Ross Blainey knows a thing or two about whisky and food. The Glenfiddich and Balvenie brand ambassador has curated whisky matches with chefs like Lennox Hastie of Firedoor and Shannon Martinez of Smith and Daughters, and run tasting events with Bruny Island Cheese. With that experience, he’s developed three pairing principles that’ll help your tasting come together, whether you’re matching with chocolate – as we are here – or cheese, cured meats or even pickles (Blainey swears it’s a winner).
First, he says to keep it simple and avoid too many different pairings. Second, try to find flavours that balance each other – a sweet whisky with a piece of salty or bitter chocolate, for instance. Part three is all about the tasting.
“After you take a sip of the whisky, the flavour stays there a little while and then you take a bite of the chocolate. When you do that, the chocolate flavour takes over everything in your mouth while you’re chewing it,” Blainey says. “But once you swallow the chocolate, the flavour of the whisky starts to come back a bit because it’s still on your breath. That’s the pairing moment.”
If everything lines up, you’ll be boosting flavours and making something greater than the sum of its parts. And if you don’t nail it, well, it’s not the end of the world. “If you get it wrong, the worst thing that can happen is you’ve got some chocolate and some whisky,” says Blainey. “If you like drinking whisky and eating chocolate, you’re going to have a good time regardless.”
To get you started, here are five types of chocolate – plus Blainey’s picks for whiskies to pair with them.
Choc honeycomb
Whether choosing a Crunchie or Violet Crumble, or something dark and premium from a chocolatier, the sweet choc-honeycomb combo should complement whiskies with spicy, fruity notes – like Balvenie 12. “You get these bright vanilla and citrus notes and then the sherry cask adds these darker raisin, sultana, cinnamon [characters],” says Blainey.
Hints of citrus
To match a smoky-style whisky, Blainey suggests a zesty fruit-flavoured chocolate such as lemon cream and candied orange peel. “If you get something bright and citrusy with a smoky whisky, it’s going to brighten it up and freshen it up a little bit,” Blainey says.
Rum truffle
Rum and whisky might seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense if your whisky is finished in a rum cask like the Glenfiddich 21 Gran Reserva. “It has this really beautiful influence from rum – coconut, orange, toffee,” says Blainey. “Get a really nice rum truffle. It really draws out those notes of the rum cask in the whisky.”
Coconut or banana
Single malts aged in ex-bourbon barrels lend a complex dose of vanilla, coconut and banana to the whisky. If this is your style, consider a coconut chocolate (like Whittaker’s coconut block) or maybe an old favourite. Blainey also suggests banana-flavoured chocolate, which is not a typical choice but can be found as a block or as fondant creams. “[Maybe] not something you’d want to eat on its own but, with a whisky, it brings out that banana note.”
Salted dark chocolate or salted caramel
If you’re looking for an easy all-rounder, a block of Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt or flecks of salted caramel won’t steer you wrong. “Salted chocolate or salted caramel is amazing because you’ve got the saltiness that balances out the sweet [whisky], and you’ve got the caramel that matches up with flavours in the whisky,” says Blainey.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with The Balvenie.
