More than 5 Food and Chocolate Pairing Tips from Sanjana Patel

Pairing Chocolate and Wine
When matching wine with chocolate, you generally opt for dark chocolate with a higher cocoa content (between 60% and 80%) and some complexity. Young wines with fruity and floral notes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Italian sparkling wines go best with single origin chocolate from Madagascar's Sambriano region. The reason? Cocoa is planted in the same areas as red berries, as a result of which cocoa beans grown here have unique characteristics of acidity and notes of citric red berry and prunes. Moreover, these wines have the same body and complexity as the madagascar beans without any rough tannins. For a dark chocolate fondues, try France's red dessert wine, its nutty notes are simildark car to port, but lighter and the wine is less sweet and has good acidity, which prevents the chocolate from becoming cloy.

Pairing Chocolate with Cheese
Chocolate and cheese make are an unexpectedly good pairing. Whether you prefer hard or soft cheese, antagonistic combinations often enhance the overall experience by causing respective flavours to stand out.
- Soft ripened goat, sheep or cow cheese such as brie and camembert tend to be more creamy, salty and tangy and go well with milk chocolate due to its caramelised or toasted notes. Single origin Java chocolate best fits this bill as its flavour profile is known to be creamy, burnt caramel and slightly toasted.
- Aged cheese such as cheddar or gruyere are less acidic in nature and really go well with the single origin cocoa bean from Equador–Arriba Nacional, which is known for its nutty, caramel, honey and vanilla notes.
- Pungent cheese such as blue cheese or gorgonzola have a distinct sharp (sometimes even spicy) note. Such cheeses enhances the flavour profile of a Brazilian or Venezuelan cocoa bean variety that are usually known to have tropical, smokey bitter almond, pepper and earthen notes.

Pairing Chocolate with Fruits and Vegetables
Chocolate-covered fruits have long been considered aphrodisiacs. The light and slightly tart flavour of strawberries drives the taste of the smooth dark or milk chocolate straight into the most sensitive pleasure receptors in the body. Milk or white chocolate, when paired with stoned fruits such as plums and peaches, balances off their citric and fruity note very well.
For chocolate fondue parties, people pair vegetables such as celery sticks, baby carrots and wasabi peas with white chocolate; these combinations work beautifully despite, or rather even because of, the contrast as they are not very acidic. Moreover, their crunchiness coupled with their distinct flavours (neutral or spicy) blend well with the smooth, milky texture of white chocolate.

Pairing Chocolate with Tea
If you want contrasting flavours, rich green teas like the Sencha and maccha go exceptionally well with milk or white chocolate. And if you're looking at flavour enhancers, try jasmine and lemongrass teas pairs with chocolates having citric and floral notes such as the peruvian or Malaysian cocoa beans. Full-bodied Assamese black tea and Darjeeling tea with their toasted and nutty notes go well with caramel-flavoured chocolates like the Ecuadorian cocoa bean variety.

Pairing chocolate with Meat
Cured meat or smoked meat such as bacon have a very complex character, they are usually paired with sweet, acidic fruits in order to enhance their flavour profile. Bolivian or Ghana cocoa variety are known to have floral, acidic and smoke spice notes., while bacon pairs really well with the semi-sweet Ghana chocolate, chorizo tastes good with the acidic Bolivian chocolate that has notes of long pepper and chili pepper. Chocolate is actually very easy to pair with meat when it is used an ingredient in a dish; chefs such as Louis Lambert of Texas are known to grill steak with ancho-chile mole sauce and gritty unprocessed Mexican chocolate that gives the dish depth, earthiness, and fair touch of sweetness.