The Best Pair This Valentine’s - Coffee and Chocolate

Who doesn’t love the combination of coffee and chocolate? We grabbed our favourite bars of dark, milk and white chocolate, set up our full range of caps, and then got busy with our very own taste-test. If you know a coffee lover and want to combine your coffee gift with a sweet treat, we’ve come up with a guide for you!

For Dark Chocolate Lovers:

Dark chocolate contains the highest proportion of cocoa of all chocolates and much less sugar than other chocolates. Which means it is intense and nicely bitter.

We chose ‘Lindt Noir Intense 70% Cacao’. Breaking off a single chunk, we detected a clear and pleasant vanilla aroma. Placing it on our tongue, we tasted a slight coffee undertone, but nothing more complex. As the chocolate melted there was no grittiness or graininess. This means that the chocolate and sugar were perfectly blended.

As a powerful chocolate needs a powerful coffee, we chose Noir; the strongest of our ristrettos. Why? Ristrettos are the best match for a dark chocolate. And we thought that Noir might just cut through better than Engima. So that’s what we tried.

Our Verdict?

Noir’s big, creamy, mouthfeel and tangy acidity melded wonderfully into the robust taste of the chocolate. But (and this was really nice!) we could clearly taste the hints of hazelnuts from Noir long after the chocolate’s vanilla notes faded. This is definitely one combination we will revisit.

Our take away is that it helps to look for a single, rich, powerful base note in your coffee that will cut all the way through a dark chocolate.

For Milk Chocolate Lovers:

Milk chocolate is sweeter than dark chocolate as it contains more sugar and often vanilla too.

We chose ‘Tony’s Chocoloney 35% milk chocolate’. And it was, as you would expect, super-smooth and creamy. Fantastic, if that’s your thing. But we found it very difficult to detect any other aromas or tastes other than milk, cocoa and a hint of vanilla. Maybe we need some more training?

Typically, Lungos are a natural match with milk chocolate. So we chose Revive to match it up with.

Our Verdict?

Revive’s light citric sweetness perfectly opened up a space for the sweet Tony’s. The slight floral notes added a nice touch to the smooth sailing chocolate. A great, perky, refreshing combination!

We think the key here might be to look for a coffee that has very distinctive ‘high’ fruit notes that cuts through the creaminess of milk chocolate. And so, to our final taste-test.

For White Chocolate Lovers:

Boy, this one was difficult! In a culinary sense, white chocolate isn’t actually chocolate at all. It doesn’t contain any cocoa solids. It’s basically just cocoa butter and sugar. Which means there is no bitterness at all.

We chose the ‘Delicata White Chocolate’. It’s rich, smooth, creamy and sweet!

Our Verdict?

We thoughts that the caramel we tasted in our Honduras Organic coffee complemented our white chocolate really well. As a bright, juicy coffee, Honduras held it’s own. And the natural tropical fruit aroma countered any ‘artificial’ sweetness in the chocolate, too.

What do you think?

So, which one do you think you’ll gift to your coffee lover this year? We naturally have different tastes and preferences, but we’ve tried our best to find you some recommendations!

Happy Drinking!

The Bean Team