The Best Chocolatiers Share Their Favorite Beer, Wine and Chocolate Pairings
What's more romantic than a box of chocolates this Valentine's day? A box of chocolates paired with the finest tawny port wine or a barrel-aged stout beer with a rich and dark chocolate bar might just do the trick. Whether you are an oenophiliac or can't have a romantic meal without a microbrew setting the mood, there is a chocolate to be paired with it.
We asked some distinguished Chocolatiers to suggest the creme de la creme chocolate and alcohol pairings. Find out specifically how and why certain pairings compliment each other so well so you can impress your significant other.
Intemperantia - Heidi Mylo
Why do they pair so well?
All of our chocolate is considered dark ranging from 68 to 75% so we pair accordingly. Keep the chocolate plain without added flavors so that you can taste the pairing.
What drink pairs the best with one of your candies/chocolates?
Stout beers are the safest to pair with dark chocolate since they usually have a chocolate or espresso note to them.
CandyDirect suggests: Victory Brewing Company's Storm King Stout with Intemperantia Pave Glace Dark Chocolate.
Are there any other fun pairings/rituals that make enjoying your candy even more special?
The best spirit drink to pair with will always be hard fruit ciders. They are light and have many varieties. Hard Pear cider is my particular favorite. Finnriver has a large variety of hard fruit ciders but most wine stores carry hard fruit ciders.Balsamic Vinegar is another very unusual pairing but works in small quantities. Savory and sweet go well but the balsamic cannot overpower the chocolate. Try to find a good quality aged balsamic vinegar for a smoother taste.
Kane Candy - Joe Kane, President
Not only do we offer Marbled Chocolate Heart Cups for Valentine's Day, but we also offer 8 other award winning retail varieties and have two varieties specifically suited to use with any Port or Dessert Wine tastings. Many vineyards & established wineries use Kane Candy Dark Chocolate or White Chocolate Cordial & Toasting Cups for on-site wine tastings and also sell them in retail packs for take home use.
What drink pairs the best with one of your candies/chocolates?
CandyDirect suggests: Kane Candy Dark Chocolate Cordial & Toasting Cups with Cockburn's Fine Tawny Port
Are there any other fun pairings/rituals that make enjoying your candy even more special?
These can also be filled with Irish Cream, Amaretto or any favorite liqueur or non-alcoholic cold beverage to make fantastic chocolate cordial and toasting cups.Our chocolate dessert cups, party cups and celebration cups also provide an easy and elegant dessert presentation. Simply fill with chocolate mousse, whipped cream, yogurt or gelato. Then top with edible flower, fresh small berries or chocolate decoration and serve fabulous mini desserts[a][b]!
Asher's - Denise Bruno
What drink pairs the best with one of your candies/chocolates?
Victory Brewing White Monkey Belgian Style Tripel Beer and Dark Chocolate & Caramel Mini Pretzels Topped with Himalayan Sea Salt.
Why do they pair so well?
These pretzels were developed exclusively to pair with the refined and nuanced flavors in Victory's beer
Are there any other fun pairings/rituals that make enjoying your candy even more special?
Our chocolate smothered pretzels and grahams also pair well with any of your favorite brews
Black Mountain Chocolate - Brent Peters
What drink pairs the best with one of your candies/chocolates?
We love to pair our Mountain Milk chocolate bar with a good ruby Port wine.
CandyDirect suggests: Niepoort Ruby Port with a Black Mountain Chocolate's Mountain Milk chocolate bar.
Why do they pair so well?
The piquant note of the goat milk in the chocolate plays off the richness of the port. The two are also well matched in sweetness and and intensity of flavor. Whenever possible, we prefer to share this treat snuggled up at home of an evening with no other plans.
Coco Delice Fine Chocolates - Dennis Kearney
What drink pairs the best with one of your candies/chocolates?
At Coco Delice, we are big fans of BEER! Our Good Food Award winning Black Magic bon bons contain chocolate stout from a local brewery, so at the end of the day, we like to kick back, open a cold one, and savor the flavor with a few friends. Even though our chocolate is made with beer, it's not entirely beer-forward on your palate.
Why do they pair so well?
The notes of beer in the ganache serve to enhance the chocolate flavor when you eat the piece on its own, so when you eat them while you're drinking a dark beer, the chocolate helps to round off some of the bitterness and creates an experience on its own! Eating these chocolates on their own finish with a delicious malt flavor.
Our chocolates pair well because we work to match flavors that will compliment each other rather than compete with each other. It really begins with the ingredients being used. If the chocolate is made properly, the chocolate will work with many different pairings.
Are there any other fun pairings/rituals that make enjoying your candy even more special?
We also suggest trying our passion fruit hearts with a nice sparkling wine or dropping one of our signature Coco pieces into your coffee for a little morning sweetness. Speaking of sparkling wine, our Sonoma Brut truffles (aka champagne style), are made with sparkling wine from Sonoma and pair well with a glass of sparkling wine (white or rose) or a dry white wine (Sauvignon blanc). But we also encourage people to experiment with what they like, not with what just seems appropriate.
Wolfgang Candy Company
What drink pairs the best with one of your candies/chocolates?
The best thing that really pairs well with our chocolate is beer. Beer has such a wide flavor spectrum as well as there are some really unique ingredients being brewed with beer these days.
Why do they pair so well?
But the biggest reason that it pairs well with our chocolate is because of the carbonation. The carbonation actually helps blend the two flavors together between the beer and our chocolate.
We have worked with a local company called Craft Tastings, LLC to help us with our pairings, they specialize in beer and chocolate pairings. There are two specific pairings that come to mind as it relates to matching our chocolate with beer.
Ommegang brewery makes a beer called Rare Vos which pairs tremendously well with our Wolfgang Belgian Dark Chocolate with Exotic Sea Salt the caramel maltiness of the beer combines well with the bittersweet chocolate and the salt add a delicious balance of sweet and salty to give a great blended flavor.The other pairing is with a local Iron Hill Brewery's Russian Imperial Stout paired with our dark chocolate non pareils the bold flavor of the smoked malts from the beer balance and blend well with the bold flavor of the bitter dark chocolate.
Chuo Chocolatier
Chuo Provided this amazing chart about pairing beer and chocolate.
