a little something for Valentine's Day

From Rachel Dodes in the WSJ, an interview who takes chocolate quite (too?) seriously...

For Chicago-based chocolatier Katrina Markoff, 35 years old, the trick to fully enjoying Valentine's Day chocolates is being "really present" in the moment. To achieve full awareness, Ms. Markoff wears comfortable clothing, such as yoga pants, when she tastes her creations. And her preference, to avoid distractions, is to eat chocolate by herself.

Ms. Markoff is the founder of the 10-year-old company Vosges Haut-Chocolat, known for its exotic truffles with hints of flavors like wasabi and ginger. She says she was always a vanilla person -- until she moved to Paris to attend culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu and tasted a truffle fried in beignet batter and dusted with salt. "After that, I went to all the French chocolatiers and tasted everything," she says.

Ms. Markoff prefers tasting chocolate in the morning, before her taste buds have been corrupted by other flavors. After brushing her teeth, she waits several minutes before tasting chocolate in order to have a pure flavor experience. She avoids having chocolate less than an hour after dinner -- unless it is a really dark or spicy chocolate that can cut through the remnants of other flavors.

The biggest mistake people make when eating chocolate is eating an entire piece in one bite. Ms. Markoff says truffles ought to be consumed slowly, ideally in two bites, not popped like bon-bons. She first inspects a truffle and notes its color and texture. She smells it to see if she can detect flavors, and takes the first bite. She makes sure to breathe before swallowing. "I taste the air, and then I get more complexity," she says.

Once familiar with the truffle, Ms. Markoff takes the second bite, which "tastes better than the first" because she can "delve deeper" into its flavors.

Like fine wine, she says, chocolate should have interesting nuances. A great chocolate can contain complex notes "like tobacco, leather, fruit, plum skin," she says, and need not be uniformly sweet. Indeed, Vosges's current best seller is a "Bacon Bar," containing pieces of applewood-smoked bacon. Ms. Markoff likes to pair it with gruyère cheese and Shiraz wines from Australia, which can stand up to its strong flavors.

It is best not to eat more than five pieces of chocolate in one sitting, because "your palate will get worn out," she says.

Pairing chocolate with champagne -- a popular Valentine's Day combo -- can be challenging, Ms. Markoff says. Dark chocolate can overpower typical brut champagne, unless it is made with less than 55% cacao, which weakens it. Milk chocolate works better with a rosé champagne, which isn't as dry, she says. Her favorite Valentine's Day chocolates contain fiery spices, like chilies, which "dilate the blood vessels and help with circulation." These work best with spicy red wines, she says.