THERE is something luxurious about a box of chocolates. Opening up an assortment of shapes and designs is a visual treat - but sight is just one of the senses we must use to fully appreciate chocolate.

Joining a tasting workshop at the Leeds School of Chocolate, I learned to savour the look, aroma, even the sound of chocolate.

Based at Hotel Chocolat, the school offers a range of classes, including a "Bean to Bar" chocolate-making course and truffle tasting sessions. The courses are fun, informative and a delicious way to enhance chocolate appreciation.

Luxury British cocoa grower and chocolatier Hotel Chocolat was founded in 2004 to make "exciting chocolate" with authenticity, originality and ethics. With its Rabot Estate cocoa plantation in St Lucia, a chocolate manufacturing site in Cambridgeshire and international stores, the company links all aspects of chocolate, from tree to consumer. It grows and harvests cacao, does the roasting, grinding and conching, and turns it into chocolate. Its two cocoa cuisine restaurants - in London's Borough Market and the Hotel Chocolat Flagship in Leeds - reconnect the world of cocoa growing with eating it.

My chocolate tasting adventure began with resident chocolatier Dan Morris revealing an insight into the cocoa-growing process. We learned about terroir, a French term describing environmental influences defining the character and flavour of cacao, including geography, soil and climate; conching, the mechanical kneading process which improves the texture and taste of chocolate; and tempering; the heating and cooling of molten chocolate to crystallise the cocoa butter.

Handing us each a piece of dark chocolate, Dan showed how chocolate should awaken all five senses. First came the look. "It should look glossy, not dull," he said. We broke our pieces into two, listening to the "nice, clean snap", then smelled the chocolate, which was divine. Finally, we put a piece in our mouth and, using a 'Tasting Tree' guide, considered the flavours coming through. The guide offered various descriptive terms for flavours, aromas and textures, including liquorice, figs, orange blossom, black pepper, mothballs, petrol, olives, waxy and powdery.

We allowed the chocolate to melt, rather than biting it. "Chocolate eaters fall into two categories - melters and chompers," smiled Dan. He advised us to try both pieces of chocolate, since the first "acclimatises" the mouth and the second releases the flavours.

The flavour came through in a gentle warmth. "Is it chilli?" someone asked. Dan nodded, explaining that chilli was the first thing to be added to cocoa, making it 'quintessential chocolate'.

Next was a piece of chocolate from a Venezuelen village co-operative. No sooner had I snapped, smelt and placed it on my tongue than a flurry of flavours started coming through. I was getting raisins, a malty flavour, then nuts. Dan told us this chocolate was from Chuao, where some of the world's finest cocoa is produced from the criollo bean.

Showing us a replica cocoa pod, he said some can be the size of rugby balls. Flavours are imparted onto the cocoa beans during fermentation, and can pick up metallic or wooden flavours depending on what's used to stir them, explaining why such aromas as "plastic", "peat" and "leathery" appear on the tasting guide.

We each broke open a roasted bean and tasted an edible shiny bit from inside. This is filled with antioxidants, it becomes liguid cocoa butter in the conching process.

Next we sampled milk chocolate which, being 70per cent cocoa, wasn't sweet like mass-marketed stuff. It tasted fruity and I learned from Dan that it's grown in St Lucia, where acidic soil produces citrus flavours. Less kind on the palate was the 100per cent cocoa bar, containing no sugar, just beans conched for 120 hours. "I'm getting stock cube," I said, as it melted on my tongue. Popular among connoisseurs, it's the 'Holy Grail' of chocolate.

By the end of the session we'd tasted 18 different types of chocolate! My favourite was a 70per cent St Lucian dark chocolate with a smoky, savoury taste. Most intriguing was a 'complex' 70per cent cocoa blend from Trinidad which, to me, had a hint of cheese!

We ended by tasting three fancy chocolates - a white chocolate blackcurrant bomb, with a vivid fruit flavour; a 'Trillionaire Shortbread' with salted and dark caramel; and a champagne truffle. Each was delicious, containing nothing artificial.

The tasting session gave food for thought. I discovered the best way to experience chocolate and learned about the fascinating process of making it. I'll never look at a fruit and nut bar the same way again.

FACTFILE

The School of Chocolate is at Hotel Chocolat, Boar Lane, Leeds.

Tasting Adventures are on Saturdays, 10am-12pm or 6pm-8pm (alternate weeks).

Bean to Bar sessions are on Thursdays, 6pm-8pm and Saturdays, 10am-12pm or 6pm-8pm (alternate weeks)

For more information call (0113) 2442421, email leedsexperiences@hotelchocolat.com or visit hotelchocolat.com