Beer and chocolate go together? Does my husband know about this?

I know I promised to include them both today, but found I just got too much good information from my conversations with Sommelier Sarah Goddard and Tom Sfetkopoulos, category manager for bakery for Longo’s, to cram into one blog post. So we’ll hear from Sarah today and Tom tomorrow. Sarah loves the idea of pairing wine with chocolate, but says choices have to be carefully considered. “The wine should always be as sweet if not sweeter than the food it’s being paired with,” she advises. A few other tips from Sarah:

Try a pink ice wine with chocolate

Late harvest or ice wines work really well with fruity desserts

Fruity wines, such as Southbrook Framboise, go well with chocolate served with raspberries or strawberries

A ruby port goes well with darker, spicier chocolate

Banyuls are complex sweet wines from the eastern corner of France that work well with chocolate served alone or in a dessert

Choose lighter, sweeter wines with milk or white chocolate – perhaps a Moscato d'Asti from Italy

Sarah also thinks beer is often overlooked as a mate for chocolate and sweet desserts. She’s even written an article on pairing wine with beer on her excellent blog in which she points out that unlike wine, it’s not necessary that the beer be as sweet or sweeter than its food pair, because beer has a bitterness that cuts through sugar — as does dark roasted coffee. She loves serving fruity Lambic beers from Belgium with sweet treats, and thinks darker ales, stouts and porters marry well with darker, stronger flavoured chocolates.