Scotch Whisky Gets A Flavor Boost When Paired With This Pantry Ingredient

As you start to appreciate Scotch whisky, the food almost always discussed with it is steak, as the flavors complement and enhance each other, making Scotch and steak a must-try pairing. But one sumptuous pairing you may not have thought of is probably already in your kitchen pantry. Dark chocolate in particular makes for a sophisticated flavor combination. 

Scotch whisky notes include different levels of fruitiness, smokiness, and mossiness (from peat), and woodiness (from the casks). Similarly complex and varying by terroir, dark chocolate also has fruity, nutty, and spicy notes and even sometimes has earthy notes like mushroom and tobacco. With similar flavor profiles, pairing the two enhances the stronger notes of each and can even helps you discern notes you couldn't spot individually. 

There's not really a wrong way to drink Scotch, but neat is probably best when pairing with chocolate. Start by coating your tongue with an initial sip of Scotch to identify its flavor notes before you take a bite of the chosen chocolate. If you've purchased a bar, it may have pre-scored squares and you can simply put a square right on your tongue. Allow the chocolate to release its own flavors onto your tongue and then go in for one more sip of Scotch. This will help the chocolate melt away, and you'll also notice the whisky flavor will vary from that first sip as it combines with chocolate and enhances the sweet's notes along with its own for a new flavor sensation.

Scotch pairs so well with the flavor notes of steak or a fine cigar that you may not initially consider the sweetness of chocolate. But it's not the sweetness you're looking for here. In fact, you're looking for a chocolate with an intensity that matches that of your Scotch. Just as there are differences between Scotch and Irish whiskey, there are differences between sweet dark chocolate (15% to 34% cacao) and semisweet (35% to 49%) or bittersweet (50% or more). So as your Scotch increases in boldness or flavor complexity, your chocolate should increase in cacao content and its own flavor profile should become more complex to avoid getting overpowered by the spirit.

Before getting into more complex Scotch, begin with a fruit-forward blended Scotch, like the easy-drinking Dewar's 15-Year with tasty apple and pear notes. Your dark chocolate pairing doesn't have to be so intense in this case. A 60% cacao bar with subtle orange flavors, like the Cafe-Tasse Noir Orange, might complement it well thanks to its own fruit notes. One option without the citrus flavor is the Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt for a less fruity pairing to go with the whisky's sweeter notes.

As you move toward the more complex flavors in Scotch, you have peated single malts, such as the Laphroaig 10-Year Single Malt. It's not the heaviest peated Scotch out there, but the smoke and moss notes strike you immediately. Milk chocolate or even the 60% examples you paired with the Dewar's blend would be overpowered by the flavors of this bottle. Instead, go with a high-cacao bar like the Río Samaria by Dandelion Chocolate, featuring notes of chocolatey Mexican champurrado (a corn-based hot chocolate drink) and tobacco leaf. It may not seem natural at first, but once you consider the variety of flavors and how these blend with each other, you'll not only get it but find yourself planning a tasting event or putting together a special Scotch-and-chocolate gift.