The idea of tea arriving at my door step through a subscription service has always been exciting. Recently I had something almost more exciting come to my door….a chocolate subscription box! Similar to a tea subscription, this box arrived with a selection of chocolate bars from makers all over the world to discover. I was gifted a Kekao Box and it blew me away! My box consisted of 5 premium specialty crafted dark chocolate bars and I immediately had to steep some teas and get pairing. Chocolate and tea pairings allow you to experience more flavours from both. For best results, using both high quality tea and high quality chocolate is recommended. Luckily, that was all I found in the Kekao monthly chocolate box.
About Kekao
Just when I thought Tea Curator was a cool title, Dino from Kekao reached out to me and told me all about their chocolate subscription box. Chocolate Curator? Sign me up! They search the world for the finest dark chocolate bars, taste them and then bring them to your doorstep. It varies each month, but you can find 3-5 crafted dark chocolate bars in your box.
I was really impressed with the chocolate selection from my first Kekao box. All of the chocolate bars were various shapes and sizes. I really liked that they curated a great range of bars. There was a nice mix of really dark, medium and light.
Monthly Kekao Chocolate Subscription Box is $34.99. You can purchase a 3 or 6 month plan to save each month. It seems like the chocolate bars found in the boxes retail anywhere from $5-$11 per bar.
Craft Dark Chocolate and Tea Pairings
I think it’s best to start chocolate and tea pairings just like how to you would start a tea tasting. From lightest chocolates to darkest. So, here we go…
Learn more about the art of tea and chocolate pairing here.
Sweetness Chocolate Co.’s The Middle 68% + Long Jing green tea
This chocolate bar was made in Windsor, Ontario (local to me!) and it was inspired by the Lebanese 7 spice mix. In addition to cocoa nibs, cocoa butter and organic cane sugar, this bar is infused with black sesame seeds, pistachios, allspice, ginger, black peper, nutmeg, cinnamon, mahlab, coriander, cloves and salt. It’s basically the perfect chocolate treat for the fall season. Long jing green tea is known for its buttery and nutty flavour profile. This tea intensified the pistachio notes that mingle with the spices in Sweetness Chocolate Co.’s chocolate bar. The chocolate bar also brings out more sweet, toasty notes from the green tea.
Oodaalolly Dark Chocolate 70% + Yunnan Gold black tea
This chocolate bar was made in Northern California with cacao from the Philippines. It’s made with cacao and a bit of cane sugar. The taste is silky with fruity notes. I paired it with a strong, rich and malty Yunnan Gold black tea to compliment the fruit notes. With each sip of warm tea, I started to get a lot of berries and currant flavours from the chocolate bar.
Xoxo Gourmet Mayan Red 70% + Ceylon black tea
This chocolate bar was made in Central America. It contains cacao beans, sugar and cocoa butter. Figs and plums are two flavours that come to mind immediately when taking a bite. Also, it is naturally sweet. To compliment this flavour profile, my favourite tea to pair with this chocolate bar was a Ceylon black tea. The similarities between the two are impeccable. This tea is brisk and bold with notes of citrus and chocolate on its own. The tea made this chocolate bar more rich!
Taita Chocolate 80% + Genmaicha green tea
This chocolate bar was made with cacao grown in a small agricultural town known as Puerto Lopez. Before getting into the taste, I want to quickly mention how awesome the packaging for this chocolate bar is — definitely stood out in my Kekao Box and is my favourite look. Like the packaging, the chocolate bar is a work of art. To enhance the flavours of nuts from this bar, I paired it with sips of Genmaicha green tea. Similar to this Taita chocolate bar, genmaicha is very toasty and nutty. As I took a warm sip of the Japanese green tea with a piece of the chocolate in my mouth, the nuttiness from both amplified. It was almost like I threw a handful of unsalted mixed nuts in my mouth!
Maori Chocolate 100% + Tie Guan Yin oolong tea
This chocolate bar was made in Vietnam with a blend of cocoa beans from southern Vietnam. I’m usually hesitant to try 100% cacao because they can be chalky and incredibly bitter. However, it takes a special chocolate maker to pull off a great one and this bar was just that. It’s slightly creamy and tastes like ripe berries. I opted to pair this chocolate bar with a Tie Guan Yin oolong. It enhanced the creaminess of the chocolate bar, making it extra smooth. I nearly forgot it was 100% dark!
If you’re interested in Kekao’s Chocolate Subscription Box or these chocolate bars, visit their website. Use discount code “CUP10” for 10% OFF any of their subscriptions or chocolate bars. It’s the perfect opportunity to do some chocolate and tea pairings of your own! 🙂
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