The Things We Did: Phil & Sebastian Coffee and Chocolate Pairing Class

Chocolate and coffee are some of our favorite (not to mention staple) food and drink choices. When we saw that Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters was hosting a coffee and chocolate pairing class, we were definitely intrigued and knew we had to sign up. The class has room for 8 people at its Marda Loop location (2043 33rd Ave SW) and we were lucky enough to get a spot!

Our class which began at 6:30pm had 7 people and was hosted by head chef, Leslie Morrow and supported by the events manager, Brynne Steinbrenner. We were first given some history on the origin and initial users of cocoa - it was interesting to learn that cocoa was used by the Mayan and Aztec people in drink form as far back as 1900 B.C.! We even got to try a sample of chocolate that resembled the form it would have been in hundreds of years ago. The chocolate had pockets of cane sugar and was a rough texture. We learned that this was because there were no processes that long ago which could refine the texture or smooth out the chocolate evenly. 

Photo credit goes to Lauren Popadiuk from Phil and Sebastian. She did a great
job of capturing all of us hard at work learning about the history of chocolate
from head chef, Leslie Morrow (on the left side). Clearly the engineer in Gajra
must be taking notes as her head is down scribbling away on a note card.

For the actual tasting, Leslie had laid out double the chocolates so we first got to try all of them and write down our initial thoughts. The plate of chocolate we were presented with is shown below. You can see that the chocolates are labelled 1 through 4 and as we went through and tried them, we noticed that they seemed to go from strong, dark and bitter flavors to light, sweet and creamy flavors. 

At the top of this picture is our goodie bag of truffles
we got to take home! Needless to say they were gone
on the drive back to our apartment! The bottom chocolate
was a goat cheese milk chocolate we got to sample for fun.
It was... interesting.

After we were all finished with our first bites, we went through tasting each of the chocolates again. This time we were given specific characteristics to analyze such as texture, flavor, and "snap quality" of the chocolate. We learned that the harder, crisper and louder the snap is when you take a bite, the better the quality of the chocolate. Along with a detailed chocolate tasting, we were also given the background of where each of the chocolates came from and how the geography impacts the flavors that we were tasting. We were surprised to learn that though we had thought the first couple chocolates were bitter and acidic, and the last couple were sweet and light, they all had 70% cocoa! By the end of the second round of the tasting we had all become connoisseurs, speaking like true chocolatiers...

Don't we look like true chocolate connoisseurs? ;)
Photo credit to Lauren Popadiuk from Phil and Sebastian.

Following the chocolate tasting we were brought delicious single shot cappuccinos  paired with a spoon of chocolate ganache. We were told to dip and swirl the spoon of chocolate in our cappuccino and taste the chocolate and then try the coffee. It was a great combination! Who would have known that pairing two different bold and distinctive flavors together would end up tasting so good?

We love a good cappuccino, and this one was made better with
a spoonful of chocolate mixed in and some cute latte art!

Leslie and Brynne also highlighted some of the strong similarities between chocolate and coffee such as the growth and harvesting of beans, drying techniques, the roasting process, and even flavor profiles to our surprise. It was eye-opening to learn that two distinctly different things had such similar backgrounds!

Overall we really enjoyed our evening at the chocolate and coffee pairing event. We are excited that Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters will be hosting more food and coffee pairing series in the upcoming months! The next event is on Tuesday, March 31st which pairs French style Macchiatos with delectable pastries. The cost is $50 per person and is a great opportunity to indulge and learn about some delicious items. If you are looking to learn something new with a few friends, or just want a date night out, then this class is definitely worth signing up for!