Tasting chocolate is a life-long journey. Every taste of chocolate brings a new challenge to my abilities to evaluate and describe the flavors I experience. As a taster, I’m always interested in stretching and growing my palate.

I’ve recently taken my palate in new directions by pairing chocolate with different foods and beverages. One pairing that has been high on my list is cheese and chocolate.

A friend and fellow foodie offered to introduce me to cheese expert, Alison Leber.  The former proprietor of the Seattle institution, Brie & Bordeaux, Alison had over 30 years of experience in food with a particular focus on wine and cheese. She worked as a sommelier and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional. Throughout her career, she worked in many aspects of the cheese, wine and sustainable agriculture business. Alison passed away unexpectedly in 2022, and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to get to know her. She was my cheese Yoda, and I was her chocolate sommelier. Her zest for life and her ebullient personality brought joy to everyone in her sphere, particularly when she was sharing cheese, food and wine with friends.

This was my first chocolate and cheese pairing, and I have to admit, I was a skeptic. I’ve since come to count cheese and chocolate as my favorite pairing. The briny, salty flavors of cheese marry beautifully with the sweet, acidic and bitter notes of many chocolates. Not every cheese and chocolate pair well, but the ones that do are an amazing experience. It’s like having a meal and dessert at the same time.

Alison walked us through a cheese tasting, which was similar in protocol to a chocolate tasting. First, we evaluated the look of the cheese. Next we bent/broke it in half to evaluate its “friability”. If it was pliable and didn’t break in half, it was a younger cheese. Older cheeses and cheeses made by certain methods break more easily and may crumble. Then we smelled the aroma along the edge of the cheese where we had broken it in half. Finally, we tasted it. Closing my eyes and letting it melt in my mouth like chocolate was an amazing experience. Like any focused tasting, I began to notice flavor complexities I had never tasted in cheese before.

We tasted our way through the first flight of cheese, and as the flavor profile of the cheeses developed, I picked chocolates to pair with each cheese. But these were just my best guesses. I’ve learned that you don’t really know what will work until you taste the cheese and chocolate together.

Tasting is a personal experience, so while we had consensus on a number of pairings we didn’t have consensus on all of them. We did have consensus, however, when a chocolate and a cheese were a bad match. You could tell by the looks on our faces.

We tried cow, goat and sheep milk cheeses. We were unsuccessful in finding a sheep milk cheese that worked with the chocolates we were tasting.

Lauren’s Favorite Pairings

Cherry Valley Herbed Rose Butter with Valrhona Araguani 72% (Venezuela-origin dark chocolate)

I was least excited to taste butter, particularly butter with rose petals in it. Surprisingly, it turned out to be my favorite pairing and one that I continue to use today. Not just any butter will do. It must be Cherry Valley Herbed Rose Butter, made with a mix of French green herbs, lavender, dried rose petals and sea salt. You may be thinking, “It sounds like perfume,” but it’s subtle and delicious and makes an amazing accompaniment to chocolate. I even rolled the butter into little balls and dipped them in tempered Araguani to give to Alison (after eating a few myself). Who knew chocolate-dipped butterballs could be so good!

Jasper Hill Vault 5 Cheddar with Cacao Hunters Arauca 70% (Colombia-origin dark chocolate) or Valrhona Caramelia 36% (milk chocolate) with Crunchy Pearls

Either of these pairings is excellent. Choose based on how sweet you want to go.

Laura Chenel Fresh Chevre with The Smooth Chocolator Tanzania 70% (Kilombero Valley, Tanzania-origin dark chocolate)

I thought the bubble gum note of this chocolate was a wonderful combination with the fresh chevre. While my colleagues didn’t dislike it, they were less enthusiastic. Alison thought it “wanted to be a dessert”. To which I must ask, “What’s wrong with that?!”

Midnight Moon by Cypress Grove with Amedei Red 70% (dark chocolate with dried fruits)

The intense red-fruit and chocolate flavors of this 70% dark chocolate bar spiked with freeze-dried raspberries, cherries and strawberries paired well with Midnight Moon. We also tried this cheese with Areté Brasil 70% (Brazil-origin dark chocolate). While the flavors were pleasant, I felt like the cheese stepped on the chocolate flavor.

Summer Milk Comte with Areté Brasil 70% (Brazil-origin dark chocolate)

This pairing left me with a lovely citrus/lemon finish that I did not notice when tasting the cheese on its own.

Mull of Kintyre Scottish Cheddar with Patric Red Coconut Curry 64% (dark chocolate with red curry and coconut flakes) or Valrhona Caramelia 36% (milk chocolate) with Crunchy Pearls

This cheese reminded me of the unique flavor of fondue that comes from from the combination of cheese, garlic and Kirschwasser. My colleague tasted notes of caramelized onions. We were all surprised at how well this savory cheese paired with the Patric Red Coconut Curry 64%. The sweet, buttered-popcorn-like taste of the Valrhona Caramelia was also a surprise winner.

Ocelli Chestnut with Valrhona Bahibe 46% (milk chocolate), Valrhona Ivoire 35% (white chocolate) or Valrhona Dulcey 32% (toasted white chocolate)

This cheese had a very bright fruit note that stepped on a lot of the dark chocolates. We liked it with the sweeter chocolates.

Cheeseland Natural Hickory Smoked Gouda NOT with Valrhona Manjari 64% (Madagascar origin dark chocolate)

This was a very interesting cheese, and one we had trouble pairing with chocolate. Alison is not a fan of many of the smoked Goudas on the market because they add liquid smoke. This cheese, on the other hand, is naturally smoked over hickory wood. If she had not told me this cheese was smoked, I would not have known. We tasted it first without chocolate, and it was a wonderful gouda with excellent complexity and not a hint of smoke. I’m not usually a fan of smoke in my food, so I was surprised that I liked this one. Then we paired it with the Valrhona Manjari, a chocolate made with Madagascar-origin cacao that has acidic notes of red fruit and citrus. This particular chocolate transformed the cheese into a completely different beast. Suddenly the smoke was apparent, overpowering our palates with notes of bacon and the expected smoky flavors of mass-market smoked Goudas. While we did not like the combination, it was fascinating to taste how much a chocolate could influence the flavors of a cheese.

Terre de Volcans Bleu d’Auvergne 100% Cow with Valrhona Caramelia 36% (milk chocolate) with Crunchy Pearls (like the best Nestlé Crunch you’ve ever tasted)

Alison really liked Valrhona Caramelia with this one. I wasn’t sold.

Laura Chenel’s Fig & Grapefruit Chevre with Soma Madagascar 70% (Madagascar-origin dark chocolate)

This was one of my favorite pairings. Where this chocolate normally offers the strong red fruit notes of Madagascar with perhaps a hint of citrus, this pairing brought out the orange notes in the Madagascar chocolate. Instead of a cherry bomb, it was an orange bomb.