In case you missed it, last week I shared some general musings on the first annual San Francisco WhiskyFest hosted by Malt Advocate. And as you can see from my first post, we tried quite a few whiskies.
Throughout the evening, there were numerous seminars offered to attendees, beyond the tastings on the main floor--from discussions on bourbon to the art of Japanese distilling. So, in the middle of drinking all that whisky (remember, these are very small tastes, and I generally only took a sip or two), we ventured upstairs to attend probably the most popular seminar of the evening, the Chocolate and Whisky Tasting. Fortunately, we snagged two seats before they started turning people away.
Laid out in front of us, on long rows of tables, were 5 glasses of whisky and 4 pieces of Scharffen Berger chocolate. After a rather tedious and far too detailed history of how chocolate is made (word of advice: know your audience) by the Scharffen Berger representative (not John Scharffenberger who was listed to appear) and a rousing, get-up-and-dance show put on by the highly entertaining whisky ambassador to The Dalmore and Laphroaig, we were finally able to get down and do some tasting.
First things first, we were introduced to each whisky and each paired piece of chocolate, and then asked to take a bite of the chocolate, and with it still in our mouths, to take a sip of whisky. Um. Yes. Mmmmmmm. Heaven.