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Post by drewbs on Jul 23, 2017 15:30:35 GMT -5
Hi Everyone,
I started a small btb shop thats at a couple different farmers market. One person has so far came up and proclaimed their "chocolate expertise" and then questioned the origins, saying its not from the right country, and said there are flavors in the chocolate that I, nor anyone has said that have tasted in said chocolates. Obviously i source from here for my cacao and trust here more than the random person, but how do y'all deal with customers like this?
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Post by davidc on Jul 24, 2017 10:01:40 GMT -5
Not from the right country - (assuming you'd like to have them as customers) I suggest trying to make them an even better "expert" (using that word sarcastically) by getting into finer details and be more granular than "everything from a country is the same." Maybe express curiosity and speculation to what parts of that country they had tasted from (don't crush their excitement about something they really liked, but try to build on it), then try gently emphasizing possible differences in weather patterns, soil type, and fermentation process - all of which create a lot of variation in flavors. If they don't want to learn, then you can just quietly write them off as an uninformed know-it-all, and just be pleasant and smiling and hope they buy something even though it's not the same.
As far as tasting different flavors - I firmly believe there is an incredibly small minority that will pick up the same flavors. Every once in a while, there is a predominate flavor that everyone will pick up, but the subtle flavors tend to be very dependent on the individual and what that person has recently had to eat/drink. For example, I did a semi-blind tasting with several different types of 60-65% dark chocolates side by side with about a dozen people. I had them taste the chocolate, and think about the flavors they tasted, then we talked about it. The flavor notes were all over the board, and people were tasting so many things I never came close to tasting myself. Then I had them take a sip of wine and taste the chocolate again, and what they tasted changed significantly. Comparing chocolate to wine and other alcohols - exactly the same thing. I rarely taste the individual flavors the winery lists, but looking at the tasting notes from the winery gives me an idea of a general style of that wine. My wife and I did a cider tasting on Saturday, and while we liked all the ciders, only 1 of the 5 came close to the description. So, in general, I'm not got to believe whatever flavor notes someone is tasting is wrong. And, before I write descriptions of a particular new bean, I'm going to get tasting notes from a variety of people and try to find flavors at least several people pick up
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Post by Brad on Aug 26, 2017 3:54:41 GMT -5
Drew; Here's what I've learned in the 13 years I've been in this business: 1. People who really know what they are doing don't proclaim anything. They don't need to. For the most part they ask, listen, and are gracious. They generally won't volunteer information unless you ask them to. 2. People spouting off as 'experts' usually don't have a clue of what they are talking about. 3. You can't please everyone, and don't sweat the ones you can't please. They will be miserable regardless of what you do or say. Let them own that crap. You have better places to be and nicer people to celebrate your craft with. This should sum it up: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_B23QGCEmACheers. Brad
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