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Mole sauce is truly wonderful. It’s an ideal incorporation of cocoa into savory cuisine.

The only tricky thing about mole, is that there are so many different variations, it’s hard to pin down the mediocre from the excellent.

The first way to tell good mole is the sweetness. The best mole shouldn’t be sweet at all, the worst mole basically tastes like chocolate sauce.

Outside of sweetness, you’re looking for a blend between the raw cocoa taste–the bitterness–with the salty/spicy taste of the other peppers and chiles used in the sauce or the dish. Cocoa complements hot pepper, but it should not overpower the mexican flavor.

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That’s right, put some cocoa in your chili. It’s actually done quite often, as weird as it sounds.

The mexicans call it “mole” though technically mole sauce is a little more involved than simply pouring some chocolate on an enchilada.

It’s not sweet, it’s the cocoa flavor you’re going for. One of the problems with many chilies is the over saltiness of the end product. There’s not too much salt in a tomatillo, or a tomato. Not too much salt in serrano peppers, or jalapenos. But add them all together and you’ve got one extremely salty bowl.

Most people counter the salty acidic taste with a teaspoon of sugar. This is a simple fix, and certainly works, but add a teaspoon of cocoa to that sugar and you’ve got a whole new enriching flavor to your chili. I certainly recommend it!

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Sorry to sound like a redundant old fart, but I just can’t emphasize enough how great chocolate is as an antioxidant. It is mayhap the best antioxidant out there if you consider taste important in terms of getting those antioxidizing nutrients.

And as if chocolate weren’t good enough already, recent studies have shown that chocolate includes a chemical called phenyletylamine, which increases seratonin levels to the brain (i.e. it makes you happy). Finally a chemical way to explain what everyone already knows…chocolate makes you smile!

And finally, this week I’d like to talk a bit about smell. As you may know, there are only four taste buds, while there are thousands of olefactory receptors. This means, when we eat, most of what we are tasting actually comes from what we smell.

Smell is important with any food, and the cocoa bean has as very distinctive smell. Dark chocolate can have even a sour, pungeant odor, but most peoples’ receptors still read this as a pleasant smell.

The danger with smell and chocolate is that most chocolate (especially lighter milk chocolates) absorbs smell. This doesn’t affect the nutritional value of the chocolate, but absorbed smells can ruin the taste. You can work this aspect of chocolate in your favor, so here are a few rules to odorize your chocolate…

1) Don’t store chocolate in the bathroom! Duh. But the same goes for storing it near the washing machine or dishwasher, you don’t want detergent odor in your cocoa.

2) Be wary of the fridge/vegetable combo. Smell your fridge before you store chocolate in it. Many people overcrowd their fridges, leading to rotting vegetables produce at the back of the fridge which leads to a faint unpleasant odor, that is unnoticeable for the most part, but can seap into a good chocolate bar and ruin all that refined flavor.

3) Experiment with the spice rack. Many people store their chocolate on the spice rack, and this can actually add a variety of wonderful subtle tones to the flavor, but there are certain spices to steer clear of. Cinnamon is a great spice and can enhance cocoa flavor, but too much cinnamon can overpower other natural odors contained within the chocolate. A good rule of thumb is, the higher quality the chocolate, the less cinnamon to use in recipes, and the same goes for storing your chocolate near cinnamon. Some other fun spices to store chocolate with are cardamom, mint, chili powder, and for the bold…pipe tobacco!

4) Use flowers. I’ve tried this, and it adds wonderful light tones to a marzipan chocolate. Store the chocolate with rose petals or lavender. Any flower will work, but rose absorbs a bit better. You will actually be able to taste the flower in the chocolate. I find it to be exotic and wonderful.

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