Blind Chocolate Tasting with Happy Endings and Birkenstock Studio
How many times as an adult can you say you had ice cream for dinner? Well, that’s exactly what my friend and I had last night at Blind Chocolate Tasting with Happy Endings.
This event is part of Birkenstock Studio’s Walk With Me series. Their fourth artist-in-residence is Lee Tiernan, a London chef and owner of Islington eatery F.K.A.B.A.M (Formerly Known As Black Axe Mangall). He will be hosting demos and cookout workshops, as well as involving his network of friends to host their own events. He has now collaborated with Mam Sham and Happy Endings and has one with Taste Cadets next week.
Last night Terri Merciea, founder of Happy Endings, provided an evening of indulgence and discovery of taste. Terri gave a talk about sustainable chocolate brand Original Beans and we all sampled some of the various flavours including Esmerelda 42% (caramel), Femmes Virunga 55% (dark milk), Beni Wild 66% (sweet and fruity), Udzungwa 70% (crunchy cocoa nibs) and Piura 75% (red fruit). The Udzungwa 70% was a firm favourite of the group. Understandably many of us felt the Piura 75% would be more bitter, but in fact due to the cherry and berry flavours, it was less than expected. As one member of the group joked ‘it’s like 2 in 1’. The colours and artwork of the chocolate are beautiful- I especially loved the women on the Femmes Virunga with the description on the back saying the chocolate inspires like strong women from Virunga Park.
Terri told us about how flavours and textures can either compliment through similarities or differences, and allowed us the opportunity to experiment. For example, Esmerelda’s 42% chocolate goes with corn as it is both salty and sweet, or it would pair well with raspberry sorbet due to its acidity. It would also go well with honeycomb or molt but it may not go as well with maraschino cherries as they would be better with a darker chocolate. On the other hand, the Piura 75% chocolate would go with matcha, honeycomb, or Sichuan peppers. For more acidity pair with passionfruit, and to soften the palate pair with strawberry jam.
Now it was time to experiment! First up we had to choose our base – vanilla, malt, chocolate, matcha ice cream or a raspberry strawberry? Next, the toppings. These included malt powder, kinako (roasted soybean flour), morello cherries in sherry, fresh basil, soy dulce de leche, Sichuan pepper salt, fresh basil, strawberry jam, freeze dried passionfruit, corn, and honeycomb. The third step was to pair with any of the Original Beans chocolate.
It’s a good day when your toughest decision is about what topics to pair with cream and chocolate. Do I go with flavours I already know go well and I love or do I go with a wacky combination of something I’d never consider?
My first creation was simple- chocolate ice cream and crispy corn kernels with Udzungwa 70% crunchy nibs chocolate. The notes of orange and toffee from the chocolate worked well with the ice cream. It was sweet, salty and crunchy.
Next I had raspberry sorbet with basil, passionfruit, Sichuan pepper salt, honeycomb and Esmerelda 42%. Given it was 27 degrees yesterday, this was such a refreshing a combo. Many of us had various toppings combined with the sorbet, basil and white chocolate so if you haven’t had this combination before, please do try it. For the final creation I made a deconstructed cheesecake using malt ice cream, soy dulce de leche, strawberry jam, crumbled some biscuits and added Piura 75% chocolate which due to its red berries complemented the strawberry.
The next Birkenstock Studios event is Taste Cadets where three friends known for their engaging food and travel content, as they discuss their creative process with Lee and Kate Teirnan of FKA Black Axe Mangal. They will share insights on content creation, travel adventures and culinary inspirations. The event is Wednesday 24th July at 6-9pm and tickets are available via https://www.eventbrite.com/o/birkenstock-studio-walk-with-me-77672114323.
Address: Dray Walk Gallery, 91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birkenstock
https://www.instagram.com/happyendingsldn
Written by Caitlin Neal
