Host Your Own Wine and Chocolate Tasting…
For Heath, Happiness, & Just Plain Fun.
What could be better than a wine and chocolate tasting, as part of a meal or a party in itself?
The authors of this article, along with the owners of Tifa Chocolate in Agoura Hills and the manager of Wades Wines in Westlake Village, did just that.
We paired 12 chocolates with six wines. What fascinating differences of opinion and surprising combinations resulted from these pairings!
Is sweet wine the ultimate pairing? Could Cabernet Sauvignon really work? You need to answer these questions for yourself….
We did establish six principles that are guides to pairing wine and chocolate:
- Dark chocolate is best paired with fuller-bodied wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Sarah.
- Darker and/or more complex chocolate requires bigger and more complex wines for optimal pairing.
- Chocolate and wine as dessert will satisfy most every guest.
- Sweet wines, such as ports or fortified wines, offer the most versatile and reliable pairing with any chocolate.
- Chocolate that has mid-range bitter and sweet notes (not too much sugar) offers the most versatile pairing with wine.
Try an unorthodox pairing, such as flavored chocolates, white and milk with white wine, red wine, or a sweet wine, to create exciting and unusual flavor profiles.
Hershey’s candy is “out” and gourmet chocolate is “in.” Some examples are:
- Madecasee Madagascar Chocolate, N.Y., USA, 75% cocoa, smooth, creamy, well-balanced dark chocolate from Africa. $8
- La Tavoletta Amedei Tocano Black, Tuscany, Italy, 70% cocoa, blended and balanced to perfection, melts in your mouth, and has many different layers of flavor, $12 and worth it!
- Vosges Haut Chocolate, Naga Bar, Chicago, USA, 45% cacao, sweet Indian curry powder, coconut flakes, deep milk chocolate, a taste sensation busting with flavor and exotic interest. $7.50
- Michel Cluizel, 1er Cru, Plantation Designation “Vila Gracinda,” Paris, France, grown on volcanic soil of Central Africa, it has toasted, spicy, and herbaceous notes, with ripe tropical fruit and a long finish. $7
When in doubt, enlist the expertise of the TIFA Chocolate folks and William Terry at Wades Wines for your party planning. Thanks to the two local retailers below for their assistance in planning our party!
Tifa Chocolate & Gelato
5013 Kanan Road
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
818.879.0685
www.tifachocolate.com
Wades Wines
30961 West Agora Rd
Westlake Village, CA 91361
818.587.WINE
www.wadeswines.com
The Wine & Chocolate Rx
Take Both Daily, In Moderation, For Maximum Longevity
By Diane Sukiennik and Michael Reiss
Yes, the doctor is in, and she is prescribing wine and chocolate for your health!
Of course there are caveats, but the fact remains that these substances, consumed in moderation, do play a role in warding off many diseases and promoting good health and longevity. Some might wonder what wine and chocolate have in common; why one might want to pair them for health and longevity. The answers lie in their chemical compositions and how their makeup, althoughdifferent, reacts similarly with ours to
promote these healthful benefits. If one is good, two is better.
Although both wine and chocolate date back to the earliest annals of human existence, we’ll begin the story with wine in the 1970’s, when population studies in Denmark and France popped the cork on the potential health benefits of moderate wine consumption. Despite diets laden with artery clogging foods, it has been thought that the antioxidants, the red wine polyphenols, anthrocyanidins, and most notably resveratrol were responsible for wine’s health benefits.
Most recently, according to the research of Roger Corder, Ph.D, and author of The Red Wine Diet (Avery, 2007), an antioxidant chemical, procyanidins, also called “condensed tannins from red wines,” appear to be doing the major work in reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cataracts, colon cancer, kidney cancer, and brain decline. The richer the tannins, the greater the health benefits.
While red wine works to keep the heart healthy, according to a study by the American Thoracic Society, there is a positive link between white wine and optimal lung function. Wine producers are currently working on the addition of reservatrol to white wine to further boost its health benefits.
Paracelsus, a 16th century German physician, may have summed it up best when he said, “Whether wine is a nourishment, medicine, or poison, is a matter of dosage.”
Now, for a dose of chocolate. If you already indulge in a daily fix, you’re in good company. Casanova, the world’s greatest lover, considered chocolate his “magic wand,” and was known to drink a cup of cocoa right before lovemaking.
But besides being an aphrodisiac, dark chocolate has brought the best nutritional news to come out in years, according to Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D., and author of Cholesterol Down: Ten Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in Four Weeks – Without Prescription Drugs (Three Rivers Press, 2006).
Dark chocolate contains a higher percentage of cocoa than milk chocolate. Cocoa is high in flavonoids, which act as antioxidants to fight free radical damage. The higher the percentage of cocoa (look for 70% or higher) the more flavonoids it will contain, and the more health benefits accrued. Those benefits are remarkably similar to the ones found in red wine. Plus, the cocoa in chocolate contains more than 300 chemicals, including endorphins, the natural, feel-good, mood chemical and a stimulantcalled theobromine.
This substance, along with chocolate’s caffeine, promotes alertness and focus.
“Theobroma,” the Greek term for chocolate, means “food of the gods.” So, go ahead, consult with your doctor if in doubt. As in all good things, a little goes a long way.
But do toast to your health and nibble your way to a lustier love life and greater longevity.
Let’s toast: To wine and chocolate!
Diane Sukiennik and Michael Reiss are world travelers, freelance writers and the creators of www.foodandwineaccess.com
Xocai Chocolate is cold-pressed Belgian Cocoa Powder combined with Acai Berry and Blueberry providing you with unparalleled health benefits. Learn more today at www.chocolate4ahealthylife.com
