Last Sunday afternoon, I decided to swear off sweets (with the exception of dark chocolate of 75% cacao content or higher) until Thanksgiving. Within 24 hours, I succumbed to a terrible cold. I'm convinced that they're related. My body is getting back at me for even considering such a denial. I think I just sneezed 40 times in a row. Thankfully, yesterday I ate two cookies and am starting to feel a bit better.

But that's not what I'm posting about right now. I've been trying to create 'the soundtrack of my life' in my head over the past several weeks. I haven't come up with a final track list yet. Either way, I'm not really posting about that either. What I'm really posting about is that:

1. I've been obsessing over the idea that chocolate should be paired not only with wine, beer, tea, and other liquids, but it should be paired with things that we experience outside the sense of taste. Like sound. I'm thinking music.
2. So after going to hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Dan last week, I'm 100% sure that I'm right, and that pairing chocolate with music could be a fascinating and powerful experience.

I'm kind of a dork about the fact that I really believe that fine chocolate can be experienced like a story. A narrative with ebbs and flows of intensity and depth. That brings me back to the soundtrack of my life. As I mentioned before, I have not come up with a final track list. But earlier today when I was imagining this week's ideal set, I started thinking that I should put together a music and chocolate pairing and post it here. But if I try to match up chocolate with music by myself, the results will be dominated by my personal music preferences. So then I was also thinking that I should have a listening party at my house to test my theories.

But first, I need to have a pre-listening party to determine which songs might pair with which chocolates. (There are always reasons to have more parties.) On one hand, it seems easier to start with a bunch of cool songs and then match up chocolates that will go with them, but doing that would downplay the importance of the chocolate in the whole deal. Here's what I'm going to do:

1. Choose 8 - 10 chocolates (either high quality truffles or fine pure chocolate - not sure yet)


2. Invite 8 - 10 friends over to taste the chocolates one by one (sans music)


3. Create some sort of chart or card where tasters can first indicate if there are particular genres of music that would pair well with the taste experience of each chocolate, and then have the option to specify particular artists, or even a particular song that might make for a good pairing.


4. Then I'll collect everyone's thoughts and put it all together and create Phase II of this experiment, which will be the actual listening party.

And finally, my hope is that I'll organize a public chocolate and music pairing someday soon. That would be sweet. I already have it all planned out in my head.

ps. The totally fascinating pic above is of truffles made by Cosmic Chocolate, which I took while I was at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon a couple months ago. Speaking of chocomusic, their website is pretty jammin'. Jamiroquai has never sounded so delicious.

My friend Ariel just sent me a very cute music video by French Singer/Songerwriter Olivia Ruiz. The song, called La Femme Chocolat, is about a girl who really loves to eat chocolate (and worries that maybe it's too much).

I can relate.

Anyway, it's all in French, but you'll get the idea.

If I was slightly more awesome than I am, I'd always post about things right after they happen. Sadly, that's not the case. You can only be as awesome as you already are. That's my excuse for not posting about this awesome chocobeer party I had like a month ago, like, a month ago.

Anyway, according to yours truly as quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times (also, of course, several weeks ago), all you need to have a chocolate and beer pairing are the chocolate, the beer, "a small bouquet of flowers, and napkins." A bizarre quote indeed. And also according to me in the article, these 4 items will entertain a group of 2 or 20.

That said, I pulled together most of the above items (minus the bouquet of flowers) to host a chocobeer party at the office of my friends/clients at Street Attack in Boston. And we had around 20 people or so, so I guess I was right. There were 6 different kinds of chocolate and 7 different kinds of beer. I paired each chocolate with a different beer - some pairings were based on past tastings, others were being tested out for the very first time. I stuck with Belgium for all, and featured Cote d'Or chocolate and several Belgian beers (and one Belgian-style that's made in the US):

Ommegang + Cote d'Or Milk: Ommegang is the Belgian-style beer that's made in the US. I've talked about this pairing a lot before. It's not new, but it's so good that I incorporate it to my chocobeer tastings as often as possible. The combination is just incredibly complementary. The sweetness of the beer connects with the warmth and caramel flavor of the chocolate. Ommegang makes an excellent beer pairing with sweet milk chocolates in general.

Westmalle Tripel + Cote d'Or Lait Intense: This was something of a non-pairing. The beer and chocolate didn't really clash, but didn't complement each other in any way either. It's almost like they were ignoring each other. I wouldn't recommend this pairing at all. Totally boring. Separately though, they're each quite delicious. The problem when you put them together is that the Trippel is too light and tart to meet the chocolate halfway. One taster mentioned that the Trippel has some floral qualities that would pair well with an Earl Grey-infused dark chocolate. Interesting idea. I haven't tried it.

Westmalle Dubbel + Cote d'Or 54%: The Dubbel, with a lower alcohol content than the Tripel, has a heavier mouthfeel and sweeter flavor. It's flavor is deep and soft. It was an awesome pairing with the 54%. The two mellowed each other out. The pairing was smooth and pleasing.

Rochefort 6 + Cote d'Or 70%: Another Trappist ale with a similar alcohol content to the Dubbel (around 7.5 ABV), the Rochefort 6's flavor profile did not mesh with the dark chocolate we tried it with. The beer was spicy and tasted a bit like root beer. The pairing was bizarre and random. One taster pointed out that it would be a fabulous pairing with white chocolate. I could definitely see that. It'd be like a rootbeer float. But here's the thing, a few tasters really liked this pairing. They felt that the beer mellowed out the bitterness of the chocolate - I was totally shocked, but it just goes to show that everyone's tastebuds are different.

Lindemans Raspberry Lambic + Cote d'Or 86%: I've talked about this awesome pairing so many times that I'm completely sick of writing about it. See an indepth description of what this pairing is like in this previous post. A big hit at the party, that's for sure!

Delirium Tremens + Cote d'Or Orange: I chose this pairing because the Delirium has an orange, piney taste to it that I hoped the orange bar would connect with and potentially mellow out a bit. Overall it was an excellent pairing. The beer, which has quite a bite to it, softened when it was combined with the chocolate. The orange came through both the beer and the chocolate beautifully. Deliriously delicious!

Overall, the Ommegang and Dubbel pairings are my top picks. And I continue to be convinced that mixing good chocolate and tasty alcohol is one sweet way to make friends. Check out a few more photos on flickr.

ps. I created the super cool stylized pic at the top of this post on befunky.