Every chocolate-covered coffee bean I've ever tasted was made with bittersweet chocolate. Bitter chocolate + bitter coffee bean = yes, that's right, a lot of bitterness, which is why I'm not really into it, despite being the dark chocolate lover that I am. Then two days ago I finished an entire box of chocolate-covered coffee beans. I don't even drink coffee. Well, I do, but only socially and on weekends and about 1/3 of a cup every two weekdays. As I was crunching away, I realized what made them so delicious. It was the contrast in flavor intensities.

This particular brand of chocolate-covered coffee beans used milk chocolate. And it was that simple. Rather than overpowering the palette with bitterness from all angles, the milk chocolate and coffee bean pairing offset each other. The sweetness of chocolate softened the bite of the bean without overpowering the coffee flavor. The power of pairing opposites together can apply to other food and chocolate pairings as well (though wines operate a little differently and would not necessarily abide by this rule). I'd pair milk chocolate with a strong coffee the same way I'd pair a dark chocolate dessert with a sweet raspberry sauce or a crunchy bitter cacao nibby tart with a sweet, creamy chocolate ice cream.

That said, I recently wrote an article about chocolate and beverage pairing that is in the December issue of Diversion magazine (for all you leisurely doctors out there). In testing out pairings for the coffee pairing section of the article, I found that lighter, sweeter chocolates are delicious with strong roasts, and darker chocolates are delicious with mild roasts. It goes against the traditional espresso + dark chocolate pairing that you'll find in so many European cafes, but my tastebuds don't lie (at least not to me). Now that I've discovered how delightful milk chocolate-covered coffee beans are, it really highlights the concept of pairing mild + strong to balance and complement each other.

The milk chocolate coffee beans I had are made by a company called Intelligentsia. But they don't seem to have them available online. I got them at my local coffee shop. I found some others that you can get online here (but note that I haven't tried them).

I'm really into food pairing these days. Next time you decide to get all European on your morning coffee, here's a quick pairing guide to try out contrasting flavor intensities in coffee and chocolate:

• Strong black coffee + a piece of milk chocolate
• Mild black coffee + a piece of slightly more intense milk chocolate or a mild dark chocolate (50% - 60% cacao)
• Coffee with cream + a piece of dark chocolate (65% - 70% cacao)
• Coffee with cream & sugar + a piece of very dark chocolate (70% cacao and above)