How to actually taste origin character

Origin character is inaudible unless everything else is held constant. Buy three or four bars from the same maker, at the same percentage, differing only in origin. This is the single most important step and the one most people skip.

Maker-to-maker differences in roast and conch are larger than origin-to-origin differences, so comparing a Madagascan bar from one maker against a Peruvian bar from another tells you about the makers.

Madagascar and Ecuador at 70% from one maker is the best two-bar introduction there is, because their characters are close to opposite — bright red fruit and acidity against soft floral aromatics. Add Venezuela or the Dominican Republic for a low-acid nutty counterpoint, and Ghana or Ivory Coast for the classic robust cocoa baseline.

Four bars is the maximum. Discrimination falls off sharply after that regardless of experience.

Room temperature, around 20°C, at least an hour out of any cool storage. No coffee beforehand. Break a piece and let it melt against the roof of the mouth rather than chewing — most of what you are trying to detect is aroma reaching the nose retronasally, and chewing rushes past it.

Work from the mildest to the most intense, with water and a plain cracker between. Write something down for each, even if it is only bright or flat. The vocabulary comes later; the discrimination comes from noticing that they differ at all.

Most people detect that the bars differ well before they can say how. That is normal and it is the actual skill developing. Naming notes is a vocabulary problem layered on top, and reading a flavour wheel afterwards is more useful than reading one before.

If all four taste the same, the likely causes are cold chocolate, palate fatigue or too many bars — not a defective palate.