# Coffee and food combinations



## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

I just ate a cinema-leftover-haribo with my morning coffee. A king's breakfast for sure, and it kind of worked (maybe only as it was a sour jelly). It got me thinking about coffee and food combinations. Obviously coffee and cake/biscuits go pretty well together, but considering the huge variety of taste you get from good beans, well roasted and brewed, I'm surprised there's not more out there regarding specific coffees and cake combinations. At least I've never noticed anything like that in cafes or websites. Perhaps coffee is just generally thought of as a beverage to be consumed on it's own.

The pairing of sweet things with coffee is great when you've got beans-of-old, roasted to oblivion and tasting of nothing but bitterness. You need some sweetness added from cake (or a gallon of milk) to cut through through Marlboro flavour country. But now that there's roasters bringing out the natural sweetness and fruitiness of beans, it can often be overkill adding cake to munch on. The same can be said for merely adding sugar directly to coffee.

Of course there are other factors involved with the pairings. Time of day that coffee is consumed being one of them. But if we think about flavour alone, I reckon there's a trick being missed in savoury food with coffee. That's partly because it's not often you have a hot drink with savoury past breakfast, but why not? I've come across some great combinations by accident. I had a pastrami and rocket sandwich with a smooth Columbian which kind of acted as a chutney to go with the salty beef and peppery leaf. Gruyere with with an earthy Sumatran - the natural lactic, creamy nuttiness complimented perfectly. A shot of super-sweet espresso with salty Spanish black pudding, a bit odd but people go nuts for salted caramel right?

Just a thought. Anyone else come across some combinations they like, or is it just me?


----------



## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

No you are right, it will take a while, for real comparisons to be made because coffee is in my opinion very much like wine, I personally only drink black coffee, so currently I have a coffee that gives a massive whack of lemon which is stunning so you would pair that with something suitable, also It may seem odd but I've found some coffees so clean that they act as a palate cleanser, I guess the lemon would fall into that category along with a beutiful Ethiopian Suqo quoto from last year perhaps to be drank between courses rather than as traditionally served at the end.

Coffee is back in it's infancy now really it'll take time, but peoples knowledge will change and pairings will come about.

As was told to me and it's a theory I agree with, just as the microwave killed off peoples need to cook, therefore a lot of people now can't cook and opt for ready made alternatives at the drop of a hat, instant coffee ruined coffee, but thanks to the chains and the TV show friends coffee has made a come back and it is only with people like ourselves and the ever growing community of real coffee lovers will we ultimately see change, it'll be slow but it'll happen


----------



## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

Personally I love eating some very high percentage cocoa and after the first couple of chews having a sip of espresso. The melting feeling in your mouth is heavenly.

This got me thinking that cocoa beans from different origins have different characteristics, for example Madagascan cocoa is often blended with Vanilla (Green and Blacks), which might suit certain single origin coffees such as one with a nice nutty flavour to compliment the chocolate and vanilla.

I guess this is pretty traditional but when it tastes and feel this good, why bother looking elsewhere.

Love the idea of pastrami and coffee though


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

This is a fascinating area in my opinion. One of the things the judges picked me up on with my sig drink was that I (arguably) chose flavours that quite obviously go together whereas selecting flavours and aromas that might seem to clash, and making them work by whatever means, is a more intriguing proposition. I wonder why some things combine well, and would love to understand the chemistry behind it. It ties in with Ted Lingle's Coffee Flavour Wheel, where aromas within coffee are present due to the molecular weight of the roasted coffee's compounds being the same as those descriptors... eg coffee tasting like strawberries because of a chemical reaction during roasting that creates an acid that is also present in strawberries (to put it in a simple but slightly inaccurate way). Maybe certain different foods/drinks combine well because their molecular weights add up to a magic number that the palate typically enjoys. Just thinking out loud now! Research into this is on the cards for the forthcoming year.


----------



## profspudhed (Mar 18, 2011)

i tend to only eat snacks with my coffees and i hate to be cliched but i generally like either a croissant and jam or a slice of toasted pannetone, and obviously often eating nuts can be great with coffee, walnuts, hazelnuts or brazils


----------



## jimbow (Oct 13, 2011)

Great subject and one that has always fascinated me. It is something I think about frequently for wine, beer and even whiskey but have not really thought about it for coffee.

I seem to remember reading the winning signature drink this year was actually three drinks served together. I think one of them was grapefruit juice to compliment the acidity in the espresso.

On a related note this also reminds me of something I read that suggested accompanying espresso with a glass of tonic water as the quinnine compliments any bitterness that might be present in the espresso.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

A starting point for more reading, perhaps... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodpairing


----------



## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

In reference to your earlier post re chocolate, there are fantastic chocolates around, and I've stumbled across what is in my opinion the best chocolate I've ever tasted, I use it in hot chocolate but it could be very easily be eaten on it's own I would often give some to people before there hot chocolate. Anyway it's a 65% columbian from the huila region. I would recommend people give it a try from james gourmet, but the chocolatier himself has a wealth of knowledge on chocolate and can easily recommend chocolates that go with whatever you would like.

Anyway everything can be paired and I will probably look in to this in my own way, but will take that wikipedia page as my first port of call, I will definitely make use of my biochemistry and nutrition textbooks and see where I end up.

but I know I prefer savoury with sweet coffees and sweet with the more bitter coffees.


----------



## beebah (Apr 1, 2012)

I often find that what I'm craving with/after a coffee is something with salty/umami flavour like delicious cheese or marmite on fresh sourdough. This is particularly so after any coffee with nice level of acidity. I'd also add my vote for good quality chocolate - my favourite are those produced by Michel Cluizel which have a fantastic range of flavours with a really rich mouth feel. They seem to segue nicely from some coffees


----------



## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

coffee and cheese pairing, now that would be fun


----------



## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

It's actually something I've been working on, as my food passion is cheese. Had a surprising degree of success as well.


----------



## pendragoncs (Feb 14, 2011)

Earlepap said:


> It's actually something I've been working on, as my food passion is cheese. Had a surprising degree of success as well.


Would be interesting to hear you results as I'm on a low carb diet which involved quite a lot if cheese.


----------

