Freshly baked chocolates can be tasted every day, and such a sweet occupation

"Children all over the world wish to get the invitation ticket hidden in chocolate from the chocolate factory."

Countless people have been attracted by the various fairy-tale-like scenes in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", who does not want to have such a chocolate factory? Who wouldn't want to have the chance to taste chocolate at will?

To make chocolate meet the rigid production standards and meet the taste of as many people as possible, chocolate tasters need to evaluate the raw materials, semi-finished products, finished products, and end markets every day to ensure the quality and freshness of the products.

Ferrero Hangzhou factory, there are 130 chocolate tasters. Zhang Hui, a girl in her early thirties from Heilongjiang, is one of them.

Since she was a child, she loves desserts.

She chose to become a taster without hesitation

This morning (September 21), wearing a disposable dust proof suit, a top hat, and disposable dust proof shoe covers, I followed the staff into the chocolate factory.

The aroma of chocolate and hazelnuts hit my nose as soon as I stepped through the door of the factory. Through the winding factory corridor, I met Zhang Hui in the "flavor evaluation room".

Zhang Hui, also dressed in protective clothing, was sitting in front of a row of chocolate ingredients. She picked up one of the chopped hazelnuts, scooped a small spoonful, and put it into her mouth to chew carefully, "Each ingredient has a sample, and in the pre-service training, everyone will taste and remember the flavor. In the future, each time the tasting evaluation, you need to judge whether the ingredients meet the various criteria of the sample."

Zhang Hui says she has loved desserts since she was a child, especially chocolate and ice cream, and "the pleasure that desserts bring is unparalleled."

In 2017, Zhang Hui joined the Ferrero Hangzhou factory, "For me, who loves chocolate, this place is simply heaven."

During her induction training, Zhang Hui first learned about the interesting and important position of a chocolate taster, and it was curiosity that drove her to sign up. After undergoing sensory tests for sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, as well as professional training, Zhang Hui successfully became a chocolate taster.

Strict tasting environment and high sensitivity requirements

This career is not as easy as you think

In the Ferrero Hangzhou factory, chocolate tasters are divided into three stars according to their proficiency, and Zhang Hui is one of the ten highest-level "three-star tasters", mainly responsible for the tasting of raw materials and finished products.

Each chocolate taster is part-time, and Zhang Hui's job is laboratory management, "at certain times, we will go to the product tasting, to help the company to do a good job of quality control."

"The tasting is particularly demanding on the environment." Zhang Hui introduced to me that the temperature in the review room is controlled at 20-22°C, and the lights are standard incandescent lamps, "The temperature affects the taste, and the lights affect the color." Although there is no need to deliberately control the diet, before each tasting, Zhang Hui will rinse her mouth to ensure that there is a certain period of "blankness" in her mouth.

Chocolate tasters need to be able to taste the nuances of raw materials, such as the different concentrations of cocoa, and hazelnut aroma to determine the degree of freshness or quality, "even if the differences are small, we must be able to distinguish."

For the finished product, the tasting has already started every time the package is opened, "When we open it, we have to watch the luster of the chocolate and the fullness of the shape to see if there are any defects."

When tasting, Zhang Hui needs to eat all the ingredients of chocolate at the same time, including chopped hazelnuts, whole hazelnuts, waffles, chocolate, etc., and then judge the quality by chewing, "We will evaluate this chocolate in eight dimensions, including product color, roast degree, hazelnut flavor, whether it is damp and the balance of chocolate and milk flavor, etc. "

In addition, as time passes, chocolates at different stages of the warranty period will show different flavors. Zhang Hui gave an example, "Take the golden ball, when it was first produced the color was more supple and the waffle was crisper, if it was left for some time, the luster may become lighter and the waffle will be slightly softer." Zhang Hui said that those who have eaten Ferrero know that one bite will have a crisp sound, the more crisper the waffle, the lower the degree of moisture. Such a tasting process is quite demanding for the sensitivity of the various senses of the chocolate tasters, "In the initial screening of personnel, employees who smoke and drink more frequently will be advised not to be suitable, in addition to the three high people or people with bad teeth are not suitable for this."

Every two years, chocolate tasters need to undergo professional training and retesting to ensure the professionalism of the tasting.

This sweet job is enviable, right? Zhang Hui smiles: it's not as easy as people think.

Each tasting is not just one person, for example, for a strange egg, eight tasters will be tasting at the same time, each sitting in a separate position to avoid sensory bias caused by communication, and finally, according to the eight tasting reports, the final evaluation is completed.

Nearly 2000 tastings a year

Other desserts out there can't satisfy me anymore

In addition to her professionalism, Zhang Hui says that the most important thing about being a taster is her love for chocolate.

In the Ferrero Hangzhou factory, more than 28,000 tasting tests are conducted every year, with three people tasting semi-finished and finished products every four hours, not including raw materials and shelf-life products.

There are more than 100 tasters in the factory, specifically, Zhang Hui will conduct about 5 times a day, nearly 2,000 times a year, "If you don't love it, you'll get tired of it after a long time."

After five years of tasting work, Zhang Hui's love for desserts is only chocolate, "every day I can eat the best chocolate, other desserts outside can not meet me. Especially, the chocolate just produced, the pleasure is irreplaceable by other desserts."

In life, Zhang Hui's career has always been the envy of her friends, and she has become a chocolate expert in the eyes of her friends, "Often friends will send me a list of ingredients for chocolate so that I can see if the chocolate is good. Occasionally, some ingredients do not involve chocolate sent to me, so I can take a look." Zhang Hui jokingly said that in her friends' minds, she seems to have become an authority on food judging.

In Zhang Hui's mind, this job has a different sense of sanctity, "eating chocolate both adults and children, to do tasting is an important part of food safety, to ensure that people of different ages can taste the most delicious chocolate, this is the meaning of the establishment of this position."

As time goes by, will this "sweetness" add to the physical burden? Have you ever considered when you will quit this position of taster?

Zhang Hui said, in the Ferrero employees around the world, some more than 60-year-old tasters, still working in the tasting line, "I believe that as long as I still have a love of chocolate, I can certainly persist in this position so that consumers can eat more delicious chocolate."

This article is the original work of Qianjiang Evening News, without permission, it is prohibited to reproduce, copy, excerpt, rewrite and network disseminate all works of copyright use, otherwise, the newspaper will pursue the legal responsibility of infringers by judicial means.