Coffee, Tea, Wine and Chocolate
Tea
Most gourmets know the major differences between our favorite beverages, when and where to serve them and which drink goes best with various types of foods. The world has long been broken up into coffee and tea drinkers, with coffee drinkers starting their morning with at last two cups of the delectable drink and tea drinkers settling, in their moderate way, for whatever will fit into their largest pot. While caffeine has been the stated reason for people beginning their days (and getting a jump-start in the afternoons) with tea or coffee based drinks, modern science has also found both drinks to contain other chemicals that interact with our brain chemistry to produce desired results: people who are relaxed but alert. The polyphenols in white and green tea are health promoting, so much so that coffee drinkers, who will never truly abandon a cup of java are found adding to their liquid intake by pouring tea into the schedule gaps that were once filled with the evil, sugar filled health monsters called soda pop. And good for them! Adding tea or coffee to your daily diet will do you no harm and may in fact do you some good.
And if you think tea and chocolate can't be paired successfully, think again. Darjeeling with a milky chocolate cake (especially if the icing contains cinnamon and cardamom) is a thing of beauty. If you want to add a little antioxidant boost to your daily polyphenol rich cocoa, start by stirring hot water and matcha (a powdered green Japanese tea) into a paste in the bottom of your cup before pouring the cocoa on top. The matcha adds a subtle astringency and some high-power health promoting phytonutrients without overpowering the taste and feel of the chocolate.
Chocolate and Coffee
While not as many people drink a morning cup of hot chocolate or cocoa, those who do find it cheering in more than one way. For the caffeine sensitive, cocoa provides one-tenth the caffeine of coffee while still handing out a sugary boost and enough antioxidants to add a note of virtue to the whole endeavor. The creamy taste of a morning cup of chocolate matches beautifully with a breakfast croissant, and makes even plain buttered toast into a meal approaching the sublime. But those who love both French or Italian Roast as well as fine forestero chocolate have long know the way to compromise: mixed half and half with just a touch of milk, sugar and cream, a spectacular morning mocha is achieved. In fact, this writer wonders if anyone has tried to make an espresso out of ground cocoa nibs. Imagine a drink that's one half espresso, half cacao espresso, with a bit of steamed and frothed milk on top. Now, add some natural sugar, or even better, vanilla sugar. Yum.
Another way to get your coffee and chocolate too is by laying in a supply of chocolate covered coffee beans. A large supply, because everyone who drops by your desk or visits your house will want a handful or six.
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