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.

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.

Not one, but two chocolate desserts found their way onto a plate right in front of me this week:

Pots de Creme at The Beehive: I've been wanting to check out The Beehive ever since it opened in Boston's South End a couple months ago. The space is theatrical and cavernous, full of velvet and exposed brick (pic above). We liked it a lot there, at least until the music started... which was great, but it ended our conversation pretty much instantly. Thankfully, by that point, dessert had arrived and we just focused our attention on the earthenware crock of chocolate pot de creme in front of us. A bit of a twist on the smallish "pot" that this French dessert usually arrives in, the Beehive's version seemed pretty huge in comparison (though it's not like it was that big, just bigger than the norm - and anyway, we were sharing it between the two of us). After an exhaustive search through a mountain of homemade, barely sweetened whipped cream sprinkled with nutmeg (don't get me wrong, the whipped cream was fabulous... there was just a little too much of it), we found the chocolate part of the dessert. It was dense, stiff, and rich - much stiffer than classic pots de creme. The chocolate flavor was intense but not bitter at all, on the sweet side with notes of caramel.

Cocoa Bean Souffle at Oleana: Oleana is one of my favorite restaurants. Last night, four of us sat outdoors at a little table in their beautiful enclosed garden. We ended a really delicious dinner with a frozen cocoa bean souffle with a cocoa hazelnut tartlet topped with cocoa sherbet. We paired it with a late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon by Coturri Winery in Sonoma Valley. It was incredibly interesting - an exploration of the vast flavors and textures of the cacao bean. The souffle was mild and gentle on the palette, yet it had a lot of flavor. The smoothness of the souffle was a big contrast to the extremely crunchy, lively texture of the tartlet, which was intense and explosive. And the sherbet was just barely sweet, a little bitter, and had a focused, even, deep cacao flavor. Overall, the dessert made a pretty good pairing with the Cabernet, which was rich and port-like, though the souffle got somewhat overpowered and would have been better with a gentler, airier wine.