第二步：精读重点段落

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

第四段
And you can be frivolous about it, no longer worrying, as you might have just a few years ago, that if you polish off this excellent chocolate you might not find more. Supply and demand are merging, and every fine-food shop now carries chocolate that's worlds away from the run-of-the-mill candy bar.

• polish off  草草完成
• run-of-the-mill  adj.普通的

第二十段
And let's face it, if you like chocolate, the proof is in the eating. The rich intensity of the chocolate should be balanced, but never overwhelmed, by sweetness. Nor should it be too bitter, although that's a matter of personal preference. If you're used to everyday chocolate, a high-octane blend might overwhelm your taste buds at first.

• overwhelm  vt.压倒；受打击；淹没

第二十二段
Hints of spice or of fruit like berries or citrus often add complexity to the chocolate, as does a touch of nutty, licorice or caramel flavor. Some lively acidity, an attribute you might seek in good coffee or fine red wine, can also enhance chocolate. The aftertaste should linger pleasantly. Only by tasting, as often as possible, can you begin to fathom the variations from brand to brand and even among the styles offered by a single maker.

• linger  v.继续留存
• fathom  vt.彻底了解

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

The Intense Pleasures Of Dark Chocolate

第一段
FIRST, the aroma beckons. The intense scent drawing you in is unmistakably that of rich chocolate, but you detect exotic hints of clove, coffee, orange peel, even cedar. The bar is dark and shiny, scored into sections. It breaks cleanly, with a definite snap.

• beckon  v.吸引人
• exotic  adj.异国情调的
• cedar  n.雪松
• score  vt.刻划
• snap  n.噼啪声

第二段
At this point you don't even need to taste it to know you're dealing with extremely fine chocolate.

第三段
This is the dark bittersweet kind that delivers its flavor without the intrusion of a milky taste or an overdose of sugar. You take a bite, and as it softens and melts in your mouth, the complexity is comparable to a good red wine. The chocolate feels satiny, utterly smooth and flawless. The flavor lingers, but you must have another taste.

• intrusion  n.侵入
• satiny  adj.柔滑的
• linger  v.继续留存

第四段
And you can be frivolous about it, no longer worrying, as you might have just a few years ago, that if you polish off this excellent chocolate you might not find more. Supply and demand are merging, and every fine-food shop now carries chocolate that's worlds away from the run-of-the-mill candy bar.

• frivolous  adj.轻佻的
• polish off  草草完成
• merge  v.融合
• run-of-the-mill  adj.普通的

第五段
What makes all these chocolates superb? It starts with the selection of the cacao beans and how they are fermented, roasted and blended. The finesse with which the chocolate is processed and how much sugar or other ingredients are added all affect the aroma, flavor and texture.

• finesse  v.手法

第六段
Like winemakers, chocolate makers start by homing in on the best beans from particular regions and microclimates. Most of the world's chocolate is made from forastero beans, the equivalent of the cheaper robusta beans that dominate the coffee business. Forastero is the most disease-resistant, highest-yielding cacao, from trees grown in Brazil and West Africa, but it is certainly not the most flavorful and tends to have a rough, astringent taste.

• home in on sb/sth  把注意力集中于
• equivalent  n.等价物/adj.等价物

第七段
Trinitario, from Central America, has a more pronounced flavor and is usually blended with forastero to give it character. Criollo, grown mostly in Venezuela and Central America but also in Indonesia, is the richest and most fragrant, but it is also the most fragile, rarest and costliest. Most chocolate is a blend, and the more trinitario and criollo, the better the flavor.

• fragile  adj.脆弱的

第八段
Once the bumpy football-size cacao pods are harvested, the beans are taken out and left to ferment for a few days in the tropical heat. Fermentation turns them from violet to brown and encourages the characteristic aromas and flavors of chocolate to develop. Next, the beans are dried, then roasted.

• bumpy  adj.高低不平的
• pod  n.豆荚

第九段
The finest European and European-style chocolates are made from beans that have been roasted longer and at lower temperatures than most American manufacturers use, so the chocolate delivers more nuanced flavors. The quicker, higher-heat roasting generally employed in the United States tends to result in more bitterness, which is masked only by adding more sugar and ingredients like vanilla. Some American chocolates are overloaded with vanilla, the worst with imitation vanilla flavor.

• nuanced  adj.微妙的
• mask  v.遮掩
• imitation  n.仿制品

第十段
After roasting, the beans are cracked open and their husks winnowed away, leaving the essence of chocolate, called the nibs. These are ground, heated and turned into chocolate liquor, a thick, nonalcoholic substance that is about half cocoa butter, which is melted and separated out. The rest of the liquor is finely ground and can be turned into cocoa powder or mixed with cocoa butter, sugar and other ingredients.

• crack  v.（使）破裂
• husk  n.外科
• winnow  v.扬谷

第十一段
At this point the chocolate goes through a final refining, or pulverizing, process called conching (the ''ch'' is pronounced as in ''poncho''). The longer the chocolate is conched, the more velvety it will feel. The highest-quality chocolate may be conched for up to three days.

• pulverize  v.粉碎，研磨
• velvety  adj.柔滑的

第十二段
Manufacturers do not reveal how long they conch their chocolate, but in fact, it has become easier to determine the quality of a chocolate even before the bar is unwrapped. The best bars now have a percentage on the wrapper indicating the amount of chocolate -- the combination of cocoa butter and cocoa solids -- it contains, and that's a guide to sweetness and quality.

• reveal   vt.揭露

第十三段
The Food and Drug Administration requires that all semisweet and bittersweet chocolate contain a minimum of 35 percent chocolate, a decidedly low standard. Sweet chocolate must have 15 percent, and milk chocolate only 10 percent. The manufacturers of low-grade chocolate stick to the minimum and bulk up the product with sugar, emulsifiers, vegetable oil and other fats and fillers. (White chocolate is technically not considered chocolate because it contains no chocolate liquor. The cheapest white chocolate may even be made without any cocoa butter.)

• decidedly  adv.毫无疑问
• bulk up  壮大
• emulsifier  n.乳化剂

第十四段
The finest semisweet and bittersweet chocolates post percentages ranging from 62 to 72 percent. And there is little or no room for junk in a bar that's 70 percent chocolate -- the rest is basically sugar. On the other hand, once ingredients like nuts and liqueurs, praline and fruit peel are added to fine chocolate, the percentage that is pure chocolate decreases. Top-quality milk chocolate may have only 54 percent chocolate solids.

• post  vt.公布
• junk  n.垃圾
• praline  n.果仁糖

第十五段
The numbers game began with Valrhona about 10 years ago and now is used increasingly by others, including Lindt and several American companies, including Scharffen Berger, Chocolove and Richard H. Donnelly. Usually if no percentage is given, you can assume it is less than 60 percent, and often considerably less.

第十六段
Another indication of quality is naming the source of the cacao beans on the label. Valrhona offers chocolates from different regions and various blends, from the Caribbean and South America. Its Caraibe chocolate, for instance, is labeled pure Caribbean trinitario. As with wines or coffee, each delivers a different flavor profile.

第十七段
Once you unwrap chocolate, you can gauge it by eye: the best is flawlessly smooth, with a lustrous sheen. This quality applies not just to plain bars, but also to dipped or molded chocolate candies and truffles. Dull or grayish spots or streaks may be a sign of inferior quality, poor handling or bad storage conditions.

• gauge  vt.测量；判断
• lustrous  adj.有光泽的
• sheen  n.光泽
• dull    n.暗淡的
• streak  n.线条

第十八段
You also judge chocolate by the way it breaks at room temperature. It should not crumble or splinter, but should have what is called ''snap,'' a clean brittleness. The milk solids added to milk chocolate soften the texture and prevent it from having the same snap as dark chocolate.

• crumble  v.粉碎
• splinter  v.裂成碎片
• brittleness  n.脆

第十九段
The aroma should be rich and intense, even fruity, winy, spicy or with a hint of cedar or tobacco. You should not detect musty, charred or chemical smells.

• musty  adj.发霉的
• charred  adj.烧焦的

第二十段
And let's face it, if you like chocolate, the proof is in the eating. The rich intensity of the chocolate should be balanced, but never overwhelmed, by sweetness. Nor should it be too bitter, although that's a matter of personal preference. If you're used to everyday chocolate, a high-octane blend might overwhelm your taste buds at first.

• overwhelm  vt.压倒；受打击；淹没
• high-octane  adj.强烈的

第二十一段
Then there's texture. Because chocolate melts at close to body temperature, it should start to melt in your mouth, with a smooth creaminess and nothing waxy, gritty, gummy or greasy about it.

• waxy   adj.像蜡的
• gritty  adj.砂质的
• gummy  adj.粘性的
• greasy  adj.油腻的

第二十二段
Hints of spice or of fruit like berries or citrus often add complexity to the chocolate, as does a touch of nutty, licorice or caramel flavor. Some lively acidity, an attribute you might seek in good coffee or fine red wine, can also enhance chocolate. The aftertaste should linger pleasantly. Only by tasting, as often as possible, can you begin to fathom the variations from brand to brand and even among the styles offered by a single maker.

• licorice  n.甘草
• fathom  vt.彻底了解