De'Longhi and Lindt, Coffee and Chocolate Pairing Experience

Posting courtesy of Kitchen Delights London based reporter.

Last week I was kindly invited to spend an evening with other bloggers at a De'Longhi coffee and Lindt chocolate masterclass in Central London.

Lindt Master Chocolatier Stefan Bruderer listening for the all important snap.
Image courtesy of Lindt.

Lindt’s Master Chocolatier Stefan Bruderer and expert Barista, Robert Henry guided us through an exciting coffee and chocolate tasting and encouraged us to deliberate about different taste profiles and why one particular chocolate might work well with a specific coffee bean or style of coffee.

Chocolatier Stefan demonstrated to us that he could determine the quality of chocolate just by the way it sounded when snapping it. If it is sharp and loud, that’s a good indicator that the chocolate is high quality and made from a high percentage of cocoa.

Fabulous De'Longhi Coffee Machines

Expert Barista Robert Henry
Image courtesy of Lindt

Expert Barista Robert Henry showed us how to correctly taste lattes and espressos which were made using De’Longhi coffee machines. By taking a really good sniff and a big slurp, this was enough to bring out the different flavours, just as you might taste a wine. I found this quite hard at first but the more I did it, the easier it became.

Lindt Excellence Bars - which one will you choose?

I was lucky enough to try quite a few variations of coffee and chocolate from a Brazil Fazenda Passeio long black to a Sidamo blend flat white and match it up with Lindt Excellence Extra Creamy and Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa. I also really enjoyed a Bolivian Coffee such as a ‘Copa Cobanna’ which is full of orangey notes and discovered that it makes the perfect partner to a Lindt orange chocolate. Of course, it is all subjective but it did make me realise that there are a tremendous amount of flavour combinations out there which are fun to discover.

Sea Salt Lindt Excellence Chocolate

To find out more about pairing chocolate with coffee visit http://www.lindt-excellence.co.uk/

A huge thank you to my London Reporter for the Lindt Excellence Chocolate Selection Box goodie bag.

Thank you to both Lindt and De’Longhi for the very informative and delicious evening.