There are no rules when playing around with flavours – try everything, says Nathan Adams

MANY people consider chocolate an indulgence best reserved for holidays like Easter, Eid or Christmas, and parents are always battling to curb their children’s chocolate intake.

A wine estate is not really where you’d expect a chocolate pairing for kids, so I was quite surprised that Pederberg Winery in Paarl is doing exactly that.

They offer flavoured milk and marshmallow pairings that have chocolate at the heart of the experience, for the little ones.

It’s billed as: “Three uniquely-flavoured marshmallows have been carefully selected and combined with three specially selected flavoured milks. Creamy, colourful and fluffy, this is sure to bring joy to the little ones’ taste buds.”

On the menu is strawberry milk paired with vanilla and smartie marshmallows, chocolate milk paired with caramel marshmallows dipped in milk chocolate, as well as banana milk paired with chocolate marshmallows dipped in white chocolate.

This is how you can begin to introduce children to flavour pairings.

Sip Exclusive mixologist, Owen O’Reilly, spent his time experimenting with hot chocolate and brandy in the run-up to World Chocolate Day last week.

Tasked by Nomu and Van Ryn’s Brandy to create choctails (chocolate-cocktails) O’Reilly says you can really experiment with chocolate.

“When it comes to mixing and playing around with flavours, especially chocolate, just try everything. There are no rules,” says O’Reilly.

He says he drew his inspiration from what chocolate makers were doing and translated it into a sweet cocktail.

“Chocolate works with so many different flavours. For instance, look at the Lindt range: That’s also where I drew some of my inspiration for the choctails.”

He adds: “Salted chocolate or toasted sesame seed chocolate, strawberry cheesecake, citrus, coffee and floral flavours.”

Here on the continent there is also good news for chocolate lovers as Bloomberg reported this week that the Ivory Coast had forecast a bumper cocoa bean crop.

“Cocoa regulator Le Conseil du Cafe-Cacao is targeting forward sales of 1.3 million tons before the new season starts on October 1, according to the source, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

“The current total compares with 950 000 tons through May 27. The main crop is the larger of the country’s two annual harvests,” reported Bloomberg.