Chocolate and Coffee book. Remember that square of chocolate dipped in a cup of coffee?

A trip down memory lane: Remember that square of chocolate dipped in a cup of coffee and the explosion of flavours that followed?

Artist chocolatier Pierre Marcolini, the greatest Belgian Chocolate maker, comes up with around 30 recipes of chocolate + coffee in a beautiful book, blending together the two giants. The outstanding photos will challenge all your senses. The book is also a fun way of showing that a recipe can be taken apart and varied. Chocolate and coffee are two very strong ingredients: Coffee has very powerful aromas and chocolate contains over 150 aromas.

“What I wanted to show in this book is that some things look simple but are carefully prepared, and secondly, because I don’t feel comfotable when cooking gets exuberant and extravagant, I try to work with products of excellent quality. I try to keep things simple. I like flavours that are forthright and clear,” chocolatier Pierre Marcolini explained the impulse behind the writing of “Chocolate and Coffee”.

In the book, there is a page with pictures of cocoa beans: Ocumare, Sur de Lago, Puerto Cabello… The size and colour of the bean determines not only the quality but the taste of the chocolate and that is what makes it original.

“People must stop thinking that it is the percentage of cocoa which gives chocolate its characteristic flavour.”