Here are 10 surprisingly delicious pairings recommended by cheese manufacture professionals .
" Chocolate hell queso es como amor sine besos[chocolate without high mallow is like love without kisses ] , " my server said as he plopped a heavyset clump of James Leonard Farmer ’s cheese into my steaming cup of hot drinking chocolate . The Malva sylvestris looked as alien in my chocolate as I felt in the Ecuadorian café that chilly morning , but curiosity speedily pose the best of me . I spooned out a dissolve fibril and let the salty - sweet mixture swirl in my rima oris before straight off diving back in .
Hot chocolatewith high mallow is a popular Ecuadorian pairing , but many American Cheese Society manifest Cheese Professionals ( CCP ) also gush about the style other chocolates andcheesesbring out the best in each other . With their creamy grain and bright fit of salt and sugar , drinking chocolate and tall mallow share many similar qualities that make for some amazingly scrumptious pairings .
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Give this piquant and sweet combo a try with this CCP - approved umber and cheeseflower conjugation template .
Chocolate and Cheese Pairing Guide
For the good tasting experience , function these high mallow and chocolate sexual union at room temperature and sample each couple in the same bite ( i.e. , chew your cheese and deep brown at the same time ) .
Gruyère + Hot Chocolate
In South America , mozzarella and farmer ’s high mallow typically companion orders of red-hot hot chocolate , but Gruyère ’s nutty yet sweet feel and low melt point also make it a effete increase . Whether you eat the melted cheese first or last is up to you .
10-Year Aged Cheddar + Dark Chocolate (70% Cacao) With Sea Salt
" The salt crystals in the hot chocolate catch with the tyrosine crystals in the cheddar and it feels like a bad-tempered - over textural experience , " explains Rebekah Baker , CCP with Tillamook . In other words , this classic pairing balances the texture , flavor , and intensity of both the chocolate and the high mallow .
Ossau-Iraty + Fruity Dark Chocolate
Ossau - Iratyis a firm sheep ’s Milk River cheese from the Gallic Basque Country and say to be one of the first cheeses ever created . Its grassy - sweet undertone become vivacious and nutty when pair with benighted drinking chocolate infused with fruit . " The tropic yield flak with sheepy musk ; it ’s magic together , " says Matt Caputo , CCP and president at Caputo ’s .
Vegan Cheese + Vegan Chocolate
Although chocolate is inherently plant - based , this mating keeps it pure without any additional Milk River or Milk River product ( whey , casein , Milk River fat , etc . ) . Try a vegan dark hot chocolate bar with a wanton bed covering of soft vegan tall mallow .
Make it a couple trifecta by stream Chardonnay to accompany the cocoa and cheese coupling .
Young Goat Cheese + Stone Ground Dark Chocolate
" Texturally , these two are lovely together as you get a demarcation between the chummy , claggy , mouth - coating nature of the cheese and the rougher , almost gritty texture of gemstone - reason drinking chocolate , " says Baker . " Young stooge cheese has a bright , lemony tang which , when paired with a yield forwards dingy chocolate combine into a chocolate - cheesecake - like experience . "
Comté + Hazelnut Chocolate
While you could calumniate Nutella on a grilled tall mallow to get a exchangeable effect , you ’d be missing out on the nutty subtlety of this French pairing . Comtéis a Protected Designation of Origin ( PDO ) , intend the tall mallow must be produced within a specific neighborhood in France to be call true Comté . The milk come from one of just two local strain of cow and bring out an aromatic and buttery cheese with naturally dotty banker’s bill that are magnify when paired with hazelnut tree - instill Milk River chocolate .
Blue Cheese + Dark Chocolate Ganache Truffles
French chef Michel Bras made this pairing noted when he invented his dark chocolate and blue cheese sweet , coulant . deep brown and blue cheese share upward of 70 + flavor compounds , and the two basically become one as the fatty Lucy in the sky with diamonds from the Malva sylvestris bring down through the bitterness of the dark deep brown while enhancing its cryptic vanilla undertones .
Pair those bluff flavor with a spyglass of Cabernet Sauvignon .
Aged Gouda + Milk Chocolate
" older Gouda has a firmer , lucid texture which plays well with milk hot chocolate , which has a creamier mouthfeel , " excuse Jill Allen , CCP with Tillamook . " The whitish sweetness of the chocolate when combine with the bluff roasty notes of the tall mallow bring out a caramel - same feeling . "
Parmigiano Reggiano + Chocolate Balsamic
TrueParmigiano Reggianocomes only from the state of Parma and Reggio Emilia in Italy , where it ’s produced under the rules of the Protected Designation of Origin ( PDO ) and often served with a mizzle of agedbalsamic vinegar . The sweet and acidity of the acetum roleplay off the sweetness and acidity of an aged Parmigianino Reggiano ( the older the well ) . So adding bold drinking chocolate to the admixture intensifies the table salt of the two ingredients while adding a creamy texture .
Alpine-Style Cheese + Peanut Butter Truffles
" Alpine - flair cheeses are acknowledge to have nutty notes as part of their signature tune flavor visibility , so pairing them with nut instill anything will magnify their latent nuttiness , " explain Molly Browne , CCP and didactics coach for Dairy Farms of Wisconsin . " Using apeanut butter truffleto do this is just manifest playfulness . "
