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The Wonders of Fine Chocolate & Premium Whisky Pairings

By on July 25, 2012 in On Chocolate & Cacao

Chocolate and wine is a popular pairing idea. However to my experience this pairing also symbolises the weakness of how we in general think of chocolate. Like we tend to grab a bottle of red with red meat, and put a white next to poultry and fish, a lot of depth, experience and novelty is lost when we start with these assumptions.

Chocolate and whisky have the richness to transcend these prejudices, when we allow ourselves to open up to a level of premium and artisan crafted products.

Our Principles of Pairing.

Below are some of the lessons I learned on our journey to pairings that work. Aromas, flavors, transitions and sensations. All molecules at play, but I am not down on some chemistry lessons. The following experience-driven statements may inspire you too.

Air & Aroma

From my personal experiences, whisky gains its strength on air and breath, chocolate develops its flavors on palate and mouth. These different sensations allow both of the pairing elements to have their own field of play. It makes them blend, fight, join, separate in the joint area of our overall senses. Aromas and flavors both play while chewing, melting, sipping and breathing.

Solid & Fluid

The beauty of this pairing exercise already lies in the fact we combine a fluid drink with a solid food. It allows both to fully cover our senses, palate and mind in order to seek harmony. I’ve learned that top chefs not only craft flavor combinations, but moreover are alert to harmony of textures. Think about how you might appreciate the feel of a fatty, thick, wholesome whisky. Or consider how a dark chocolate may swiftly melt down over your tongue before letting go. Now imagine having both at the same time.

Temperature & Fit

One of the most important aspects of the succes of whisky and chocolate is their matching temperature, though hardly ever mentioned. Chocolate needs to be appreciated through its melting flow. Any pairing that does not take this into account is bound to fail – imho. It does open possibilities for rum, gin?, but dilutes with cold-served champagnes and most fresh beers, I would argue. Whisky fits in perfectly, and the warm sensations it produces even increases the pleasing melt of cacao.

Length & Interaction

These levels of fine whisky and artisan chocolate are not only about flavors, but also about development and length. We have a nose, opening, mid and ending on both foods, at least. With various intriguing timings and transitions. No need to say it makes the successful pairing challenge all the more rewarding. You have reached your goal when there is creative play all over the curves of tastes and transitions in chocolate and whisky, and if the result is an elevating experience.
Taking it a little step further, Peter and I even cross-test the best order, wether to consume first a sip of whisky or start a bite from the cacao. The difference may sometimes be huge.

What’s next?

I hope you enjoy these thoughts, but since I’m all but a whisky expert nor sensorial behaviour analyst, I’m looking forward to your thoughts.
Should I maybe write a little book on it?

 

Our Second Whisky & Chocolate tasting with Anverness.

By on July 17, 2012 in Tastings & Events

Anverness and Choqoa recently joined forces again to setup a fantastic Whisky and Chocolate tasting event. We accomodated a full house, people who were all very curious to join our journey of aroma’s, flavors and sensations.

The pairings we offer pass by far the idea of putting red wine with meat and white wine with fish. We take it a lot further, offering genuine one-to-one pairings where one specific whisky elevates one specific chocolate. With our previous experiences in mind, we raised the bar again approving our pairings. Should I first bite the chocolate, or rather begin with a sip from the whisky? Given the complexity of aromas in both, getting them together is truly a challenge.
Peter and I have been working hard to try and taste over 60 combinations of whisky and cacao. Some don’t result in anything special, others just walk together fine, few pairings really create a clash. the cream of pairings however yield wonderful and fine sensations that surpass the individual elements. And those are the ones we offer: world-class whisky and chocolate pairings.

Photo taken from our Whisky Import Belux tasting.

We came with a very challenging chocolate selection, that I would never run, unless it were with these fine accompanying whisky’s. We kicked off with the bold François Pralus Vanuatu, shaking our general idea on chocolate. Putting then 3 different bars of Pacari opened people’s eyes on origins and single region chocolate. But we also matched Original Beans ‘Beni Wild Harvest’ and a Rogue Chocolatier ‘Silvestre’, a unique opportunity to taste the results of different chocolate makers working with the same Bolivian beans.
The ‘Cru Virunga’ from Congo and the brand new Menakao from Madagascar closed the series of complex pleasures.

The exquisite whisky’s we offered included highly premium bottles from the likes of Bushmills, Glenn Garioch, Tullibardine, Glendronach, Benromach, Ledaig… to name a few. Along the pairings we shared background information on both food & drinks.

@Choqoa Heerlijke whiskey & chocolate tasting gisteren. Openbaring. Tot een volgende keer. *

Tx @Choqoa om je fascinerende chocolades te koppelen met wonderbaarlijke whiskeys #choqoa  *

No use trying to describe how it feels. Those who attended where at least impressed and very pleased with our pairings, proof their reactions. They were gladly sharing – if not bragging about – their experiences with their friends through Twitter and Facebook.
But above all, they had a great time discovering the wonderful sensations of origine chocolate. Will you be next?

 

Pairing Chocolate & Whisky at the Choqoa & WIB Masterclass

By on July 7, 2010 in Tastings & Events

Since Choqoa and WIB found each other, we recently had a third Whisky & Chocolate Masterclass, which was initiated ‘due to popular demand’. At regular Choqoa tasting events people are often inspired trying out the rich tasting chocolate they just discovered with other premium foods and drinks, and if I mention the whisky option, well it boosts the interest let’s say!
After the first Masterclass at The House of Marketing, we also had a private one for a global company Agile as the cherry on the cake for an intimate VIP event with their top clients and preferred partners. Our latest one welcomed both new people and those who even already attended a Choqoa tasting.

Choqoa & WIB: Chocolate & Whisky Masterclass

With Whisky Import Benelux we have an excellent offering that specifically works with pairings of the Carn Mór Vintage Collection. More than just putting some whisky and chocolate together, we have been specializing and having fun in taking the idea of whisky and chocolate a step further with carefully selected one-on-one pairings. Bart from WIB is a truly passionate whisky ambassador and has an excellent nose for matching aromas. We have been working on a list of wonderful whiskies that create an exciting combination with special selected origin chocolates.

On the list are chocolate from François Pralus, Bonnat, Michel Cluizel and even a superb Pacari pairing. So far my two favorite combinations are the fruity Pralus Papouasie with a single cask Balmenach 2001 and the iconic and incredibly sour “Le 100%” with a very wholesome Caol Ila 1983. It’s just wonderful to feel how both build upon each other in new dimensions.
The whiskies have enough power to give balance to these upfront tasting origin chocolates, and blending something edible with something aromatic fluid must be a key to give a delightful experience on the palate.

Though taste is always personal, it’s encouraging to surprise people to change their mind with this level of both chocolate and whisky. So you could never believe dark chocolate can taste like this? I didn’t know whisky can be so fine either :) . We learned from our first tasting, and now people really where enthusiast about the idea, the combinations and the way we present them. After all, great taste is something to share anytime!

If you ‘re inspired, we’ll continue our tastings after the summer break, so stay in touch with our blog, websites, and both our Facebook Fanpages (Choqoa – WIB)!

Report: The First Choqoa Tasting Event

By on November 29, 2009 in Reviews, Tastings & Events

In Belgium, home of the world famous ‘Belgian Chocolates’, I’ve taken up the challenge to share and show people the path to real chocolate, fine origin artisan cacao.
After a long while I decided to do so starting with the now infamous Choqoa Sampler packs, and also by organizing chocolate tasting events to have the means and moments to personally inspire people with “the food of the gods”. My first event took place some days ago and here’s how people responded to chocolate:

We were with a nice group of about 10. After some earlier small informal tryouts I took some learnings with me and started off with a small introduction on the sexy cacao tree, pods and beans, and briefly explained the making process. We had some good questions then on the differences with industrial brands like Callebaut and I showed some pics of the Amano Chocolate factory.
Mosts really appreciated this introduction, because the cacao tree is funny, sexy and full of secrets, and how often do you wonder yourself about the source of your food?

Choqoa Chocolate Tasting Event

Off to the tasting then! I learned from Martin Christy, founder of SeventyPercent.com, to make a program instead of just grabbing for some bars, so I made small plates with chunks from all the bars to hand out. I also distributed some sheets to take notes and a tasting wheel to have some reference to our taste buds. All this helpst to take the clutter of the table and focus on tasting chocolate. The Amedei was a great opener to ‘set the bar’and we then moved on to plenty of other bars, the full list is below this post.

Time after time most were pretty intrigued by the variety of aromas and sensations, though they suggested getting some more guidance in what flavors they should detect. A good point to work on! I would also have put some more variety in the selection, I still had too many options, but off course it also depends on your stock as well.

One of the participants, Johan, is doing a great job in sharing the message for me and he brought me a fresh Amano Ocumare milk from San Fransisco. All of us were really surprised by this very untypical milk sensation; it’s a superb bar that gives a whole new level to milk chocolate. I’m leaving the idea of ‘percentages’ more and more and this bar proves it’s very very possible.

As a special for this evening I also served a double fine whisky and chocolate pairing: but you can read all about this tantalizing pairing experience in my previous blog post.

Those true discoveries were the better moments, and most likely everybody said to have had a very nice tasting experience and gladly returned home with their own chocolate bars.

Check out the next Choqoa tastings en events on my EventBrite page, see you soon!

Read on for details of all the tasted bars!

Continue Reading →

Choqoa’s First Whisky and Chocolate Pairing

By on November 3, 2009 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Reviews

A couple of days ago on an afternoon I sat together with WIB, an importer of great fine whisky, to tryout some pairings with chocolate. So far I only did once a pairing with chocolate and wine, which was really fun, but whisky was really an unexplored space for me… and that had to change!

Choqoa’s First Whisky and Chocolate Pairing

Bart is an exclusive importer and brought a fantastic Vintage Collection of 24 different small whisky bottles, and the first thing I have to say is that he made me (re)discover whisky! Just like I share my passion to help you discover great chocolate, this kind of whisky stands out from everything I had so far, because I just didn’t know better so far!

Given the idea that this pairing was new for both of us, we just started tasting some bars and bottles, all of them were wonderful, but off course finding a good match takes some more tasting along. The first thing to do to match alcoholic drinks and chocolate is to find the right tasting technique. I think enjoying chocolate with wine is very different from pairing it with whisky. With wine you’d melt a piece half in your mouth and sip in some wine, with whisky however it soon became clear we had to seek a different approach because of the strong character and the alcohol.
What did work was sipping the whisky first, swallow and only then join in the chocolate chunk. The melting chocolate then eagerly mixed with the evaporating flavours of the whisky that last long in your mouth, and that’s a ticket for some nice experience! :)

Before, I assumed whisky would need by definition a strong chocolate bar, high in cacao percentage like a Michel Cluizel Infini 99%, or a Pralus 100%. But it unexpectedly got a lot more interesting and pleasant to discover that with these particular bottles from a Carn Mor ‘Vintage Collection’, any chocolate had a chance to match. We sipped from exquisite single cask whisky distilled by Balmenach, Clynelish, Glenn Ort, Glengoyne, Glen Grant,… and munched mainly on Pralus with his bars from Trinidad, Equateur, Madagascar, Indonésie, Papouasie, a lovely Brésil and Dominican Republic!

Just as with wine some made war, some separated ways only halfway, and some made love from the start! But above all it was a great discovery to have this sensation of whisky and chocolate finding each other on a long adventure of flavours, and from both ways enrich each other’s aromas and sensations.

To our own pleasure, and because we were really enthusiast ourselves on this experience, our final winning pairings are going to be launched in a limited box, so let me know if you may be interested in this as well!