Once again, one of our “reference” chocolates took top honors: the Jelina Noir 72% that we had previously tasted back in week 1 (however, of this week’s participants, only Sue Felshin had attended the tasting in week 1). The Jelina was tied for first place with Idilio Origins Finca Torres, both having two first-place votes each, but gets the nod on the basis of its two second-place votes. Valrhona Araguani and Idilio Origins Carenero Urrutia Superior tied for third place, each receiving one first-place and one second-place vote; Idilio Origins Selección Cata Ocumare came in fifth with one second-place vote. Now I need to go buy another bar of the Jelina for our championship round.

Because this week is the first week of classes, we’re delaying week 7, the last of the preliminary round, until next week, once people’s schedules settle down a bit.