First course
Pairing coffee with a savory dish may not be easy, but it is not impossible.
Try for example to serve a blue cheese appetizer biscuit with bitter coffee with walnut aromas, and you may be amazed! This aroma comes mainly from sotolon, sometimes from acetaldehyde; both have been identified in coffee. It is not found in coffee very often, but it is important to learn to sniff it out in different Brazilian coffees, where it gives a degree of pungency to the nose and palate, appreciated by those who drink it.
Dessert
Unsurprisingly coffee and chocolate are a good match: many of the same compounds found in both coffee and cocoa, such as thiazoles and pyrazines, contribute to their aroma. But you will discover in the book of Le Nez du Café that this voluptuous scent only tends to appear in certain areas of production. Eric Verdier, a co-author of the book and a great taster, noted that it was particularly elegant in Hawaiian Konas. It is found in African coffees from the Congo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In Central and South America, it is unmistakable in Mexican Maragogypes but rare in Colombian coffees.
