One of the wonderful aspects of fine chocolate is it’s unique and complex flavour profile. Unlike your standard dark chocolate, fine dark chocolate will taste like more than just… well, chocolate. Real fine chocolate is made with only two ingredients: cacao bean and some sugar. Sometimes cocoa butter is added, but only a small percentage and this is just the fat from the cocoa bean. It’s essentially a component of the cocoa bean.

It’s usually the case where one nibbles a few bites of fine chocolate slowly, enjoying it’s texture and flavour notes. Just how someone might sip a fine tea, or some fine whiskey. However, fine chocolate doesn’t have to only be enjoyed in this way. And if you are an avid fine chocolate consumer, it really shouldn’t be the only way.

So here I’ll briefly discuss some ways in which you can enjoy fine chocolate other than tasting it on its own, as pleasant as that may be.

1. Chocolate Charcuterie

If you love a well-made charcuterie board, and you really enjoy nibbling and paring an array of foods as you eat, then I feel you would really enjoy adding some fine chocolate to your charcuterie bards. It doesn’t have to be anything too complicated. Make your charcuterie board as you wish (fine cheeses, cured meats, dried fruits, nuts, pickled vegetables, olives) and add a last 2 or 3 fine dark chocolate bars. Just break them up into squares or irregular shapes of about 5-10g each, and label them what they are so your guests know.

You can label them as the origin and percentage, such as “Papua New Guinea 71%”. Or, you may wish to label them with the prominent flavour notes “fruity and spice” or “earthy and baked”. This would help your guests decide which chesses or foods they think it would pair best with. Many people believe there is a science to pairing, but there really is not. The thousands of cultures around the world develop cuisines that revolves around pairing foods and flavours. What one region may add into a specific dish may differ drastically what to what another culture prefers. Both can pull it off, and then it’s up to your subjective opinion what combination you like better. That’s no different to pairing fine foods and especially fine chocolate.

There are some ideas such as pairing like with like, or contrast/complementary. For instance, if you have a dark chocolate with bright red fruit notes, it might be nice to have dried cranberries, cherries, or a cheese that goes well with such flavours (such as a brie or soft goat cheese). Or, if you have a dark chocolate that carries strong smokey/tobacco/earthy notes, you may want to include some smoked meats on your board. Keep in mind that in some cases you may not want to pair two foods with similar notes, as the food with the stronger presence of those notes may cancel out the more delicate similar notes in the chocolate.

In that case, you may go for a contrast/complementary. This is where the flavours are not similar, but complement in some way. Like peaches and cream, orange and cinnamon, balsamic and strawberry. Very contrasting flavours, but tend to be appreciate together by most. What are the strongest notes in your chocolate? And what other foods/flavours do you usually see that paired with? Think of a dessert or dish that contains the flavour note in your chocolate (example/herb or mint), and another food that often goes well together. Lamb and mint work well - so perhaps pairing that chocolate with strong herb/mint notes may pair well with a venison salami for instance.

The choices are endless. And the best way is to buy your favourite chocolate/cheese/meats/nuts and have fun seeing which ones pair best. What you think pairs best will definitely differ from your guests, and you can have fun discussing what works for you.

2. Chocolate & Tea

When it comes to paring fine chocolate with drinks, most people gravitate towards wine and other alcoholic beverages. The truth is, most beverages are too cold (beer, some wines), and being water-based as well doesn’t allow for the best melt in the chocolate. In fact, drinking something cool first, and then taking a bite of chocolate usually causes the fat to take a while to melt on your cool tongue, and even make the fat feel less creamy and more waxy.

If you love that soft silky melt of chocolate, then I recommend drinking something hot with it. And tea is a great choice!

What sort of tea? Tea and chocolate doesn’t usually clash. They blend well together whether you are drinking a black tea, earl grey, oolong, jasmine tea, and so on. Personally I find many green teas tend to clash more, but that may just be my opinion. To find what works for you, start by choosing your favorite tea, and then try it with a few of your favourite bars and see which one stands out.

Do you want the flavour of your tea to stand out, or your chocolate? A more delicate tea will help bring out the flavours of the chocolate, where a stronger tea will compete more with the flavours of the chocolate. This depends on the experience you want to have.

It’s a great way to end your day. A hot cup of tea, a two squares of fine dark chocolate. Take a few sips, have a bit, enjoy how the flavours marry together, and repeat.

3. Turn it into drinking chocolate

This may sound blasphemous to some fine chocolate purists, but there really is nothing wrong with this. Truth is, for most of its history chocolate was a drink, and only a drink. Blending 1/3 or 1/2 of a bar with your favorite hot milk could turn out to be the best hot chocolate you ever had! Fine chocolate isn’t meant to only be nibbled on, it can certainly be taken as a drink as well. In fact, when many bean-to-bar makers create “drinking chocolate” mixes, it is most often one of their single origin bars ground up into fine bits.

The key for a fantastic drinking chocolate, aside from using a fantastic chocolate, is to give it lots of air/texture. Drinking chocolate is supposed to have foam, and lots of it. You can accomplish this by using the milk steamer on your espresso machine, or simply by heating your milk and blend it for a while in a food processor or “magic bullet” type of processor. You can also whisk it, or use one of those battery operated whisks. The point is to whip that up. A hot, foamy, drinking chocolate is a wonderful drinking chocolate.

FYI why do I use “drinking chocolate” as opposed to “hot chocolate”. Hot chocolate has the perception of your standard hot cocoa - basically heated up chocolate milk. Drinking chocolate is essentially hot chocolate, but a bit beyond what you are used to.

4. Melt It On Bread

Yes. Not just a square of white grocery store bread. I’m talking about some local artisan sourdough or wood oven gourmet bread. Something with a beautiful crust and soft spongy center. Perhaps using organic red fife non-hybridized wheat. A bread with deep flavour and good texture.

Grab a slice, thick or thin, and toast it half way. Then take off a few squares of your favourite dark or milk chocolate (or gianduja), place it on the bread, and let it toast until the chocolate not only melts but begins to darken a bit around the edges. This works best in a toaster oven so you can lay the bread flat, and toast the chocolate on top.

Take it out and enjoy! Just be careful, as the chocolate may be very hot, so test it first or wait a minute - as difficult as that may be! Not a bad breakfast idea either if you combine your toast with some high quality dark chocolate.

5. Turn it into a chocolate truffle

Beautiful traditional chocolate bean to truffles!

Similar to drinking chocolate, you can still enjoy the wonderful deep flavour of your favourite bar, but it an a soft decadent chocolate truffle form. Simple traditional truffles do not require any tempering - and they are very simple to make.

A good rule of thumb is 90-100g of heated cream to about 125g of fine chocolate. Dark chocolate can take 100g of cream, where with milk chocolate you will want to add closer to 90g of cream.

Chop up your bar(s) into small chocolate chip sized pieces. This will allow them to melt faster so you are not left with big un-melted chunks. Bring your cream just to a boil. Don’t let it come to a rolling boil, or rise up, or you will boil off too much of the water and your ganache may split. If this happens, just add a tablespoon or two more of hot cream.

Pour your hot cream over your chocolate, and gently stir or whisk it until it is all incorporated. You’re not whipping it, just incorporating it. You can add 1 TBSP of butter here too if you wish, and incorporate it well. Then, let it chill in the fridge overnight or for a few hours. You want it to chill to the consistency of a firm dough that you can pinch and roll/shape into a ball. They don’t have to be perfect. In fact, traditionally they are not perfectly round spheres, but similar looking to the actual fungi truffles.

Roll these balls in cocoa powder, and keep in the fridge until you are ready to eat it. Pull it out 20-30 minutes beforehand so they are not so cold. Enjoy it as a dessert, or with your coffee!

6. Of course, pair it with some alcohol

Everyone always goes to chocolate and wine. Yes, they can work well together, but I wouldn’t say it’s always the best pairing. Red wines work better (the flavour notes of many red wines seem to complement chocolate more than most white wines), and un chilled/room temperature as to not impede the melt too much.

Other fine alcoholic drinks you can enjoy your fine chocolate with are:

Craft beers

This may go against what I said about cold drinks and chocolate melt, and it’s true that the melt will not be best. One tip is to rub your tongue around in your mouth after you take a sip of beer to warm it up before you take a bite of chocolate.

Chewing on some chocolate while chugging a corona probably won’t be that spectacular. I’m talking about trying a couple bars with some of your favourite craft beers. Perhaps a beer that was aged in a pinot barrel, something with an orange flavour note or infusion, or a simple ale with light hay and woody notes. They would all work well with some fine dark chocolate. You can even sneak some chocolate into your favorite craft brew pub, and your and your guests and play around with what works best with which beer. I have never had issue doing this so far!

Whiskey

This will depend on whether you enjoy whiskey or not. Some people tend to either love it or hate it. Again, the finer the whiskey, the better it may marry with your fine chocolate. Better yet, if you have a friend who is a whiskey fanatic and collects various kinds, maybe hint at doing a pairing where you bring your fine bars and he supplies a few shots of whiskey. One “rule” to keep in mind is matching intensity here. A delicate bar with delicate notes probably shouldn’t be paired with a strong whiskey with deep peat/smokey notes or you may lose all the flavour notes of the chocolate.

Other Spirits

Fine chocolate also goes very well with other spirits such as rum, cognac, but even flavoured liquors such as Grand Marnier, Cointreau, and Amaretto.

Cream based alcoholic beverages

Due to their thick creamy like texture, liquors such as Baileys, Amarula, Advocaat, and Rompope make for a fun and wonderful pairing with fine chocolates. This is especially true for fine milk chocolates (or dare I say it, a high quality white chocolate) as their sweetness matches somewhat better.

What are some fun creative ways to enjoy bean to bar chocolate bars?