What is better for a mid-day pick-up than a cup of amazing coffee and rich, luxurious chocolate? There are few food and beverage pairings to equal this one. It is a great combination, but to make it incredible, you need to spend a few.
I am not sure it is the best coffee, but hey, price usually matches up to quality, no?
Kopi Luwak Coffee Beans, $600/lb.
These are not your Kona coffee beans, which I think are pretty damn good beans, by the way. These are from Indonesia. ‘Kopi’ is Indonesian for coffee and ‘Luwak’ is a name of the animal, also known as the civet, who loves to dine on these selected coffee beans. So how do they go about, selecting, these beans? They happen to be the exact beans the animal eats. This little guy below. Kinda cute!
Once the beans have been digested, the outer portion of the cherry is removed, leaving only the coffee bean. The, um, natural, involuntary process, imparts a distinct flavor and removes any natural bitterness.
They are picked up by locals and sold. Hey, as long as it improves local economy, why not? Don’t worry, the beans are cleaned and you won’t find them in your mail in their original package.
If I happened to have destroyed your afternoon craving, I apologize. The following are all natural, I mean, minus the digestion part. These are more rated for the actual flavor and aroma, not so much as how they are produced.
Given 94 points of 100, Panama Esmeralda Mario Carnival from Paradise Roasters is a sweeter cup of coffee with citrus and cocoa with floral notes and honey. Goes for $44/lb.
94 points goes to Rusty’s Hawaiian Red Caturra Natural. Move over Kona, this one has a profile of dried fruit, with milk chocolate and lemon. You can grab 12 ounces of this for around $45.
Next, the chocolate. Knipschildt Chocolatier is prime chocolate-eating pleasure. The brainchild of this operation is Fritz Knipschildt who moved from Denmark to the United States in 1996 and founded Knipschildt Chocolatier LLC in ’99, and later his cafe, Chocopologie, in 2005. He is a Denmark trained chef who expanded his culinary horizons with extensive time in France and Spain.
Fritz’s cafe is located in the downtown area of South Norwalk, Connecticut at 12 South Main Street. Even he believes in this ultimate combination.
The cost of his chocolate will run around $2,600 per pound. If you don’t think you can stretch for a pound, you can still enjoy his dark chocolate truffle with a French black truffle inside for $250. Please pre-order. It is made with seventy percent Valrhona cacao, that originates from Venezuela. The cacao is mixed in with a creamy ganache and truffle oil. They are each hand-rolled with a dark truffle on the inside and finished with a dusting of cocoa powder.
If you can’t make it to the Chocopologie in Connecticut or even Dubai, you can still order online to enjoy this, or other handcrafted chocolate products with your choice of top-notch coffee listed above.
