Coffee and chocolate

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.

Hainanese chicken and green tea

Alcohol-free drinks are sometimes overlooked as an accompaniment to food but tea, in particular, can be a good pairing and may be an unexpectedly good option for those of you who are doing dry January.

I’d ordered in the chicken from a local Bristol street food stall called fatrice as they were offering a special of Hainanese chicken rice, a delicate dish of poached chicken and rice given a kick with a drizzle of chilli sauce.

I was intending to have it for supper but it looked and smelled so appetising when it arrived at I o’clock that I couldn’t resist having it for lunch and decided to brew up a mug of Jing Tea’s intensely fragrant Dragon Well Single Garden green tea with it which went perfectly.

Challenged by Jing, who sent me some tea samples I’ve been making loose leaf tea once a day during January and must admit it’s absolutely transformed my attitude to tea. Up to now I've lazily tended to fall back on tea bags, but using loose leaves - and enough of them - is a game changer. I’ve tried it before at various times but the tea-ière (like a small cafetière) they provided me with is so easy to use that the habit’s sticking. (Sounds like an ad doesn’t it but this ISN’T a sponsored post!)

And if you want to make Hainanese chicken yourself there’s a recipe here

Date and Nutella balls and cold brew coffee

I’m a recent convert to cold brew coffee - I never used to think I liked iced coffee much maybe because it was made with instant coffee back in the day but cold brew coffee made with freshly ground beans is another matter altogether.

Anyway I went along to try the new coffees my pal Amir Gehl has introduced to the very posh Parcafé on the Park Lane side of the Dorchester and after we’d finished tasting asked to try the cold brew which is made from beans from the Dattera farm in Brazil. It’s very smooth and chocolatey, particularly when made as a cold brew and went brilliantly well with the café’s ‘Healthy Bites’ (not *so* sure about 'healthy' though they were fashionably vegan).

They are apparently made with dates, Nutella, oats and oat milk - not my kind of thing normally but really insidiously more-ish. Turns out - although you probably knew this already that date and Nutella balls are A Thing - Google them and you’ll find dozens of recipes. I can also recommend the Hazelnut Dacquoise.

Amir, whose company Difference Coffee supplies a number of 3 Michelin star restaurants has also placed what must be one of the most expensive coffees in London at the Parcafé - from a batch of 2019 Esmeralda Geisha which he sourced before it went on public auction. It costs an eyewatering £15 a cup which is fair enough I guess if you’re talking about one of the world’s best coffees. You’d probably pay that for a fine wine or a rare whisky so why not coffee if you can afford it? And if you stay at the Dorchester you probably can.

I went to Parcafé as a guest of Difference coffee

Leerdammer and black coffee

Cheese is so inextricably linked in my mind with beer and wine I sometimes forget there are other delicious pairings out there but coffee? Well, actually yes.

The idea first clicked 18 months or so ago on a trip to Sweden. We visited a cheesemaker who served us black coffee with her cheeses and it set them off beautifully. I shouldn’t have been surprised because of course the standard breakfast throughout northern Europe includes cheese and cold meats.

As I’ve been researching coffee for a feature I’m writing I had to borrow a neighbour’s coffee grinder so we had an impromptu Dutch-style breakfast while we were comparing beans. The cheese we bought was Leerdammer but you could use any mild, smooth sliceable nutty cheese. Some very good smoked ham and crispbread completed the feast.

We drank our coffee black and without sugar which wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I think works better than, say, a flat white or a cappucino would. It's the savoury bitterness of the coffee that goes so well with the smooth mild nutty cheese.

It put me in mind of a cheese I tasted in the states a few years ago called Barely Buzzed which is rubbed with ground coffee and lavender (much nicer than it sounds!) There are some more great ideas for coffee and cheese pairings in this feature on the Culture cheese magazine website

For more creative cheese pairings download my ebook 101 Great Ways to Enjoy Cheese & Wine (and other delicious drinks!)

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