Does LOVE have a name? Does LOVE have a flavor? Yes, and Yes. “Mrs. Lippy” & “Chocolate” (though not necessarily in that order, hahaha!) Welcome to the great, annual Valentines’ Day Show featuring Tequila + Chocolate parings!
On this Special Edition Tequila Whisperer Show, Th’ Lip takes you through 8 different tequilas and finds excellent gourmet chocolate pairings for each one. You’ll learn the secrets to choosing which tequilas pair best with which types of chocolate and how cacao (Ka- KOWWW!) content influences and determines a lot about how it “plays” with a particular gourmet tequila. It’s all here, Fans – and Mrs. Lippy too! So grab a snifter, some great chocolate, and a pencil. You’ll be wanting to refer to these tastings again and again. And a Happy Valentine’s Day to you!
CHOCOLATE TASTING NOTES:
Fig Fennel & Almond bar: The fennel and fig in this 70% cacao chocolate really distinguishes it from many others in this cacao category. The fennel and fig really brought out the more subtle herbaceous flavor notes in the Fortaleza blanco. This chocolate plays very well with a spicy tequila as opposed to something extra sweet or overly woody. The versatility of this combination bar was what surprised the most.
91% Costa Rican : This chocolate had a deep, thick, and compact flavor profile. We paired it with the extra spicy and hot, Chinaco anejo and the combination was sublime. The slight bitterness of the chocolate brought out the shy sweetness in the Chinaco, and the spicy alcohol attack of this anejo was a welcome addition to the constricted flavor profile of the chocolate.
75% Cacao: Kallari is an amazingly SINGULAR brand. All of its organic chocolates share a common “soft and dense” flavor profile. You really need to taste this brand to experience its singular mouth and flavor feel. Kallari in general has NO “bright” and “sparkly” chocolate attack which you have come to associate with commercial chocolate (though you likely never realized it). A chew on this “dull” chocolate brings and entirely new feel sensation, and we REALLY enjoyed it with tequila!
85% Cacao Dark : Green & Black’s chocolate features so much cocoa butter that the bar actually starts to melt in your hand as you break off tiles to taste! For such a high cacao content, we were pleased to find a deep and thick sweetness to its flavor profile. The extra creamy mouth feel played very well with the extra spicy “Gran Centenario” treasure bottle anejo that we paired it with. This is probably our favorite 85% chocolate on the market. It tastes more like a 60% semi-sweet bar but with a deeper “bottom end”. Enjoy this one all day/year/month long!
70% Cacao: This chocolate plays a really fun trick on the palate. It starts out mid-palate with a deep and “ruddy” chocolate grist feel. Then as it hits the back of the tongue and throat it features a sweet finish! It’s an amazing trick that very few gourmet chocolates are able to pull off. We paired this chocolate with Crotalo blanco which features its own “complexly abrasive” flavor profile. The two were a great match as the Crotalo related to the chocolate’s similar palate tricks by finishing sweetly.
Organic Roasted Cacao Nibs: We had to get to “the source” at some point in this tasting – and that meant we were going to be tasting solitary roasted cacao nibs (seeds). These nibs had a delightful combination of sweet nuts and roasted tang. They ended up being the perfect accompaniment to our Casa Noble 7-year single barrel anejo which is perhaps the most complex vanilla-sweet anejo we’ve ever tasted. The marriage of fudgy, French Oak aged tequila with the slightly bitter roast of the nibs was a complex orgy of tasting fun! We MEAN it. Give it a try and prepare to spend the rest of your day/night combining them non-stop!
TEQUILAS (Mezcal) TASTED:
CASA NOBLE 7-year Single Barrel anejo
OMG, I missed a 7 year Casa Noble? Damn East Coast timezone, I had to bail early from the show so I could get up for work in the morning. I bet that was awesome. Anyone know if that’s even for sale anywhere in NYC?
Hey Eric,
Actually you’re in luck — because the bottle i drank from is ONLY AVAILABLE in NYC!!
Park Ave. Liquors.
7-year single barrel anejo. You lucky dog! Post on the Fan Page after you crack your bottle and write us your tasting notes!
-Lip