Wine and cheese might as well be the upscale version of PB and J: a food marriage that’s been cemented in stone for decades. Pairing chocolate with wine is also decidedly scrumptious. A plummy zinfandel is sure to bring out the black current notes dormant in a chunk of dark chocolate. So, if wine complements both cheese and chocolate, shouldn’t chocolate and cheese marry well together, too? Well, that’s what husband-and-wife chocolatiers Jennifer Rashleigh and Jeff Brown thought.
Over at Delight Chocolate, Jeff and Jennifer are keen promoters of the chocolate-and-cheese combo. It was their intrepid urge to test out unconventional flavour combinations that resulted in the duo opening a cheese shop, Junction Fromagerie, right next door to their chocolaterie.
Jeff and Jennifer started experimenting with cheese chocolates and ice creams in the mid 2000s. “We’re always searching for new flavour ideas,” says Jeff. And while the cheese-and-chocolate combo might cause some brows to cock, the pairing seemed natural to Jeff. “The earthy saltiness makes for an interesting contrast to the sweet bitterness of the chocolate,” he explains, before further boiling down the concept: “Essentially, it’s just balancing sweet and savoury flavours.”