He says…Last time I left you as Johanne and I dove head
first into research for a whisky and chocolate pairing event we will be helping
to host at the Ganong Chocolate Festival on August 10. Over the course of two
separate sessions we managed to work through over 88 potential chocolate and
whisky pairings to create a short list that we would discuss to narrow the
field to just three whiskies and two chocolates per whisky.
Johanne and I both took samples for testing and but used
opposite methods for testing to insure consistency and confidence in our
results. I went by one whisky at a time and paired each chocolate with each
whisky. For instance I poured a sample of Auchentoshan Three Wood and tried
that sample with each chocolate we had on offer. Johanne took the opposite
approach and would try one chocolate sample at a time and would try that
chocolate with each whisky sample. In theory, this would eliminate the
possibility of clouding our pallet due to mixing chocolates or whiskies
together (assuming we both arrived at a similar short list!).
As we moved through the process several common themes became
very clear. Firstly, the sour, tart nature of a wine finish whisky or a citrus
based chocolate makes finding an ideal pairing for each quite difficult. In
each case we were able to completely eliminate both the Arran Sauternes Cask
and the Ganong Dark Key Lime Chocolate entirely as neither paired well in any combination
and in most cases were down right awful (which is too bad because on their own
I quite enjoy both). Second, when it comes to chocolate, darker chocolate seems
to work much better as do simple flavors. So a straight piece of dark chocolate
or a dark almond bark scored consistently higher then a lot of the more complex
chocolate flavors.
In the end we did arrive at very similar results and after
plotting those results found there was almost no need for discussion, the table
spoke for itself! We had narrowed the standings to three whiskies and two
chocolates for each whisky. The results are as follows:
1. Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve (Canadian whisky) paired
with Chocolate Biscotti and Dark Almond Bark.
2. Compass Box Spice Tree (Blended scotch whisky) paired with Dark
Chocolate covered Brazil nut and dark chocolate covered candied ginger piece.
3. Auchentoshan Three Wood (Single malt scotch whisky) paired
with as Dark Chocolate Signiture Piece and Dark Chocolate Truffle.
I’ll be posting some picture of the event and some of the
reactions to the pairing some time after August 10. Stay tuned!
Note: We received a call from the organizers asking
us to narrow our selection to two whiskies and we have decided to go with Forty
Creek Double Barrel Reserve and Compass Box Spice Tree.
