Besides chocolate, cheese and wine make the ultimate pairing. According to research, cheese has the ability to coat the taste buds in fat, making some flavours less noticeable and others more noticeable. As a result, the wine tastes more well-rounded. But wine is not the only pairing for the delightful cheese, as there are many surprising runner-up duos that are non-alcoholic but still delicious.
Here are the non-alcoholic cheese pairings:
Lemonade
Lemonade may be delicious to freshen up after a hot sweaty day, but you wouldn’t think it could match with cheese. If you are interested in trying out lemonade with your cheese, try to cut back on the sugar and add an herbal twist. Lavender lemonade (without too much sugar) is superb when eaten with fresh goat cheese, very young goat Gouda. In this case, you will be matching the herbal flavours in the goat’s milk with rich flavours going on too. This results in both matching and contrasting with the lemonade.
Soda
It’s important to note that not all sodas mix well with cheese, but some perfectly compliment it. Just make sure to pick out natural sodas with subtler flavours that won’t overwhelm your cheese. The explanation is that sodas naturally go well with cheese due to the carbonation. The little bubbles lift the fat from your tongue, so it refreshes your palate.
Tea
If your preference is whiskey with cheese, it’s highly possible that you will like tea as a combination as well. The problem with hard alcohol and cheese is that some has a burning quality which overwhelms the cheese. Tea tastes more refreshing, while the natural tannins can still provide the pleasant astringency similar from a barrel-aged whiskey or a red wine. Choose tea with stronger flavor, like an aged Oolong or Pu’er (fermented tea from China’s Yunnan Province). One recommendation we can give you is Pu’er with aged Gouda, as the tea balances out the cheese’s dusty, savory, butterscotchy quality.
Another recommendation we can give you is cheese pairing with Yujacha, which can be described as less like tea and more like a loose marmalade that Koreans dilute with hot water and enjoy after meals. Pair the Yujacha with fresh chèvre or aged goat cheese and taste the glory as it is guaranteed to shine alongside the yuzu fruit’s notes of lemon, mandarin, bergamot, and conifer.
Drinking chocolate
In cuisine, chocolate and cheese combination is something that a lot of you have seen so often. As you will be eating cheese, why not try drinking chocolate? The chocolate does not have to be so strong, and instead you can opt for a thinner beverage like hot chocolate, or else reduce the water or milk for more of a drinking chocolate. On the other hand, a thicker and darker drinking chocolate makes a fudgy blue cheese have a lingering minty finish.
Other than hot chocolate, a common drink you can try with cheese is coffee. Tannins in coffee cuts the fat and richness of things, making the perfect juxtaposition to a creamy cheese. If you ever do decide to try it out, then make sure to eat a piece of comte as hot coffee helps to amplify the browned-butter, toasted-nut notes of the cheese. On the other hand, if you are one to take your coffee with cream and sugar, the richness and sweetness of the beverage pairs well with a triple-cream, soft-ripened cheese. Alternatively, if you take your coffee black, a rich cheese acts like cream when eaten.
Have you tried any of these cheese combinations? Share with us your experience in the comments section below!
