by Malcolm Jolley
When Anne Martin signed-up with Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate, the British chocolatier bringing high-end, organic and ethically sourced bars to the supermarkets of the Western world, I knew I wanted to know about her pairings. Martin is a top Toronto sommelier and wine consultant who writes for Canadian Living, as well as this website, and (full disclosure) I had gotten to know her from food and wine media scene and consider her a friend. If anyone could find the perfect wine for different kinds of chocolate, it would be Anne, so I asked her what she’d done. Once she got back to town from a cross-Canada media tour, we arranged to meet at Green & Black’s PR agency, Strategic Objectives, as I wanted a quiet spot to film Anne talking about chocolate pairing and didn’t think much about it… Of course, Anne wasn’t just going to talk about chocolate and wine pairing, she was going to lead me through a comprehensive matching with six of Green & Black’s bars. All very well, but how was I to shoot this? Luckily, Strategic Objectives’ Olivia Wu graciously volunteered for camera duty and the result is the video below. Anne has provided the full name, price and LCBO inventory number for each wine we tasted below.
Chocolate Bars and Wines Tasted Were:
Green & Black’s White – Cave Spring Indian Summer Select Late Harvest Riesling 2007, VQA Niagara (375ml bottle) $24.95 415901
Green & Black’s Milk: Henry of Pelham Reserve Chardonnay 2008, VQA Niagara, $14.95 252833
Green & Black’s Almond: H.M. Borges Medium Sweet Aged 3 Years Madeira, Portugal $ 17.95 169482
Green & Black’s Cherry: Mas Janeil Maury 2005, Roussillon, France (500 mL bottle) $ 15.70 175224
Green & Black’s 70% Dark: Stonehedge Reserve Zinfandel 2008, Napa, California $17.95 183178 & Taylor-Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny Port, Portugal $34.95 121749
Green & Black’s Ginger: Gonzalez Byass Solera 1847 Oloroso Dulce, Spain $ 15.95 972109
Malcolm Jolley is the Managing Editor of Good Food Revolution and Executive Director of Good Food Media, the non-profit organization that publishes GFR. Follow him at twitter.com/malcolmjolley.
This video was made possible through the kind support of Fortessa Canada / Schott Zwiesel.
Chocolate such as Green and blacks and Coco Camino may seem “healthy” because they are certified “organic” but maybe we should consider whether it is best to buy product that are processed and produced over seas in Europe.
If we wish to think about our carbon footprint and make the healthiest choices we might want to look for locally produced delicacies that are processed the very least. ChocoSol is a great alternative and is produced using bicycle power. ChocoSol’s chocolate is made from raw cacao (“horizontally traded”) and is minimally processed, still packed with all the nutrition that is naturally within the raw cacao.
The company is small scale and is therefore not found in many, if any, chain stores. That probably being the main reason why most people don’t know of their product. I have only been able to find their product at farmer’s markets as of yet.
Here are links to their website and blog
http://chocosol.posterous.com/
http://chocosoltraders.blogspot.com/