3.6. Sensory analysis
Fig. 6a–c reveals the sensory evaluation of experimental chocolates.
As can be seen in Fig. 6a, appearance and texture properties of
plain milk chocolate, which served as the control for this group of
chocolates were not significantly different (p>0.05) from the chocolate
containing freeze dried raspberry leaf extract, as opposed to
chocolates enriched with 1% and 3% of concentrated extracts, which
were significantly affected in terms of gloss, surface, breakage and
melting properties. Similar sensory acceptances were also observed
for semisweet (Fig. 6b) and dark chocolates (Fig. 6c) enriched with
1% of concentrated or freeze dried extract, which were also scored
higher in terms of visual appearance and textural characteristics. Both
semisweet and dark chocolates containing 3% of concentrated extract
exhibited lower sensory acceptance of these properties.
While odor of enriched chocolates was not significantly affected
by the addition of different raspberry leaf extract forms, mouthfeel
of each type of chocolate showed wider variations. Namely, all chocolates
(milk, semisweet and dark) containing freeze dried extract
were the closest to control (plain) chocolates in terms of mouthfeel,
followed by chocolates containing 1% of concentrated extract, except
in the case ofmilk chocolate,whereMC1% was scored lowest. According
to these results, the addition of 1% and especially 3% of concentrated
raspberry leaf extract negatively altered the mouthfeel of chocolates.
The occurrence of aftertaste was also observed, depending on the type
of chocolate and type of raspberry leaf extract added to chocolates.
However this sensory attribute is related to the herbal aroma that was
also scored in enriched chocolates. As can be seen, the herbal aroma
reached its highest score in chocolates (milk, semisweet and dark) containing
freeze dried extract, followed by the addition of 3% of concentrated
extract, while chocolates with 1% of concentrated extract were