Hot fudge sundaes and thoughts about tea.

So yesterday I celebrated some good news by having a hot fudge sundae (I mourn bad news in the same way, too—always satisfying!)…and got to thinking why such a contrast in temperatures, both actual and virtual, would work in the mouth, because of course it does. 

Which brings me to the notion of contrasts in pairing, and the problems of contrasts with tea.

if you drink a green tea, for example, then have some good quality dark chocolate, then sip the tea again, the tea usually tastes like so much warm water. The chocolate has turned on the hot receptor, which then turns off the cool/cold receptor to which green tea volatiles bind. 

By contrast, with the hot fudge sundae, you can experience the hot and chocolaty first, and the cold and vanilla-rich second, or vice versa. However you do it, the succession of flavors is clear and each flavor comes through on successive spoonfuls.

Why the difference?  My feeling is that the fats in both the ice cream and the chocolate serve to dampen the hot receptor, so that the “cooler” volatiles in the chocolate come through—if you ever had hot fudge all by itself, you’ll find that it tastes different from hot fudge when coupled with vanilla ice cream. In both instances a flavor that we recognize as chocolate comes through, but the chocolate tastes duller, pastier, and more fatty with the ice cream. 

Interestingly, the less fatty chocolate sauces get lost when you have them with high quality (or even not so high quality) vanilla ice cream. I'm thinking of the desserts I've had in Europe, where chocolate sauce is much "thinner."

By not containing fat, green tea cannot overcome the inhibition of the cold receptor by the hot. Note that with Earl Grey tea the opposite occurs, namely that the “cool” of the bergamot inhibits the “hot” of the black tea. Similarly, with chocolates containing Earl Grey, the chocolate usually don’t have much of a chance to be tasted. In sum, it’s a question of proportion. In my next post will talk about an amazingly delicious exception to this rule that I experienced at World Tea Expo 2016!

By the way, July 25 is National Hot Fudge Sundae Day, so this post comes a bit early…but I’m in the right place to celebrate it: while the location where the sundae originated is in dispute, Ithaca NY, my home town, can claim the first newspaper ad for sundaes (strawberry not chocolate, but it doesn't matter!).

Ad from the Ithaca Daily Journal, May 28, 1892, via Wikipedia.

And looking to Europe: The Guardian has an excellent article about different forms of chocolate sauce. Notice the descriptions of the chocolate in the different recipes!