Grace in the Kitchen and Hummingbird Chocolate Join Forces to Create a Stellar Cheese and Chocolate Tasting

Take one cheese expert, one craft chocolate-maker and a group of curious gourmands gathered on a summer evening, and what do you get? At Hummingbird Chocolate in Almonte last week, the result was a group of very enthusiastic participants. Erica Gilmour, co-owner of Hummingbird, and Kyle Weaver, cheesemonger at Ottawa’s Grace in the Kitchen, led a Cheese and Chocolate Tasting through four delicious and mouthwatering pairings. There was a lot of delighted lip-smacking and a lot of smiles. For food lovers, this was a passionate gathering and a highlight of the summer!

We began our event with a cup of chocolate espresso, made with Zorzal chocolate from the Dominican Republic. The rich flavour and caffeine hit perked up our taste buds and we were ready, i.e. drooling, for more!

Erica described the process of chocolate making. We learned that good quality chocolate starts with high-quality cacao beans. She showed us a chocolate pod and a handful of beans so that we could see how these beloved beans grow. We learned that each cocoa bean has a unique terroir, or character and flavour, derived from the specific location and soil where it grows.

Hummingbird sources the cocoa beans they use from the world’s best cocoa terroirs. She explained that there are different vintages year-to-year, much as we describe different vintages of wine. As an accredited sommelier, these terms, terroir and vintage, were familiar concepts for me. A big department in my brain is devoted to smelling and tasting, so I was really in my element as I listened. We learned that there are ten stages in chocolate production, a process that starts when the cacao beans are hand-sorted, then roasted. Erica finished her presentation with a tour of the glassed-in facility where the chocolate is actually made.

HUMMINGBIRD CHOCOLATE

Hummingbird is a local success story. It is run by Erica and Drew, two former international aid workers who worked directly with farmers in developing countries earlier in their careers. They learned a great deal and developed a great respect for people who grow and make food.

Back in Canada, they made chocolate as a hobby, which rapidly grew from a passion to an amazingly successful business with international recognition. Hummingbird Chocolate began in 2012 when there were only a few craft chocolate makers in Canada. Now, barely ten years later, it is a highly successful business with award-winning chocolate products. They have already won over 140 awards and were named the “best chocolate in the world” by the UK-based Academy of Chocolate, which presented them with the grand prize, The Golden Bean.

The craft chocolate that Erica and Drew used to make as a hobby is now supplied in retail shops, specialty grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, and cafés in more than 100 locations across Canada and select locations internationally.

Their cacao beans are sourced fairly, ethically, and sustainably. This commitment helps to secure not only better cacao beans but better lives for farm workers and their families. Erica and Drew work with farmers from around the world, and it is this connection with the cacao farmers that fuels the passion for their craft. Their guiding principles are to work directly with the farmer to ensure that:

1. The farmer receives better than Fair Trade prices
2. The cacao is grown sustainably
3. The cacao is farmed ethically and humanely – there is no child labour
4. The chocolate production does the right thing, from bean to bar

Hummingbird Chocolate is located at 476 Ottawa St., as you enter Almonte. The café offers tours, during which you can learn the whole process of how chocolate is made. The tours run every Saturday, providing a fantastic opportunity for a family outing and curious chocolate lovers.

In Ottawa, you can find Hummingbird Chocolate products at several locations to satisfy your sweet tooth: Thyme & Again (both locations), Ottawa Bagel Shop, Farm Boy Westboro and Whole Foods Lansdowne, as well as various other retailers.

KYLE, THE CHEESE WIZARD FROM GRACE IN THE KITCHEN

Kyle Weaver, cheesemonger at Grace, led the cheese tasting. First, we learned that it is wise to take the cheese out of the fridge for about an hour before serving, to optimize the flavours and texture. He taught us that the goal in pairing is either to pair like with like flavours, or to create a contrast in flavours and textures. He recommends tasting the chocolate first.

A burning question arose…is it okay to eat the cheese rind? Kyle told us that usually, it is. It adds astringent flavours. With wax rinds, although it’s not necessarily appealing, he claimed that he has consumed a fair bit of wax in his time and has lived to tell the tale.

Grace in the Kitchen is a favourite destination for food lovers, with an exceptional in-house cheese department, called Serious Cheese. Located at the back of the store, it carries a large variety of cheeses from all over the world and a great selection of local Canadian cheeses. They offer a selection of cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses of different types, from firm, blue, bries, washed-rind, cheddars and more. Their cheesemongers offer informed advice about the ideal selection of cheeses based on your specific tastes. When you’re planning a cheese or charcuterie platter, they have lots of ideas and recommendations.

Grace carries an excellent selection of other products for cheeseboards. For example, they carry many sliced meats (prosciutto, fennel salami, etc), cured sausages (genoa, ’nduja, etc) and pâtes. They also have a great selection of olives and pickles, to complement the richness of cheese. There’s an extensive selection of jams, spreads and crackers that pair perfectly with cheese. Grace carries knives, cutlery, high-end cookware like Staub and Le Creuset, and an excellent supply of cooking accessories. Basically, if you like to cook (or eat!), you gotta go there!

Grace in the Kitchen is located in Kanata Centrum.

THE PAIRINGS

For the first pairing, we tasted the Whipped Honey Chocolate Truffles, that are sweetened with local honey. Erica recommended that we let the chocolate melt on our tongue and push a little bit to the roof of our mouths, so as to maximize exposure to our taste buds. Chocolate can have a wide range of flavours and savouring it slowly allows these nuances to come through. With a few minutes in our mouths, the flavours evolved in a wonderful way. Going with a like plus like pairing, we tasted the Triple Crème de Charlevoix, made in Baie-Saint–Paul by the Labbe family. I think all of us were blown away by the buttery fabulousness of this combination! The Triple Crème is a very unctuous, rich cheese that is seriously delicious and the truffles were exceptionally buttery and disappeared rather quickly. If I get to Heaven, I will be greeted with a plate of this cheese, a few truffles and a glass of Champagne. Although if I don’t make it and go in the other direction, I will be told that I can only eat generic cheese slices…

The second pairing took our taste buds in a different direction. We tasted a Dark Milk Chocolate, made from 60% single origin cacao, crafted from beans that come from Tumaco, Columbia. This was a smooth chocolate that worked very well with the tangy aspect of the sheep’s milk cheese, Bercail, that was paired with it. Bercail is a pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese made at Fromagerie de la Moutonnière, in Quebec. Sheep’s milk cheese is a great alternative for those who have trouble digesting cow’s milk products. Kyle explained that this is because sheep’s milk cheese has different proteins that are easier to digest, than those in cow’s milk.

Next we tasted a chocolate called Maya, crafted from 68% single origin cacao. This is a dark chocolate to which a warm spice blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and chili has been added. The cheese paired with it was Idiazabal, a pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese from Navarra, Spain. I loved every pairing, but this was definitely one of my personal favourites. This cheese has a slightly smoky flavour that emerges, due to the fact that it is traditionally smoked in the rafters of shepherds’ huts. I thought the combination of that gentle smokiness in the cheese with the spices in the chocolate worked very well together.

The chocolate for the fourth pairing was Hispaniola, made with 85% single origin cacao, using beans from Hispaniola, Dominican Republic. This dark chocolate won the coveted international Golden Bean Award in 2016 from the Academy of Chocolate Awards. It is made with only three ingredients (organic cacao, organic sugar and organic cacao butter). It sells out regularly, and when you taste it, you’ll understand why. It’s ultra-rich and satiny smooth on the tongue. It was paired with a very lovely Organic pasteurized cow’s milk cheese made by Latteria Perezin, in Veneto, Italy. This firm cheese was another big hit; its flavour starts out mild but becomes more buttery and slightly saline as you taste it. The key to these pairings was to hold the chocolate or cheese in our mouths to savour the flavours slowly, rather than gobbling them down too quickly. Perhaps the biggest surprise during our tasting was to learn the variety of flavours that can occur in chocolate. A Chocolate Flavour Wheel showing over 50 flavours illustrated this flavour fact.

The event finished with enthusiastic applause from our group of very contented gourmands and then we dispersed for a little shopping spree in the café and gift shop. Rumour has it that this indulgent event will be offered again in the early fall. It is guaranteed to delight all who attend!

For more wine and food discovery from Jane Staples, visit www.bellovinoj.com

Header Photo: iStock. Inset photos: Courtesy Grace in the Kitchen and Hummingbird Chocolate