Recognizing a high-quality chocolate is as simple as putting each of your senses to work. Here are 5 easy steps to spot one.

1. Smell

Open your mouth slightly and smell the chocolate — this intensifies your sense of smell and makes the cacao easier to pick up. You should smell cacao.

2. Sight

Look at the chocolate and check that its texture is smooth. Shine is extremely important — it means the chocolate was made with cocoa butter. It should also be free of white streaks, which are a sign of poor tempering during production.

3. Sound

A good-quality chocolate gives you a "snap" — a crisp crack — the moment you break it or bite into it.

4. Touch

Run your finger over the surface: it should feel smooth and silky, with no graininess. When a chocolate feels grainy, it was stored somewhere too humid — the sugar migrates to the surface and the chocolate loses its quality.

5. Taste

Last but not least, it should taste like cacao and leave no greasy feeling on your palate. A greasy sensation means vegetable fats other than cocoa butter were used. A good chocolate always contains cocoa butter.