Ok, I admit it. It's been a while. (6 Months? Really?) There have been some big changes in the world of the Tasty Show since the summer. A quick rundown: since my last post, I wrapped things up with my boutique PR gig, packed up my stuff, moved across the country, set myself up in San Francisco, and started working with a tech PR firm called LaunchSquad.

And here we are in January 2009.

Much as I've been slacking in the blog department, I didn't waste any time bringing chocolate into the mix here at my new digs - the holidays put me in the spirit to introduce my fellow PR enthusiasts at LaunchSquad to my chocolate obsession. And behold - see below the menu for the very first chocoparty I've done for my own company (rather than other people's companies - which are good too, but, you know, different...) A momentous occasion, and a delicious one at that.

I created this menu based on the responses of a small group of friends during a last minute 'testing session' that we held in my little studio apartment two nights before my company chocoparty. I'm always amazed at the sheer range and intensity of the responses to the pairing menus I've presented. In any pairing, I find that it's less about pleasing everyone (which becomes more and more impossible as the group gets larger), and more about experimentation and discussion. Here is our full menu + a few of the tasting notes my co-workers jotted down on little notecards I handed out before our tasting:

Valrhona Jivara Lait 40% + Chimay: The Valrhona Jivara is a classic sweet milk - an excellent, relatively neutral place to start. The idea here was a simple pairing based on the sweetness of the chocolate and the sweet malts of the beer. This one got a pretty varied response, ranging from "Better separate!" to, "Although the Chimay on its own is a bit sweet for my palate, paired with the milk chocolate, I was better able to detect the subtler, maltier properties."

Michel Cluizel Mangaro Milk 50% + Anchor Steam Holiday Brew: This pairing was one of the most beloved of the afternoon. As for each element on its own, many loved the ultra creamy intensity that Michel Cluizel is so well-known for, and the beer, brewed right in San Francisco, got good reviews all around ("This beer is amazing!"). (On an unrelated note, one fellow taster offered an alternative non-chocolate pairing that she discovered last Christmas while she was, um, mildly intoxicated. If, by chance, you accidentally drop a candy cane into your Anchor Steam Holiday beer, don't fret. Just leave it there for a while, then drink and enjoy.)

Recchuiti Dark Milk 55% + Aventinus Eisboch: This pairing got some of the most contrasting responses of the six. Around half the people at LaunchSquad HATED the Eisboch. The other half LOVED it. People's written comments ranged from "Bark tasting" and "BAD" to the more middle ground, "pairing was a bit too sweet for my taste," to "Wow, this is fascinating!" And just a couple nights before, this pairing got rave reviews. Fascinating.

Amano 70% Madagascar + Westmalle Tripel: Quite different than all the others - subtlety was the theme in this pairing. Amano's Madagascar, with its soft, even notes of dried fruit and figs, needed a beer that wouldn't overpower. The Tripel is airy, lighter than the other beers in the pairing with a fruity note that mingled gently with the chocolate. A pretty popular pairing overall. One of my personal favorites.

Domori 70% Venezuela + Ommegang: I've been a raging fan of Domori's Madagascar bars in the past, but I have to admit that this particular Venezuela variety hit me like something of a bitter, rude awakening... it wasn't my favorite, nor that of most of my fellow tasters, that's for sure. I paired it with the ever honey sweetness of Belgian-style Ommegang Ale to bring the bitter notes down a notch, and would say that the pairing was relatively successful, though I did overhear a likening to "wet concrete." Ha.

TCHO 70% Ghana + Lindemans Raspberry Lambic: Always a classic. "The most delicious of deliciousness!" was one of my favorite comments of the afternoon. For the most part, you can't go wrong with raspberry and dark chocolate, and I often conclude my menus this way because it leaves my fellow tasters with a wholly pleasing sense of the experience. The chocolate in this pairing was most certainly one of the favored dark chocolates of the six we tried. It was one of the "beta" bars released by San Francisco's very own TCHO, one of the industry's newest chocolate-makers based not too far from my office.

Last night I led a beer + chocolate tasting workshop at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Around 20 of us tested out various pairings of pure chocolates, chocolate desserts and artisanal beers. I'm sad that I forgot to take a photo of the glorious array of chocolate treats that we sampled - but all I can do now is post a picture of the fabulous drawing of a cow saying "moo" that one of the participants in the class drew next to "Valrhona Milk Chocolate" on the pairing menu.

Here is the pairing menu in its entirety:

Ommegang + Valrhona Jivara 40% Milk Chocolate

Aventinus Eisbock + Cafe Tasse Milk Chocolate

Guinness Extra Stout + Valrhona Manjari 60% Dark Chocolate

Guinness Extra Stout + Theo Madagascar 65% Dark Chocolate

Chimay Ale Premiere + Fran's Chocolate Smoked Salt Caramels

Ipswich Ale Oatmeal Stout + Kickass Chocolate Cupcake

Left Hand Milk Stout + Petsi Pies Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

Lindemans Lambic Framboise + Taza 80% Dark Chocolate

A few of these pairings are old favorites, and several others were a little more experimental. I tested out most of the menu at a pre-tasting tasting two nights ago with my friends David, Dmitri, and Brett, who were kind enough to swing by my house late night and super last minute to offer up their tastebuds for some chocobeer!

My eternally awesome friend Jeff just made my day by sending me this link to a BBC article about how music enhances the taste of wine. The article cites a UK study that found that there is up to a 60% change in the taste of wine depending on what types of music are played. They even list wine + music pairing ideas. According to the study, a cabernet sauvignon pairs well with All Along the Watchtower, while Chardonnay pairs nicely with Kylie Minogue... interesting.

Going back to the idea I had a few months ago about pairing chocolate with music... I'm quite sure that the same concept applies.

That's it. This calls for a experimental chocomusic pairing party ASAP. I'm so excited. I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

Above photograph of girl with headphones graffiti on a wall in Tel Aviv was taken by my friend Dan Reed.

In preparation for The Tasty Show Birthday Party, a small crew of us got together for two pairing sessions - one to figure out which beers should be paired with which cupcake flavors, and one to match particular beers with 4 different artisanal cheeses. A lot of people I talked to over the past few weeks found the concept of pairing beer with cupcakes & cheeses hard to imagine - until they tested out our pairing menu with their very own tastebuds.

That said, below you'll find the entire pairing menu from the Tasty Show Bday last week along with notes about how we came up with each one. Or if you'd like to see the actual menu that our guests were given when they arrived to the party, you can see it here.

Beer + Cupcakes:

Stone Cat Blueberry Ale + Kickass Blueberry Crumbly Cupcake: This medium bodied fruit beer has a slight blueberry essence and pairs perfectly with a light, fruity dessert. The blueberry crumbly cupcake, which was a topped with a bit of mascarpone, was a nice and simple pairing with the mascarpone adding a little twist. Flavored beers can be really simple to pair with awesome results.

Stone Cat Blonde Ale + Kickass Vanilla Cupcake with Herbed Topping: The blonde ale is light and crisp with inherent herbal notes. For the pairing, Kickass Cupcakes came up with the brilliant idea to top a light vanilla cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting and a piece of caramelized sugar with a tiny sprig of thyme in it. I think this one won as the favorite pairing of the evening. And the favorite cupcake too. The vanilla cake was pristine.

Ipswich IPA + Kickass Cinnamon Caramel Cupcake: The IPA has a strong, dry bitterness balanced with a slight malty sweetness. The malty notes made a smooth pairing with the caramel flavors in the cupcake, and the spice warmed things up a bit.

Ipswich Oatmeal Stout + Kickass Maple Chocolate Cupcake: The oatmeal stout is a great dessert on its own; this rich, smooth stout works best with chocolate and was paired with the most curious cupcake on the menu - a maple-based chocolate cupcake sprinkled with smoked salt. The maple balanced the rich sweetness of the beer, and both elements were then heightened by the smoked salt.

Beer + Cheese

Ipswich Summer Ale + Hannahbells Classic: This light-bodied, crisp unfiltered blonde ale matches the creaminess of the Hannahbells classic cow's milk cheese without overpowering the flavor. A nice, even pairing.

Stone Cat Hefeweizen + Hannahbells Lavender: The floral notes that this unfiltered German-style wheat beer possesses are a wonderful match for the lavender flavor of the cheese. This was one of the evening's favorite cheese pairings.

Ipswich Original Ale + Hannahbells Rosemary: We tasted the rosemary over and over again until we finally went for the Original Ale. The smooth, malty flavor of the unfiltered English-style pale ale compliments the rosemary accent in the cheese.

Stone Cat ESB + Hannahbells Chipotle: The spicy chipotle was definitely the favorite cheese flavor of the night. Our biggest challenge with this one was to pair a beer that enhances and not flattens its spicy, smoky elements. The ESB, which stands for "extra special bitter" has a smooth malty sweetness and is not bitter at all. It was an excellent complement to the spiciness of the chipotle flavor.

Photos by Eric Scott Photography.

In Part II of the pre-Tasty Show B-Day party beer pairing sessions (here's Part I) that have been taking place these past few weeks, five of us congregated at Kickass Cupcakes to determine which brews and which cheeses we're going to pair up at the April 16 event. I can wholeheartedly say that I have never seen anything quite like the tiny, thimble-shaped artisanal cheeses that we've lined up to be part of the pairing. These little cheeses, which are called Hannahbells and are made by Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA, are made according to a traditional recipe that the Shy Brothers (two sets of very shy twins) discovered in the Burgundy region of France.

Once again, I'm not going to be all giving away all our party secrets (at least not until after the Tasty Show beercupcakechocolatecheese evening of tasty deliciousness next week), but I will say that after an exhausting evening of rigorous tasting, we came up with some wonderful pairings! Here is a bit of pairing wisdom that I was lucky enough to pick up last week:

Barbara from Shy Brother Farms has a fabulous way of articulating what makes a good food pairing (of any kind) that she shared with me ~ it's when 1 + 1 = 3. Or, translated into the context of beer & cheese, it's when Beer + Cheese = Delicious Enhancement of Both Beer and Cheese That Becomes a Wholly New BeerCheese Entity.

Last week I enjoyed a delightful evening with a couple friends during which we 'tested out' various pairing beer & cupcakes pairings. We sipped several brews ranging from the lightest blonde ale to a deep, dark oatmeal stout, and experimented with various cupcakes and pairing ideas. Rough times here at the Tasty Show, I know.

That said, I don't have a grand lesson or extravagant pairing idea to share in this post - mostly because our tests results are secret. The evening, which was hosted by the illustrious and creative Kickass Cupcakes in Somerville and featured artisan brews from Stone Cat and Ipswich Ale made by Mercury Brewing Co. in Ipswich, MA, was held in preparation for a very special Tasty Show event that is happening on April 16. I'm thrilled to report that with Sara from Kickass Cupcakes and Caitlin from Mercury Brewing Co. as our guides, we came up with some fabulous ideas! And Kickass Cupcakes will be developing cupcake recipes especially for the beer pairing. Details on the event will be posted here shortly.

The only conclusion that I am willing to share is:

The right beer & the right cupcake can make an incredible pairing, and while I'm not going to tell you what our star pairings were, there is absolutely no harm in running some tests on your own. If you're not sure where to start, go for tastes that usually match (a citrusy or fruity brew with a citrusy or fruity cupcake, a honey brew with a spiced cupcake, and so on).

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)

When I was in Toronto doing a chocolate tasting with Cote d'Or a couple months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Konrad Ejbich, who is both a delightful person and one of Canada's foremost wine writers. After being a fabulously enthusiastic participant during the tasting itself, Mr. Ejbich stayed on for a bit afterwards to chat with me about other pairing ideas. In addition to teaching me how to properly hold a wine glass, he also took a bunch of notes about our chocolate tasting and then wrote this comprehensive article for Canada's Style at Home Magazine about chocolate and wine pairing.

The article also featured the most awesome description of The Tasty Show that has ever found its way to print. According to Konrad, The Tasty Show is "the absolute gastroporn of melt-in-your-mouth moments." Gastroporn? Me? Who knew??

It all came at a perfect time, because I just happened to be compiling this list:

Dana's Favorite Gastroporn [Top 5 This Week]

1. Wild Sweets: Exotic Desserts and Wine Pairings: This is the cookbook I picked up at Whole Foods yesterday. Gorgeous photographs, bizarre ingredients, curious wine pairings, and awesome recipes with really long names such as "Apple softcake with dark chocolate and cinnamon soup" and "Milk chocolate and orange parfait with steamed meringues and orange and black truffle brown butter". I'm really excited.
2. 101Cookbooks: My friend Toby alerted me to this gorgeous food blog written by photographer and food enthusiast Heidi Swanson.
3. Whole Foods: I love Whole Foods. I like to walk around with my little basket and ogle all the pretty fruits and vegetables and then dream about all the weird chocolate recipes I could make with them.
4. Aapplemint: Another delicious blog that I look at for inspiration and for the pretty pictures.
5. Plum Produce: This is a tiny produce boutique in Boston's South End that is about the size of a compact car. It's not a grocery store, and you'll never be able to find everything on your shopping list there, but you will find the most beautiful local salad turnips, wild asparagus, spring onions, and porcini mushrooms that you've ever seen. (Among several other vegetables, fruits, spices, and preserves.)

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.

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.