new to fine chocolate we suggest your first take our online ‘Introduction to Fine Chocolate’ course, which is available before Level 1 starts. This will help you get up to speed with the basics of tasting, of what is fine chocolate, chocolate making basics and chocolate terminology. If you are already an experienced taster, chocolate maker, event organiser or otherwise working in the fine chocolate world, the introductory is not essential.
Level 1
Level 1 Chocolate Tasting lays the sensory foundation for your journey as a Chocolate Taster, introduces chocolate making in the fine and craft chocolate world, and takes you through where cacao comes from and how it is produced.
During the course you will experience the sensory elements used in chocolate tasting through a series of tasting games and experiments and you will practice using a formal approach to chocolate tasting.
The Foundation course is designed to run over a single day workshop, as three evening class sessions or as three online webinar sessions plus self-study. Level 1 course provides a good grounding in chocolate tasting and includes tasting of 9 or more different origin or blended fine dark chocolate bars, tasted in different forms for an understanding of aroma, length, texture and taste. The chocolate tasted includes examples of well made craft chocolate origins and examples of defects and industrial production.
The course finishes with a 30 question multiple choice exam based on the course content. Certificates will be issued upon achieving a pass mark.
- Training the chocolate senses
- Taste and explore flavour in fine chocolate
- Introduction to the origins and varieties of cacao
- Overview of how cacao is produced
- How fine or craft chocolate is made
- How cocoa butter and cocoa powder are made
- Taste and recognize flaws in chocolate
- A look at direct sourcing of cacao
- Study booklet
- Certificate for exam passes
- All the chocolate and sensory samples you will need*
This course will be ideal for you if you:
- Love chocolate, and want to know more about its flavour and origins
- Are a chocolate maker who wants to expand their sensory skills
- Are an educator or events organiser looking for more information to pass on to your audience
- Work in the catering/pastry/fine chocolate industries
- Want to improve your clients’ experience of chocolate you are working with
- You are considering launching a fine chocolate business
- You want to buy a fascinating and unique gift for someone
- You want to see just how good your palate is for chocolate