Chocolate & Mead Pairing Guide for Valentine’s Day

Chocolate, which melts in your mouth and warms your heart, is a widely popular symbolic gift for Valentine’s Day all around the globe! The start of the Valentine’s Day holiday coincides with the beginning of the bird mating season and the period of courtly love.

What could be better than pairing mead with chocolates for Valentine’s Day to honor our ancient patron?

Saint Valentine, the patron of lovers, engaged couples, and happy marriages, would have greatly approved of this romantic, chocolate-filled holiday that evolved during the Middle Ages. The patron Saint Valentine was also an avid beekeeper and is recognized as the official patron saint of beekeepers. Honey has been associated with love and fertility since the Greco-Roman period. Cupid is known to have dipped his arrows in honey to fill hearts with love.

Chocolate’s scientific name, Theobroma cacao, refers to a small, shade-loving evergreen understory tree native to the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. The “Old World” (Europe, Asia, and Africa) was introduced to chocolate by Spanish explorers who encountered it among the Aztecs. During the Middle Ages, chocolate was the bitter drink of the nobility. As chocolate was transformed into delicious dessert bars through tempering and the addition of milk, sugar, and butter, it was soon discovered to pair well with medieval European wines. This pairing began toward the end of the 16th century and gained enormous popularity as chocolate became widespread in Europe. What was formerly an indulgence of the nobility, due to increased cultivation and ease of transportation, is now enjoyed by the general populace.

Mead, or honey wine, with its floral and fruity notes, creates a harmonious, elevated sensory experience in which the flavors, textures, and aromatics of both mead and chocolate are heightened. The very low levels of tannins in mead contribute to a pleasurable palate experience. The bitter notes of chocolate and the high-fat content of cocoa butter, when paired with slightly acidic, dry, sweet, or semi-sweet meads, create a nuanced and distinctive flavor profile.

Pairing mead with chocolate is similar to pairing wine with chocolate, except for one major distinction: the absence of tannins. A few meads made with berries and currants, such as blackberry, raspberry, and black currant, have low tannins, but to a much lesser extent than grape wines.

Here are a few interesting facts we’ve learned from our chocolate and mead pairing events hosted at Clear Skies with our co-host Jill, founder and owner of The Chocolatier’s Palette:

• Traditional Dry Mead (Friending Fenrir): A dry sparkling mead that mimics Prosecco, with floral sweetness on the nose and citrus notes, complements the dairy-rich profile of milk chocolate.

• Raspberry Mead (Fair’s Vanity): A fruity, semi-sweet mead with raspberry notes and hints of vanilla, our raspberry mead is a balanced match for rich, buttery, high-sugar-content white chocolate.

• Blackberry Mead (Twisted Oliver): An earthy, full-bodied mead with jammy blackberry notes and low levels of tannins accentuate the sweetness of dark chocolates, whether with a little bit of sea salt or plain dark chocolate. The bitter notes of the chocolate pair well with the silky tannins, creating bold flavors on your palate.

• Passion Fruit Mead (Tart for Heart): A delicious, sweet and sour tropical mead with intense floral passion fruit notes and a grapefruit-forward taste. Its slight acidity pairs well with pistachio white chocolate fudge. The pistachios’ sweetness and the grapefruit’s sour notes complement each other, creating a smooth, velvety texture.