In my last post, I outlined a pairing session in which we tested out the full range of Lindemans Lambic beers with 6 different Cote d'Or chocolates. The goal of the pairing session was to develop 3 'perfect' pairings to present at the All Candy Expo in Chicago (which was last week). Below are the 3 pairings that I decided on, along with in-depth tasting notes and a summary of reactions from the hundreds of people who tried them at the expo. In general, I have tasters go from light, sweeter chocolate to darker, more intense chocolate:

Lindemans Pomme (Apple) Lambic with Cote d'Or Lait Intense: The Lait Intense features a layer of dark (54%) chocolate encased in milk chocolate. The bar has notes of warm caramel that come through quickly. The sweet, light cider-like apple lambic has it's own gentle caramel nuance. Together, the caramel notes in both elements connect for an explosive 'caramel apple' combined flavor. Milk chocolate has a lower melting point than darker chocolate, and therefore the chocolate begins to coat your palette immediately; it's flavor and sweetness come through really quickly - you don't have to wait for anything, it's really instant gratification. This pairing was an ideal one to start with because it was instantly convincing to the many tasters who came by who had never imagined that chocolate and beer could be a good pairing. Also note that this pairing is the least subtle of the 3 that were being presented.

Lindemans Pomme Lambic with Cote d'Or Noir Orange: With this one, I chose to pair the same lambic we had in the first pairing with a different chocolate to demonstrate that a different chocolate will change the taste of the beer altogether. That said, most people who tried this second pairing were extremely surprised that the beer was the same one that they had just tried. When a particular chocolate and a particular beer are paired, they combine, interact, and change each other and become a single flavor experience. So rather than connect with the caramel warmth as the Lait Intense did, the Noir Orange, which is a 64% bar with candied orange peel, interacted with the bitter notes of the lambic and highlighted its tartness. The pairing was light, tart, extremely crisp, and quite summery.

Lindemans Framboise (Raspberry) with Cote d'Or Brut 86%: The raspberry lambic has a heavier mouthfeel and fuller body than the apple. The dark berry flavor of this lambic also has more depth, and can stand alongside an extremely dark chocolate such as the 86%. The 86% has a much slower melting process than the Noir Orange and (certainly) the Lait Intense. It needs something that will last alongside it with a flavor that will measure up and not be easily overpowered. The raspberry lambic at once softens the bitter notes of the 86% without covering up the cacao flavor. It also brings out some of the very subtle dark berry nuances that are inherent in the 86%. This pairing was velvety and rich.

Reactions: People's overall response to the pairings was (1) surprise at the concept that beer and chocolate could be paired together, (2) surprise at how caramel-apple like the first pairing is, and how quickly and clearly the tastes come through, (3) surprise at how different the very same beer tastes with a different chocolate in the second pairing, (4) surprise at how gentle yet deep the cacao flavor of the 86% is in light of the softening effect of the raspberry lambic. Since the expo was for buyers and retailers, many people asked how they might hold such a chocolate and beer tasting at their respective boutiques. A lot of people also commented that all of the beers in the pairing were quite sweet, asking if that's why the combinations were so complementary. My response to this is that in addition to the sweet lambics, dark, rich, and/or malty beers that have notes of molasses, honey, and/or caramel have great potential to make beautiful pairings. The beers that won't go so well are the light, tart ones.

And people's favorite pairing was split pretty evenly between the 3 pairings. Each person identified with the flavor set that best matched his or her style and preferences. Personally, my favorite pairing is the 3rd one.

A couple weeks ago I held a Cote d'Or and Lindemans Lambic pairing session with a bunch of friends to test out some ideas for my Cote d'Or presentation at the All Candy Expo, which was this past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. In this post, I'm going to go through all of the pairings that we tried during the first pairing session. In my next post, I'll go through the final pairings that were presented at the Expo, more in-depth tasting notes, and so on.

A Lambic is a spontaneously fermented beer that can only be made southwest of Brussels in Belgium. As a matter of fact, it's one of the oldest styles of beer in the world. And by spontaneously fermented, I mean that within around a 20 mile radius in that region, there are wild yeast cultures in the air that descend upon the brew all by themselves. The yeast is never actually added, Lambic breweries pretty much just leave the windows open and things happen all on their own. As I learned this past Sunday while I was at 'beer school' in a bar in Chicago with Brian Van Zandbergen, an incredibly knowledgeable beer expert from Lindeman's importer, Merchant du Vin, Lambics are 60% wheat, 40% barley, and are made with "aged" (also known as stale) hops. Most of the Lambics that I tested out in our pairing session two weeks ago were fruit Lambics - such as apple, raspberry, and cherry - all quite sweet, though with varying levels of depth and body. Brian explained that Lindemans, one of a handful of Lambic producers in Belgium, adds their fruit (in puree form) after the fermentation process is complete, so that the sweetness of the fruit is preserved. Another Lambic producer that I tried a couple months back, Mort Subite, adds their fruit before the fermentation process, so you get more of the tartness and much less of the sweetness of the fruit. That said, overall, the Mort Subite line of Lambic beers does not make a very good pairing with chocolate, while the much sweeter Lindemans pairs extremely well. Tartness (in beer, wine, or other spirits) quite often goes sharply against the taste of chocolate.

Anyway, here's a brief rundown of what we tasted during the first pairing session. We were pairing the Lambics below with the Cote d'Or Lait, Lait Intense, Noir 54%, Noir 70%, Brut 86%, and Noir Orange:

Lindemans Pomme (Apple) Lambic: The general consensus with this one was that it paired very nicely with the Cote d'Or Lait Intense, a bar with a layer of dark chocolate encased in milk chocolate, and with the Cote d'Or Noir Orange, a 64% cacao bar infused with candied orange peel. It was not a good match with the darker chocolates, the 70% and the 86%; and it was ok (but not spectacular) with the 54%, and the Cote d'Or Lait.

Lindemans Peche (Peach) Lambic: This one was pretty good with several of the bars in the line, but not remarkable with any one of them. Almost everyone preferred this one with the Lait Intense layered bar, a couple of us liked the darker (70% and 86%) pairing, and a couple of us liked the Lait pairing. Looking at my notes today, it looks like no one really liked this Lambic with the 54%.

Lindemans Framboise (Raspberry) Lambic: This one was fabulous with the 86% (I'm familiar with that pairing from past sessions... and it was still just as good), and quite good with the 70% and medium good with the 54%. I thought it was horrible with the layered Lait Intense, but some people in the group liked that pairing, much to my surprise.

Lindemans Kriek (Cherry) Lambic: So, the Mort Subite Lambic I had a month ago that I mentioned above was also a cherry Lambic. It was incredibly tart and sour and made a 100% terrible pairing with the 86% bar I was hoping to pair it with at the time... so, having not yet been to beer school and not understanding the difference between different Lambic production processes, I thought that the Lindemans Cherry would be terrible as well.... but that wasn't the case at all! As a matter of fact, it was an all-around favorite. It went beautifully with practically everything in the Cote d'Or line, but the star pairing was with the Noir 54%.

Lindemans Cassis Lambic: This one went best with the 54%, but was too odd and tart for the lighter milk chocolates and went bitterly against the 86%. Not an ideal pairing either way.

Lindemans Cuvee Rene Grand Cru Gueuze Lambic: So this Lambic doesn't have any fruit added to it. Gueuze is a blend of one-year and two-year Lambics that then go through a second fermentation in the bottle. The taste is incredibly crisp and tart with notes of green grape skins and granny smith, which, while rather interesting all on its own, made a pretty terrible pairing with the chocolates we were trying. The only one that was somewhat tolerable was the Cote d'Or Lait. But 'tolerable pairings' weren't quite what we were going for.

Photographs of Lindemans Lambic Beers from Merchant Du Vin website.

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Larry, co-founder of Taza Chocolate last week. Taza Chocolate is a pure chocolate-maker based in Somerville, MA (which is the very same town I live in). They released their very first bar, a 70%, this past winter, and then followed shortly after with an 80%. So last week I was excited to learn that they are rounding out their line with a third bar, this one a 60%, which will be coming out within a couple weeks. Taza's chocolate bars are stone-ground using antique Mexican molinos (stone grinders). When I was at their chocolate studio a few months ago, the Taza guys explained that using a stone grinder (rather than a steel grinder, which is what most other chocolate-makers use) to process their cacao preserves more of the natural flavor of the bean. They have an online chocolate journal that has some pictures of the molino and explanations of exactly how their chocolate is made.

Taza 60% Stone Ground Organic Dark Chocolate: I have to admit that I shared this bar with all sorts of people and did not end up being able to taste a whole lot of it. But what I did manage to note was its earthiness and bold notes of raisin and spice. The Taza bars most certainly do not fall in the smooth and velvety category. The bars are minimally refined in order to keep the chocolate flavor as close to the natural form and flavor of raw cacao as possible. That said, the mouthfeel is quite textured and a little gritty; overall, a wholly different experience than other pure chocolates. I'll have more indepth tasting notes once the bar comes out.

So once the 60% bar is out, I'll post an update! In the meantime, you can get Taza Chocolate's other bars online or at one of these places.

Early this past August, Godiva Chocolatier's parent company Campbell Soup Co. announced that Godiva is kind of the odd one out in light of the rest of Campbell Soup's products, and they are therefore looking into parting ways with the brand, possibly by selling it. Too sweet and glitzy to fit in with V8 and SpaghettiOs, apparently. The Campbell Soup Company has owned Godiva for around 40 years. The original company was a wholesale chocolate outfit that started up in Belgium in the 1920s and then morphed into a retail shop around 1940, and was at that point named after the legendary Lady Godiva, who rode around naked on a horse to help out some peasants sometime during the 11th century. In the mid 1960s, the company was partially acquired by Pepperidge Farms, and was owned wholly by Campbell shortly thereafter.

So who's going to be the big buyer? Hersheys? Mars? As much as another lux brand seems right up Hershey's alley, yesterday I heard that Switzerland's Lindt & Spruengli wants first dibs.

And here's one more 'fact' about Godiva that I just can't resist:

"When pronounced "G'dai, Va!" the name may be mistaken for an Australian greeting to a person named Va." (Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

I went over to the South End for brunch this past Sunday and happed to stop by two boutiques that have been on my places-I-need-to-stop-by list for a while now:

Olde Dutch Cottage Candy: A fascinatingly eclectic space full of antique wares and old school candy. It's all about the classics here - candy lipsticks, rock candy, every kind of gumdrop and taffy among glass jars of Mary Jane candies and Squirrel Nut Zippers (it was a caramel candy made in Massachusetts before it was a band from North Carolina...), and multi-colored candy corn line the crowded counters. Candy necklaces and stuffed animals hang from the ceiling, and the cramped floorspace is stocked with antique tea sets, layers upon layers of crystal dishes, stacks of silver trays, old books, posters, and framed mirrors, various chests and antique wooden furniture pieces. I found all the penny candies that I remember from when I was little - except for flying saucers... but there was so much to look at I might have just missed them. Next time I go in there, I'll have to ask.

Choco Choco House: I've always liked Choco Choco House ever since I discovered chocolatier/founder Aliya Wali's couture chocolate purses a few years ago. Late in Fall 2006, they opened a retail boutique in the South End where they've got chocolate handbags, chocolate shoes, truffles (pictured above), and other chocolate confections. Choco Choco House has always been into using really unique flavors - rose petals, curry powder, chili pepper, lavender, and champagne (no, not all in the same recipe), among classics like cognac and hazelnut. We tried two truffles:

Goat Cheese Truffle: Chocolate and goat cheese is a combination that I have done a lot of experimentation with. As unlikely as it sounds, the tanginess of fresh goat cheese can be a heady, rich complement to chocolate. Sometime I'll have to post my recipe for fig and goat cheese appetizers with chocolate balsamic vinaigrette. Anyway, the Choco Choco House goat cheese truffle sports just a bit of tang - nothing too overpowering. It flirts with your palette, giving you a subtle introduction to a potentially explosive flavor combination. The ganache is coated with dark chocolate and cocoa powder.

Fresh Mint Truffle: This truffle was extremely herbal. It takes a step beyond plain ol' minty freshness and made its way into the grassy, earthier origins of fresh mint leaves. The texture of the ganache is quite firm and dense, similar in style to that of the goat cheese truffle.

Two sweet events coming up in September:

Langham Hotel's Chocolate Bar: Starting up on September 8th and continuing every Saturday from noon to 3, the Langham Hotel Chocolate Bar features an all-you-can-eat display of more than 125 chocolate desserts. This year one chocolate enthusiast will win an unlimited 'season pass.' The prize will go to the winner of the Chocolate Idol recipe contest.

What the Fluff?: In 1917 in Somerville's Union Square, a man named Archibald Query created the original recipe for the marshmallow cream spread many of us know as Fluff. He sold his sweet invention door to door. On Saturday, September 29 (raindate September 30th) from 3 - 7 pm, you can join Boston's biggest Fluff nuts for the second annual What the Fluff? festival celebrating Mr. Query's invention. The 'Flufferettes' will be performing alongside musical acts, and attendees are also invited to participate in the Science Fair display and Fluff Cooking Contest. Prizes included a year's supply of you-know-what...