Disclaimer: If you are unable to take a few sips of alcohol and stop, these postings on To Pair or Not to Pair are probably not for you. If there's a family or personal history of alcoholism or alcohol abuse, or if you take medications or have other health conditions that make alcohol consumption unsafe, these postings are probably not for you. Please check back for postings solely about chocolate. Your readership is much appreciated.
Perhaps, due more to marketing incentives than culinary imperatives, we are seeing more writings and events touting the pairing of chocolate with wine, beer and ale, and spirits. In my book, Deep Tasting: A Chocolate Lover's Guide to Meditation, I stated that I wasn't a wine and chocolate pairing enthusiast. For one thing, wine and foods evolved together over millennia. But not so, wine and chocolate. Cacao has only been known to Europeans for the past 500 years, and as tempered chocolates only since the 19th Century. The ancient Mesoamericans did indeed create fermented beverages with mild alcohol content using cacao bean and pulp, but these had nothing to do with grapes.
On a strictly personal level, I confess to a late onset allergy to sulfites. So, no wine for me for the past two decades. But I had a history with wine long before the discovery of the sulfite allergy. And I remember the aroma and flavor of great wines and how they affected my palate. These memories tell me on a visceral level that pairing chocolate wine is a tricky business, often producing more flavor clashes than complementary experiences. There are some people, however, who advertise themselves as chocolate-wine sommeliers. I'm sure they are quite skilled and are able to produce pleasant events based on years of experimentation. Yet, I have often found writings about wine and chocolate confusing. All the more reason to flag down one of these experts. But one thing I have gleaned from articles about wine and chocolate pairing is that it is often more successful with sweeter wines. Hence the ubiquitous truffles containing "champagne" (often just a sweet white wine, sans bubbles, in reality) and various sweet liquor-based centers. In my own kitchen experiments,
I've found rum and bourbon to work well in bonbons. I know others use vodka, and I've added a little sake to my spicier recipes.
There are ales with added chocolate flavoring. The results tend to be subdued, the chocolate clearly subordinate to the ale. It's easy to understand why brewers might try to add chocolate flavor since there are ales that naturally have chocolate notes.
In recent years, some chocolate makers have used bourbon casks to age their chocolate. The first one I recall doing so was Raaka.
Perhaps, due more to marketing incentives than culinary imperatives, we are seeing more writings and events touting the pairing of chocolate with wine, beer and ale, and spirits. In my book, Deep Tasting: A Chocolate Lover's Guide to Meditation, I stated that I wasn't a wine and chocolate pairing enthusiast. For one thing, wine and foods evolved together over millennia. But not so, wine and chocolate. Cacao has only been known to Europeans for the past 500 years, and as tempered chocolates only since the 19th Century. The ancient Mesoamericans did indeed create fermented beverages with mild alcohol content using cacao bean and pulp, but these had nothing to do with grapes.
On a strictly personal level, I confess to a late onset allergy to sulfites. So, no wine for me for the past two decades. But I had a history with wine long before the discovery of the sulfite allergy. And I remember the aroma and flavor of great wines and how they affected my palate. These memories tell me on a visceral level that pairing chocolate wine is a tricky business, often producing more flavor clashes than complementary experiences. There are some people, however, who advertise themselves as chocolate-wine sommeliers. I'm sure they are quite skilled and are able to produce pleasant events based on years of experimentation. Yet, I have often found writings about wine and chocolate confusing. All the more reason to flag down one of these experts. But one thing I have gleaned from articles about wine and chocolate pairing is that it is often more successful with sweeter wines. Hence the ubiquitous truffles containing "champagne" (often just a sweet white wine, sans bubbles, in reality) and various sweet liquor-based centers. In my own kitchen experiments,
I've found rum and bourbon to work well in bonbons. I know others use vodka, and I've added a little sake to my spicier recipes.
There are ales with added chocolate flavoring. The results tend to be subdued, the chocolate clearly subordinate to the ale. It's easy to understand why brewers might try to add chocolate flavor since there are ales that naturally have chocolate notes.
In recent years, some chocolate makers have used bourbon casks to age their chocolate. The first one I recall doing so was Raaka.
 | Fruition has reciprocally partnered with a fellow Hudson Valley business--Tuthiltown Spirits. Fruition uses their bourbon in caramels,and they've also aged their cocoa nibs in Tuthiltown Spirits bourbon casks to create the award winning Hudson Valley Bourbon Dark Milk bars. Tuthiltown Spirits has also created a Cacao Liquor using Fruition chocolate. Cacao Prieto is another New York chocolate-maker that is combining chocolate and spirits in their Don Esteban Rum Liquor and Don Esteban Cacao Liquor products.   |
Shawn Askinosie quickly sold out beautiful bars created by aging their Tanzanian nibs for 2 years in Jim Beam casks to create their 1098 line. They only created 1098 commemorative bars on the first go-round. Why 1098? That was the year the Cistercian Order was founded, and Shawn is a family brother at the Assumption Abbey, a Trappist Cistercian monastery. Good news: a new batch of the 1098 bars is expected for Spring 2017.
So much for the delightful effects of adding spirits to chocolate, and chocolate to ale and spirits. In these cases, for the most part, either chocolate or the spirits are the main attraction. This is an old fashioned marriage where one is subordinate to the other. In future postings of To Pair or Not To Pair, we'll explore what happens when chocolate and spirits share the stage as modern marriage partners. Will it be a love match made in heaven, or a couple headed for divorce?
RSS Feed