Pairing: Chocolate & Cheese

Chocolate & Cheese 101

Is Chocolate and Cheese a thing?

Oh absolutely!

So many flavors individually, imagine what you can get when combined.

For decades, people have combined salty and sweet as dessert or as a snack. If we follow the same principle, we are doing the same thing with chocolate and cheese.

It’s sometimes tough to imagine, but you won’t regret it.

Chocolate & Cheese… Try and experiment

As usual with all our pairings, we typically can go 2 ways. We can pair them matching similar flavor profiles, or we can find contrasts flavors to match them.

But we always recommend to just start tasting, to find out what best pairs to you.

Our first tip, most cheeses pair nicely with dark chocolate. If you are unsure how to pair these two foods, always start with dark chocolate. At least 70% dark chocolates. They are usually less sweet but complex in flavors, so it usually matches very well.

Now, if go a little into details, here we have a few suggestions.

Complex aged cheeses, like Parmigiano or a Blue Cheese, pair beautifully with high cocoa content chocolate. Typically, chocolate between 70% & 90%.  Keep in mind all Blue cheeses are a perfect match with dark chocolates.

On the contrary, milk chocolates are creamier, and combine best with soft creamy cheeses, like goat or cream cheese or even a fresh Ricotta.

And you can even pair cheese with white chocolate. These are sweeter than any other chocolates, so combine them with sweeter cheeses as well. Semi-soft cheese, like Swiss or Emmental are a great choice to alternative for white chocolate.

Feeling adventurous? Try flavored chocolates

You know how cheese pair nicely with sweet confitures or marmalades. Exactly the same applies with flavored chocolates. This combination can be very interesting, bringing the sweet and the salty to a whole other level.

Chocolate with Chili is very popular now a days. It pairs nicely with a creamy Brie. Let the chocolate melt in your mouth and then add a piece of brie to your mouth. The chili flavors will round to the creaminess of the cheese, making it a unique sensation.

Ever tried orange chocolate? This is your chance. Get you hands on a dark orange chocolate (the darker the better!) and combine it with Blue or Roquefort. At first you will get mild and sweet sensation that moves rapidly to a tangy, citric and salty finish. And explosion of flavors.

A nutty milk chocolate, with hazelnuts, or cashews, can be combined with a Manchego. Spanish Manchego is made 100% from sheep milk, which brings out a different character. These 2 will highlight a creaminess and nuttiness feeling. Worth every penny!

If you want to learn more about cheese check out Cheese Grotto’s Blog for further ideas.

Just remember, there is no right or wrong! Food tasting and pairing is an art, and we all like different things.

Let’s experiment and have fun!

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