- 2 tasting sessions, repeated over the holiday season
- 15 Dec 2024 - 11 Jan 2025
- Webinar + home study, Online
- €139.95 (€117.61 + VAT *)
Relax with some rare and very special origin dark chocolate samples over the holiday season in this tutored tasting led by IICCT Founder Martin Christy.
* Business/professional price outside the EU. 19% VAT added for EU bookings and non-professional bookings outside the EU
In this special one-off holiday period online tasting, IICCT Founder Martin Christy will take you through special samples, curiosities, rarities, new origins and chocolate makers, and discoveries from his special exclusive collection. These are the samples that are too unusual, new or rare to include in our regular Chocolate Tasting course kits and will be especially interesting for chocolate tasters who want to continue to expand their taste horizons and to constantly explore new flavour notes and origins.
The tasting will be presented in 2 webinar sessions of 2-3 hours length, which will be repeated for different timezones in December and January. Recordings will be available if you can’t make the live sessions or want to review the tastings.
Each sample will be presented with a short background on the chocolate maker, origin, the genetics of the cacao, if known, and what makes the chocolate rare. Tastings will be made as a group, with a chance to compare notes and share the experience of some exceptional chocolate.
The rarities tasting kit includes:
- Samples of each featured chocolate in our usual tasting kit format (10-15g of each sample – some very rare samples may be smaller)
- Special and rare origins and makers collected over 2024
- Limited edition batches and exclusive lab samples of a well-known origins
- Super rare white bean cacao and a new special fermentation experiment from Peru
- Single cultivar (variety), single farm chocolate
- New chocolate makers and origins
- 15 or more samples in total
Tastings will be made online using the IICCT flavor profiling system on seventypercent.com. Training is not essential to use the IICCT system, but the course will be especially appealing to IICCT alumni who already passed the Level 2 Certificate in Chocolate Tasting or higher.
Shipping and delivery dates
Shipping of sample kits will start in the week commencing 9 December and onwards, by Express courier service, which should ensure delivery before Christmas unless there are customs delays. Deliveries and webinars will be scheduled before and during the holiday season and in early January to give all attendees the best chance to join the live sessions. There is a €25 surplus for shipping the kit to destinations outside of the EU and UK.
Provisional tastings schedule
The following schedule is an indication only and dates and times will be adjusted to suit attendees availability, where possible. All times are UK GMT.
Pre-holidays:
10.00am UK ,Sunday 15 December: Tasting session #1
5.00pm UK, Tuesday 17 December: Tasting session #2
Holiday period:
5.00pm UK, Friday 27 December: Tasting session #1
10.00am UK, Sunday 29 December: Tasting session #2
New Year
5.00pm UK, Thursday 9 January: Tasting session #1
10.00am UK, Saturday 11 January: Tasting session #2
Bookings will be accepted for the January tastings up until 5 January.
We look forward to welcoming you for our first exclusive rarities tasting – the chance to sample the truly unique in the craft chocolate world.
Rarities Special
A chance to expand your origin horizons and taste some new, unusual and experimental chocolate. This session is for anyone truly curious about the possibilities of chocolate flavour and a great chance to sample hard to get chocolate. Tutored group tasting will give the chance for group learning and a deeper understanding of flavour notes and how these particular flavours are expressed in a range of plain, dark, origin chocolate.
- Samples of rare and unusual chocolate finds from 2024
- Tutored tasting and background of each sample online
- Webinars led by IICCT Founder Martin Christy
- Repeated sessions before, during and after the 2024 winter holiday season
Note that this course is not assessed and no certification is provided.
- Chocolate tasters looking for new flavour experiences
- Flavour explorers seeking out new origins
- Tasters or chocolate makers who want to explore and discuss different recipes
- Any chocolate lovers wishing to experience some of the world’s most interesting and unusual chocolate