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A detailed parallel tasting of hot chocolate from Taza vs. JP Licks, evaluating appearance, fragrance, texture, and taste.
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Hot Chocolate: Taza VS JP Licks
For the first pair of parallel tasting, I went out to find which hot chocolate I would like more between Taza's and JP Lick's.
Taza has a good reputation in Chocolate, and JP Lick's is know for their creamy ice cream. Given these pre-conception that I have I expected them both to be able to provide pretty similar kind of flavors.
The main criteria that I explores for this pair are appearance, fragrance, and tastes.
Top: JP Licks' Bottom: Taza's
First, for appearance. It is quickly noticeable that JP Licks' liquid is dark brown. The amount of foam present is moderate, but the foams were not as fine as Taza's. The liquid looks very watery. The most notable observation here is that JP Licks' liquid surface looks very smooth and the opaque color gives an impression of depth, and you can see the faint white line of cream in the chocolate.
Taza's liquid seems to be watery as well, but it does not look cohesive. From the picture below, you can see that the color looks cloudy and the drink seems to be sprinkled with bits of undissolved chocolate.
For smell, JP Licks' leads with a strong scent of cinnamon. Under that cinnamon scent, you can also smell the underpinning milk on the bottom. The milk gives off a very sweet and round scent.
Taza's main smell seems to be of bitterness and a hint of faint sugar. The bitterness infact makes the chocolate smells woody and aged. It reminds me of some sweet, chewable tree barks.
Then come the sipping. JP Licks' texture were surprisingly soft and creamy (but not to the point of being silky). It has a nice 'body' — not too light or too rich. My palette detects a lot of cinnamon and rich milk. The sweetness of the drink was very round and comes in very smoothly and richly. The drink's sweetness reminds of the softness marshmallow. The aftertaste are mostly sweet milk that lingers around the back of your throat.
For Taza's, it was not very creamy but rather watery. Texture was very light, and the undissolved cocoa bits makes it feel sandy. Astringent plays a big role in this drink.
Conclusion: I discovered that Taza's hot chocolate has a lot of charm to it with its unique signature and find it unsurprising that JP Licks' go for extra creaminess and milkiness. After tasting the two, I am inclined more toward Taza because it seems to have more complex elements to it.