Match of the week

Coffee and chocolate

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on May 10 2021 at 12:38

This week’s match of the week might sound blindingly obvious but it’s taken to a level I haven’t encountered before.

Mind you you’d expect nothing else from chef Ashley Palmer-Watts who used to be Heston Blumenthal’s right hand man at The Fat Duck and more recently at Dinner

He’s now branched out on his own and developed a range of coffees under the Artisan Coffee label. Each is accompanied by a different chocolate which is designed to echo the flavours of the coffee

I’ve only worked my way through four of the six combinations so far (to avoid being permanently wired I’m restricting myself to one a day) but am really enjoying the different pairings, especially his advice to let the chocolate melt on your tongue as you sip the coffee.

The coffees will shortly be available in teabag-like bags so you can easily make yourself a mug though as I grind my own beans I tried those out too. (They also come in pods and as bags of ground coffee - you can see the full range on the website though some products are not yet available)

My favourite combinations so far are the Heroine which comes with a chocolate disc flavoured with caramel and hazelnuts and the Enigma which is paired with a chocolate with raspberry, raisin and apricot (all have a little bit of crunch). I’m not sure either would work quite as well with milk and/or sugar - the chocolate really does the job of sweetening the drink - but that’s my own personal taste. The idea is to make coffee accessible rather than geeky.

If you're a coffee-lover you might also enjoy my post on What food to pair with coffee

I was sent the coffee and chocolate as a press sample.

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