A cup of coffee can be synonymous with life for some people, especially right after waking up. But many coffee aficionados want its reputation as a morning savior to change—or, at least, expand to the rest of the day. Steven Sutton of Devoción, a coffee purveyor based jointly in Brooklyn, New York and Bogota, Colombia, strives to change coffee as we know it—and not just when we drink it.
“A lot of people think of coffee as a beverage that wakes you up,” says Sutton. “But for the last 15 years or so, a lot of companies have shown that coffee has much more flavor that you might think, and you can change that flavor with a number of different variables, like how you roast it and how you source it.” Coffee, Sutton argues, has become a lot like wine—except with much more complexity in terms of flavor and aroma. He especially likes the hot beverage’s floral, nutty, and fruity notes, but it can have a lot more depth to its character than that. “When we analyzed the coffee with the website foodpairing.com, they said it was by far the most complex food they’ve ever analyzed. We’re talking thousands of components that give coffee its flavor, from the green bean to the roasting process to the barista who brews it.” That’s why coffee is a great beverage to pair with—all those flavors can be drawn out, as well as enhance the food it’s paired with. One of the best foods to experience coffee’s pairing-friendly flavors with is dark chocolate.
Notes of cacao and cherries are enhanced when coffee and dark chocolate are paired together.
Pairing, explains Sutton, isn’t about matching the flavors of the food and the drink. “It’s about how the coffee enhances the flavor of the food, and how the food enhances the flavor of the coffee.” One of Devocion’s best coffees to pair with food is their Toro coffee, which is grown in the Cundinamerica region in Colombia at 1,800 meters high, and has notes of cacao, vanilla, cherry, and almonds. Paired with Lindt EXCELLENCE A Touch of Sea Salt dark chocolate, Sutton says the coffee’s creaminess and red-fruit qualities are enhanced. “When you put salt in food, it enhances flavor and calms bitterness,” says Sutton. “It’s the same thing when you pair something a little salty with coffee.”
This pairing helps enhance the overall flavor experience while calming bitterness.
But what about pairing the coffee with a dark chocolate? “If you went with the Lindt EXCELLENCE 70% Cocoa bar, now the coffee is more tart, sugary, and smooth—but this chocolate also enhances the acidity of the coffee. Jumping to the EXCELLENCE 85% Cocoa bar, the acidity of the coffee is enhanced to almost a citrusy level.” The chocolates draw out flavors in the coffee you otherwise would have overlooked or missed altogether—and consumed together, you’ll get a maximal flavor experience for both.
Pairing chocolate and coffee brings out enhanced flavor notes, even of citrus.
Part of the fun of pairing drinks and food is seeing how the flavors play with each other—determining what elements of flavor are heightened, toned down, or blended together. When you have two high-quality products, like Devocion’s pristine coffees and Lindt EXCELLENCE dark chocolate, those pairings can be even more revelatory.