Suggestions for wedding chocolate tastings??

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Permalink Reply by Matt Caputo on July 1, 2010 at 1:04am

I won Best Food & Wine Educator in Utah for our classes. All our intro classes revolve around educating people about basic cacao beans, and terrior. Tell me your favorite chocolate and I can tell you if this approach is worth taking.

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Buckner on July 3, 2010 at 7:18pm

Hey Matt! Thanks! My favorite chocolate for the time being is Amedei's Porcelana 70% Dark...I'd love a few tips. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Matt Caputo on July 5, 2010 at 10:09pm

Wendy,
Amedei's Porcelana shows you have a very delicate and sensitive palate. It is an incredibly nuanced and complex bar, but I feel is often wasted on the un-initiated as they over look the nuances, mistaking it for bland.

The most important thing to know about pairing wine and chocolate is that the tannic structure of wines is going to boost the bitter flavors in the chocolate to the forefront. This negates the hard work of the farmer who choose to grow a higher grade bean (such as Porcelana) which almost always display less bitterness. This boosting of bitterness overwhelms any interesting flavors which were in the chocolate. Therefore with dark chocolate it is of the utmost importance to avoid tannins (wood and grape based). This phenolic material will ruin your chocolate. Choose sweeter wines which are not astringent and with little to no oak. Dessert wines are almost always better with dark chocolate.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Matt

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Buckner on July 6, 2010 at 11:54am

Thanks Matt! Wonderful!

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Permalink Reply by Robert Cabeca on July 20, 2010 at 11:18am

For every wedding cake I make, the client always adds chocolate favors to the order. I try to have several samples available and try to fine tune their tastes a bit and set guidelines for what they should give their guests (nothing with nuts!!!!). I always help pick out custom packaging for them as well. It really makes their experience unique and thoroughly more enjoyable! Good luck!

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