No coupling too unusual for pairing food and drink
Posted by TheShot on 21 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Quality Issues, Restaurant Coffee
Today the Courier News published an article on the evolving art and science of pairing food and drink: The Courier News :: Courier News :: No coupling too unusual for pairing food and drink. Pairing wine was just the beginning — now there are people pairing chocolate, coffee, etc., to their meals.
Which is all fine and good — even if some wines are best enjoyed by themselves while others are better when paired with food. Naturally, the part of the article that struck me most was this paragraph:
“The espresso just blew everything away with the bitterness,” says Liz Thorpe, managing director of Murray’s Cheese. “I felt like I was sucking on aluminum foil every time I tasted something.”
Of course, I wouldn’t pair an espresso with anything other than water, grappa (as a café corretto or even a resinti), or a handful of desserts. (Sorry, barista championship contenders.) But here we have a professional foodie of sorts — a director of a highly taste-conscious cheese shop — and what does she expect from a standard espresso? Bitterness. Lovely. Has she ever tasted a proper espresso shot in her life? Not likely.
Bitter espresso doesn’t pair with anything, Liz. My advice?: send it back to the barista to make properly, or demand yourself a refund.
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on 24 Feb 2007 at 12:17 am PT 1.Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com » Interview with the founder of an espresso tasting society said …
[...] Yep, you hear that? Send it back. (”Send it back”? — can I get that as my beverage order on a custom Starbucks T-shirt?!) And for the home espresso brewer, he also recommends spending the money on a really good grinder and using beans as fresh as possible. All of which probably sounds familiar to readers here. [...]