Pairing chocolate with wine, coffee, or cheese isn't a gimmick — it's the same logic as any food pairing: complement, contrast, and don't let one flavour kill the other.
The reason it works particularly well with craft chocolate is that high-quality bean-to-bar bars have genuine flavour complexity. A Fossa Tanzania 73% bar has identifiable red-fruit and earthy notes. The Lychee Rose bar has a floral top note that behaves like a perfumed wine. These are bars with something to say — and good pairing gives them something to talk to.
Here's how to approach it.
Chocolate and wine
The cardinal rule: the wine should be at least as sweet as the chocolate, or the wine tastes sour and thin by contrast.
For dark chocolate bars (70%+): go for wines with dried fruit character and low tannin — Shiraz works beautifully, as does a good Grenache. Pinot Noir with its red-berry profile echoes the fruit notes in Tanzania origin bars. Fortified wines like a Rutherglen Muscat are a near-perfect match — the sweetness cuts the bitterness, and the rich dried-fig character amplifies the depth.
For Fossa's flavoured dark bars: the Yuzu Sea Salt bar pairs surprisingly well with a dry Riesling — the citrus note in the bar picks up the lime zest character in the wine, and the salt cuts any residual sweetness. The Lychee Rose bar works beautifully with a lightly chilled Rosé.
For milk chocolate: Champagne or Prosecco. The bubbles and acidity cut through the richness, and it feels genuinely celebratory.
Avoid: heavy tannic reds like Cabernet Sauvignon with dark chocolate — the tannins clash aggressively and both flavours suffer.
Chocolate and coffee
Coffee and chocolate share a flavour family — both are products of fermented beans, both express terroir in similar ways — which makes pairing intuitive once you understand the spectrum.
High-roast espresso pairs with milk chocolate: the bitterness of the coffee meets the sweetness of the chocolate and they balance. Think of it as a mocha in solid form.
Light or medium roast filter coffee — the kind that's fruity and clean — pairs brilliantly with single origin dark chocolate. A natural-process Ethiopian coffee with berry notes alongside a Fossa Tanzania bar is a tasting experience that stands up to any wine pairing.
For Fossa's Black Sesame Hojicha bar: pair it with hojicha tea (obviously) or a cold brew. The roasted notes are already baked in — a clean, high-acid coffee would fight the bar rather than complement it.
Chocolate and cheese
This one surprises people, but it's the pairing that most reliably impresses at a dinner party.
Aged cheddar and dark chocolate: the sharpness and crystalline texture of a well-aged cheddar (18 months+) with a 70%+ dark bar is extraordinary. The salt in the cheese amplifies the chocolate's fruit notes, and the fat coats the palate just enough to smooth the bitterness.
Blue cheese and dark chocolate: one of the more polarising pairings, but extraordinary when it works. The pungent, salty intensity of a Roquefort or Gorgonzola with a high-cocoa bar creates a complex back-and-forth that keeps you going back for another piece of each. Not for the faint-hearted.
Brie or Camembert with Fossa's Lychee Rose: the creamy, mild flavour of a soft-rind cheese lets the floral and fruit notes in the bar lead. Serve at room temperature for both.
The setup
You don't need to orchestrate a formal tasting. Three bars, a glass of wine, and a small cheese board is a dinner party dessert that costs less to assemble than a restaurant dessert and is far more interesting to talk about.
Browse the full Fossa range at snlimports.com/collections/all and build your board.
