Cheese, Chocolate and Wine Tasting on Valentine’s Day

After recently attending a virtual Beehive Cheese and Ritual Chocolate tasting, I discovered this would make a great Valentine’s Day activity for those staying home.

Wine and cheese are popular pairings, but with artisan chocolate, it’s extraordinary together. Ritual Chocolates sources from Belize and Madagascar before making their bars in Heber City, Utah. 

The award-winning Beehive Cheese is also Utah based making unique and creative flavors to enhance their white cheddar cheeses. When you introduce chocolate, one gets to indulge in the ultimate salty-sweet combo. Chocolate is smooth and extravagant, cheese is savory and sharp, both complement each other marvelously.

Wine offers acidity and sweetness to cut through the creamy barrier of cheese and chocolate to unlock a fuller flavor on the palate and create an excellent mouthfeel.

Britton Welsh is the President and CCP of Beehive Cheeses. He is an affable young chap who was introduced into the cheese business by his father when he was 13 years old. “My father was going to purchase a creamery in New York. My grandmother said, we live in Utah, lets make cheese here,” Welsh said. “We named the cheese Beehive, because Utah is the Beehive State.”

Just starting out In 2007, they took a Gold in American Flavor Cheddar Cheese in Burlington, Vermont. Working at the creamery through high school and college, he decided that instead of going to Med School, he was going to help run his family business. His passion and leadership has helped Beehive Cheese continue to win awards, including being named makers of the Best American Cheese at the World Cheese Awards 2021 in Spain.

“Why pairing cheese and chocolate with a glass of port (or wine) is fun, is the taste and smell are ancient survival senses,” shared Welsh on the virtual tasting. “This combination wakens your senses and offers pleasing associations and memories in your brain.”

We started with breaking off a piece of Ritual Madagascar chocolate and cutting a dime size piece of Seahive cheese. The rind is rubbed with local wildflower Utah honey and ancient Utah salt to offer a delightfully unique flavor. This chocolate doesn’t have a lot of sugar, but the protein of the cheese brings out the body and caramel flavors of the chocolate. “The nuisances of chocolate and cheese are a unique partnership,” shared Welsh.

Ritual Madagascar 75% is fruity and nutty by growing it its unique terroir. It’s made with organic cacao from Bertil Akesson’s farm in the Sambirano Valley in Northern Madagascar.

We learned that cheese making is a four hour process before it is pressed into 20 lb wheels. Beehive gets its milk from Jersey cows at a farm about 15 miles away. “These smaller brown cows produce twice as much butter than other milk cows. They create a creamier cheese that creates a ‘I want more of that’ addictive quality,” Welsh said.

Next we took a hunk of Queen Bee Porcini with Ritual Belize 75% origin chocolate. Made with organic cacao that is grown by a network of Mayan farmers in the Toledo district of Belize, this chocolate has an incredible balance of fruity, earthy, and nutty flavors as with notes of dried fig, cherry and tobacco.

Tasting this white cheddar that was hand-rubbed with porcini mushrooms, it offers a buttery, earthy and umami flavor profile. Welsh proudly shared how this cheese was a winner of the Best American Cheese at World Cheese Awards 2021.

Tasting the chocolate and then the cheese, one can taste the chocolate bursting with a wild cherry and tobacco flavor, yet is smoothed by the cheese and brings out a vanilla essence.

We opened the Barely Buzzed rubbed with a rich roasted Turkish espresso and subtle French lavender grind. The coffee is sourced from a coffee company where his uncle works – Colorado Legacy Coffee Roasting Company. “This is a five time winner of Best Flavored Cheddar in America and has won 15 other notable awards,” said Welsh. “This cheese offers notes of savory roast beef peppered on a low temperature. The French lavender is subtle, buttery and when melting in ones mouth coats the palate.” I appreciated the floral flavors and discovered the two chocolates became sweeter and offered citrus enhancements after tasting this cheese.

Red Wine is ideal on Valentine’s Day to pair with chocolate and cheese. Since cheese and chocolate are high in fat, they coats the mouth and wine opens the taste receptors. Here are two excellent selections:

Mount Veeder Winery has three vineyard ranches nestled high in the Mayacamas Mountains. Their wines produced offer a powerful pleasing flavor from the unique mountain terroir where the grapes thrive. The 2017 Reserve Red Blend (SRP $125) boasts flavors of dark cassis, black cherry, bay, and vanilla. This full-bodied rich red wine releases aromas of concentrated dark cherry layers, anise, and toasted oak framed by black pepper notes. Its dense and robust mountainous tang is accompanied by hints of cedar, plum, and lingering sage. This beautifully crafted deep red wine adds a quintessential kick that will spice up an evening with your Valentine.

Double Diamond Wines from Napa Valley are a collaboration with Fred Schrader’s cult winery Schrader Cellers and critically acclaimed winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. Their quest was to make the best Cabernet Sauvignon, and they achieved this with  Double Diamond 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon (SRP $80). The elegant red wine boasts a rich, character-driven cabernet with intriguing aromas of black currants, dark cherries, and toast, that is distinctive on the palate too. Save this wine of finesse to sip with that special someone over a romantic dinner.

Enjoy learning about the nuances of Beehive Cheese, Ritual Chocolates and red wine for a romantic Valentine’s tasting this year.