Match made in heaven

The perfect match for chocolate may not be wine at all, but beer. Photo / Glenn Jeffry

If you're serious about chocolate, you have probably combined it with all manner of food and drink through pure coincidence-chocolate and wine, chocolate and cheese, chocolate and a cup of tea, chocolate and Weetbix, you get the idea.

But if you're looking for a new, delicious match, there's one gaining increasing popularity in New Zealand that comes with the tick of approval from chocolate aficionados, chefs and liquor experts: chocolate and beer.

It's a combination that may seem unnatural, particularly if you're trying to combine a Tui or Heineken with a block of Cadbury Dairy Milk. Rather, the art of matching these two unlikely partners relies on high quality chocolate and flavoursome beers, but when you get it right, the results can be spectacular.

Chocolate and beer is not a new match - as beer evangelist and writer Neil Miller points out, it was written about most famously in 1994 by fellow pint-lover Michael Jackson (not the moon walking one) who detailed the many ways in which these unlikely partners are put together around the world. However, it's not a common find on many restaurant menus down under.

Miller, along with chef Martin Bosley and chocolate expert Ed Simpson - who owns and manages Wellington choclolaterie Ciocco - have been trying to spread the word. They started with a seminar on the subject at Wellington's recent Beervana Festival.

"I did get quite a few people saying 'why would you try to do that?"' says Simpson, who admits he too was originally skeptical about the potential of a beer and chocolate marriage because he thought beer was essentially "lager that you buy for $15 for 12 from the supermarket, which is watery and flavour-less".

It wasn't until he tasted some of the local craft beers being made in New Zealand that he saw the possibilities inherent in pairing them with his boutique chocolates.

One of his favourite matches is an Invercargill stout beer with his own strawberry-and-black-pepper chocolate. "It's like moon rocks, popping on your tongue," he says.

"The chocolate brings out subtle things in the beer and vice versa."

Also initially a sceptic, award-winning chef Bosley now includes a stout beer as a match for a chocolate dessert on his degustation menu, and waxes lyrical about the properties of local dark beers.

"The reason it works is that stout has toasted, coffee and caramel flavours all coming through, and for most people it's a revelation to have it with chocolate," he explains, adding that it works infinitely better than wine and chocolate.

"Chocolate is weighty and cloying, wine just can't stand up to it. Stout clears the palate, lifts it up. The whole dynamic of the chocolate is changed."

Miller says while it may be a niche market indulging in this particular pairing, he loves that people who don't typically like beer can be introduced to it through the almost universal love of chocolate.

"It's about getting people to be adventurous and trust their palates," he says.

"Matching it with chocolate is a way to get them trying different types of beer. People end up saying 'I didn't actually know beer could taste like that'."

The best mix he has ever tried was a rich chocolate mousse made with Trappist beer, which he says was an "amazing experience", but a simple chilli-chocolate with a glass of stout or porter beer is also a treat.

"Sometimes the most illogical or random matches will work," he adds.

The important point to remember is that good-quality, dark chocolate or a dessert made with the same will work best. And don't try this at home with a can of VB - a dark beer, ideally with hints of chocolate and coffee, is the way to go.

Try it yourself at the next dinner party when you feel like surprising friends - as Simpson says, it doesn't have to be intellectual, especially when it comes to beer.

"It works because it works," he says.

"Some people will be surprised, some don't want to get their heads around it, and some will be completely blown away."