Red Wine & Dark Chocolate

I tried this for a friend's birthday party and it was a hit. Elegant and indulgent, yet still very budget friendly as it's a small theme. There are two varieties of theme within the chocolate aspect, we went with both simply because it was more fun with a larger group!

It is advised that if you have any experience with either chocolate or red wine, you begin there, choosing from what you know, and then obtaining the other to match. Personally, I don't know much about wine (in fact, a co-host supplied it for our party!) so I started with chocolate. You can choose chocolate just for a tasting (selecting varieties of chocolate with increasing cocoa content), or incorporate some funky varieties. I think I collected nearly every different kind! Lindt is my favourite by far, but Ghirardelli, Cote d'Or, and even Hershey & Nestle make some good higher-end chocolate (but you can tell the difference). We used each variety in our tasting chocolate:

60% Cacao ~ Hershey

72& Cacao ~ Ghirardelli

86% Cacao ~ Cote d'Or

99% Cacao ~ Lindt

Note that there is no 'standard' minimum cacao content requirement to be 'dark' chocolate, so feel free to play with the lower percentages if you prefer sweeter chocolate. DO be sure to work your way up to the 99% as it is quite bitter and dry.

(contact me for a printable version of our tasting guide)

NOW the fun chocolate. These are several, but by no means all of the varieties you can find to try as well. While some may sound questionable, they are all delicious.

Toffee ~ Ghirardelli

Sea Salt ~ Lindt

Pistachio ~ Cote d'Or

Orange ~ Lindt

Mint ~ Lindt

Chili ~ Lindt

Have no fear buying something different for a party, if you don't like it, someone else will! There is usually not much for leftovers. AND the likely surprising, but usually most well-stocked source to buy all these unique chocolates? Shopper's Drug Mart!

As far as wine goes, Pinot Noirs and Merlots are recommended choices, but experiment. The general guideline is to match the sweetness. For a real treat, try a dessert port, even a chocolate variety if you can find one!