Chocolate and wine

Dave
A slight edit if I may: "Mainstream UK chocolate is so sweet."

There are some good producers out and about, but Cadburys/Nestle(Rowntrees) match your description well. Too sweet - and too little cocoa.

regards
Ian

Speaking of which, and off-topic...what ever happened to Cadbury's caramel chocolate bars? They used to be decent, but now they are utterly horrible-worse than Hersheys, IMO. Awful, dry, chalky taste and chocolate the crumbles, it is so bad.

To each his own. I would never pair chocolate with any wine that I valued. It is like szechuan spicy foods - everyone is always trying to find a wine it won't absolutely kill, and then call the hapless Gewurz or whatever they choose a 'good match' when in reality it was only chosen because it remains recognizably wine when forced into that sort of misconceived pairing, while other wines crumble in defeat.

My thoughts as well.

Chocolate only with a Banyuls, Tawny Port or something similar at my table. I find that chocolate is a terrible detriment to a nice dry red wine.

-- Clark

What next, threads on the best wines to drink with Chili or tunafish......

Yeah, FSM forbid we should waste our valuable time trying to figure out a wine that might go well with a Salade Nicoise or Ahi when we're sitting on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on a perfect summer day. Feh, wine with tuna.

And the way the economy is going, I might be spending more time trying to figure out what wine goes with canned tuna. Or cat food.

Dave
A slight edit if I may: "Mainstream UK chocolate is so sweet."

There are some good producers out and about, but Cadburys/Nestle(Rowntrees) match your description well. Too sweet - and too little cocoa.

regards
Ian

Speaking of which, and off-topic...what ever happened to Cadbury's caramel chocolate bars? They used to be decent, but now they are utterly horrible-worse than Hersheys, IMO. Awful, dry, chalky taste and chocolate the crumbles, it is so bad.

Oh, that one's easy, Brian. Cadbury Schweppes has been on an obvious slide for years by consistently cutting the quality of their ingredients, using cheaper filler and synthetic flavorings to substitute for what used to be chocolate.

And Hershey's has been going the same way. A little slower, but the same direction.

Yeah, FSM forbid we should waste our valuable time trying to figure out a wine that might go well with a Salade Nicoise or Ahi when we're sitting on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on a perfect summer day. Feh, wine with tuna.

And the way the economy is going, I might be spending more time trying to figure out what wine goes with canned tuna. Or cat food.

Actually it was tinned tuna I was thinking about - obviously should have been more specific!

Hmm - wonder what wine goes best with.....

Banyuls isn't too shabby either.

We love Banyuls with the darkest, bitterest, high quality chocolate we can find.

mmmmm yum!

Yeah, FSM forbid we should waste our valuable time trying to figure out a wine that might go well with a Salade Nicoise or Ahi when we're sitting on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on a perfect summer day. Feh, wine with tuna.

And the way the economy is going, I might be spending more time trying to figure out what wine goes with canned tuna. Or cat food.

Actually it was tinned tuna I was thinking about - obviously should have been more specific!

Hmm - wonder what wine goes best with.....

Banyuls seems to be a popular general choice so far.

Hawaiians would know.

Any good major chocolate brands?

Lindt for me have a wide range from sickly sweet, to drier more interesting bars.
Milka are a guilty pleasure - not 'serious' but an enjoyable basic milk chocolate

Any good major chocolate brands?

I haven't had them in a few years, but Cote d'Or always used to be respectable for my palate.

Any good major chocolate brands?

I haven't had them in a few years, but Cote d'Or always used to be respectable for my palate.

The dark Ritter with hazelnuts is remarkably good for a mass market chocolate bar. Scharffenberger is pretty good; now that Hershey's bought them, I guess they are a "major brand". Let's hope production methods stay the same.

And the way the economy is going, I might be spending more time trying to figure out what wine goes with canned tuna. Or cat food.

wouldn't it depend on which cut - giblets, liver, tuna, etc.? And then there's the question of texture - a high acid Chinon to cut the chicken and tuna pate' vs. a round but gamey Cotes-du-Rhone for those chunky giblets-in-sauce...

Although I've never had it, I hear great things about Van Otis Chocolate - http://www.vanotischocolates.com/

I'm fond of Chocolove and Green & Black's brands.
http://www.chocolove.com/
http://www.greenandblacks.com/us/

I like port wines with chocolate best. I recently discovered Wine Country Chocolates in Sonoma, and like their truffles. My favorite chain store brands are Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Godiva. My all time favorite chocolate experience was three years ago in Zurich. My daughter and I shared a box of mixed chocolates from Sprüngli with coffee from the nearby Starbucks (they are everywhere in Zurich too) at their outdoor cafe. The chocolate was heaven on earth. A more recent wonderful chocolate experience was a warm, small chocolate cake my wife and I shared, together with a glass of Daniel Gehrs port, at the Ballard Inn in the Santa Ynez Valley a few weeks ago.

I must also give an approving nod to Brachetto. I have usually abhorred the pairing, but not long ago I was served a cake of dark chocolate (lactose free, of course) and Braida's Brachetto d'Aqui. The raspberry brightness and sweetness of the wine provided a counterpoint to the bittersweet cake that made the experience as beautifully architectural as a Bach Fugue.

It's not that I dislike wine with chocolate, it's just that it never seems to be as good as I would imagine it to be - almost reverse synergy. Banyuls, Port, fruity Cab, etc. none of it is particularly exciting with chocolate in my opinion. It is a trend that I hope dies a quick death.

Any good major chocolate brands?

Lindt for me have a wide range from sickly sweet, to drier more interesting bars.
Milka are a guilty pleasure - not 'serious' but an enjoyable basic milk chocolate

The Lindt bars of 70% and over sold here in supermarkets are very good.

I don't know if they are quite major brands, but Galler, Valrhona and Cluizel are readily available here and their 70%+ bars are excellent, particularly the last two.

Of course, Belgian "pralines" (filled chocolate) are famous and the best, IMHO, are Wittamer and Marcolini (who also does superb high chocolate content and highly priced bars); I don't know about international availability of these; well distributed Godiva and Neuhaus are not quite so good. But I prefer squares from good high chocolate content bars to any of these pralines.

A vice of mine is to take a sip of cognac, armagnac, calvados or grappa after chocolate or a chocolatey dessert; it cleans the palate; even the best chocolate lingers more than I like without this.

Valrhona - indeed. Although seen here, they're definitely not mainstream.

Godiva - Interesting to see them exported from Belgium. Seemed to have a decent reputation for what is a decent size production, albeit not challenging the stars (for me Pierre Marcolini in Belgium is really something - very clever in matching flavours to chocolates ... ah I just noticed you mentioned them Tim).

I'll keep an eye out for those other names, which I'm pretty sure are new to me (though sometimes the packaging brings memories back)

regards

Ian

My son's godfather imports Amedei chocolate from Italian into Aus. If you haven't tried it, it was a superb nibble. I am not too keen on the white with macadamia but the dark 66% is awesome. If you make it into a dessert, then pair with one of the Rutherglenn fortified wines. Do you get general access to these in the US?

My son's godfather imports Amedei chocolate from Italian into Aus. If you haven't tried it, it was a superb nibble. I am not too keen on the white with macadamia but the dark 66% is awesome. If you make it into a dessert, then pair with one of the Rutherglenn fortified wines. Do you get general access to these in the US?

Hardly 'mass market' chocolate.

I don't know about 'general' but they are definitely spreading across specialty stores. And they are so expensive and delicate I wouldn't have thought of cooking with them. Don't you lose the nuances? (Not that the end result is not delicious, I am sure).

Yin & Yang or Yon and more Yin.

Do you want to have similar tastes or contrast.

Similar to chocolate would be PX

A nice contrast to chocolate would be a Manzanilla or Champagne.

In between but nice would be Moscato D'Asti or as already noted Brachetto D'Aqui

My son's godfather imports Amedei chocolate from Italian into Aus. If you haven't tried it, it was a superb nibble. I am not too keen on the white with macadamia but the dark 66% is awesome. If you make it into a dessert, then pair with one of the Rutherglenn fortified wines. Do you get general access to these in the US?

Hardly 'mass market' chocolate.

I don't know about 'general' but they are definitely spreading across specialty stores. And they are so expensive and delicate I wouldn't have thought of cooking with them. Don't you lose the nuances? (Not that the end result is not delicious, I am sure).

No, my friend is doing an absolutely roaring trade selling it to the top end restaurants around town for use in their deserts. Heston Blumenthal, who is in town to cook at the opening of a new top end restaurant, just ordered 8 kgs off my friend for one evening's deserts.

or sparkling shiraz truffles:
http://haighschocolates.com.au/our_choc ... lates.html

Oh yes, arent these something? Unfortunately no haighs in brisbane, so every trip to Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide is crafted around a trip to Haighs :-0

Cheers

Andrew