The Best Coffee and Food Pairings to Elevate Your Meal

by Natasha Nesic
You’re probably familiar with the term “sommelier” used in conjunction with wine, referring to the practice of being extremely familiar with this one kind of drink and thereafter dedicating your life to exploring it, explaining it, and crafting various experiences around it.

That being said, who’s to say you can’t do the same for coffee?

(No one, that’s who.)

Let’s see how we can do some sommelier-ing ourselves, and pair coffee elegantly with each course at a fancy party or elevated engagement.

1. Hors D'oeuvres

These dainty items are technically the first meal of the event, so you want to make sure that they open up the extravaganza with a splash! (Not literally a splash, though. Coffee stains are the last thing we’re looking for right now.) Since this part tends to be light, it would make sense to serve a lightly-roasted coffee with it, one that has delicate and understated fruit or floral flavors so as not to overpower the guests before they get to the main course.

Our suggestion: Go green! Lardera has a fantastic array of green coffees like Castillo Washed that is sure to tickle anyone’s questing palate.

Also, fun fact: green coffee has been studied to prove that it produces a higher yield of chlorogenic acid than roasted coffee—albeit with less caffeine—meaning that it can help kick the party off by promoting healthy stomach acid and ideally, better digestion for the courses up ahead.

Appetizers

At this point in the meal, most folks are sitting down at the table, and they’re ready to be wowed with the first plated example of your chef’s prowess. This is usually something simple like a soup or salad, so you still want to showcase a coffee that isn’t too outspoken to go along with it. This is a great time to introduce a slightly more robust cup to your guests because if you followed the above suggestion and went with a green coffee for the hors d'oeuvres, then everyone will be ready with a relatively fresh palate from the subtle flavors of those less-processed beans.

Our suggestion: Keep it light! Try serving your appetizers with a barely-roasted coffee like Geisha Honey by farmer Eivy Monroy. Hailing from Colombia, Eivy is a heck of an inspirational figure herself; starting her own 25-acre farm in the remote mountains of Buenavista, Quindio, and using her training in environmental engineering and ecosystem restoration to create an agricultural wonder that produces a wondrous cup in and of itself. (Party hats off to you, Eivy!)

Entrée or Main Dish

Now you can finally start strutting! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for, thinking about all those not-so-tame cups of coffee that so far you’ve been enjoying by yourself while itching for an excuse to share them with your family, friends, and loved ones. Main dishes are when chefs get to flex all those culinary muscles for the guests’ pleasure, so now is your chance to do the same with your coffee-cupping muscles. (Trust us, if you’ve been drinking with us at Lardera then you’re definitely swole with taste and knowledge.)

Our suggestion: Turn up the heat! After holding back with lighter-than-light roasts, see how your guests enjoy experiencing a coffee that can handle being paired with whichever pièce de résistance that your chef of the evening has cooked up.

Try Tipica Honey from Costa Rica for your soirée— reviewed as “dark and aromatic” with a “lovely sweet aftertaste of cinnamon and honey,” it should stand up to austere main courses like beef or poultry, with the versatility of its citrus and apple notes to still pair well with vegetarian, vegan, or pescatarian options. (By the way: coffee is naturally vegan and gluten-free! Isn’t that awesome?)

Dessert

We’re finally here— the grand finale of the event. After you and your guests are blown away by the chef’s having outdone themselves with a fantastic entrée or main course, there’s still the last meal to attend to. Desserts can vary depending on you and your guests’ culture and preferences; some folks are content with a light fruit salad or cheese platter, while others crave chocolate and saccharine indulgence.

Luckily, coffee can pair well with any of these leanings, since its bitter-tasting chemical constituents have been proven to make it an excellent companion for both flavor and digestion.

Our suggestion: Be bold. Even if the final meal is on the lighter side— the French do enjoy salad right before dessert, after all—you’ll still have your guests reeling from the entrée experience, and there’s nothing like a good hearty roast to bring them back down to earth.

We recommend Catuai Honey, which has such red and ripe fruit flavors going for it that it could almost be called a dessert by itself. (That “honey” in the name doesn’t lie!)

Postmeal Digestif

There are many ways to settle one’s stomach after a multi-course meal. If it’s a festive event like a coming-of-age party or wedding, then you might already be on your feet, dancing the food back into your bloodstream. But if you’re feeling like you need a little help, then the solution is once again— coffee!

Our suggestion: At this point, it’s more than likely that you’ve had your fill of caffeine from the first four courses. So why not give your adrenals a break and give Ethiopian Swiss Water Decaf a try? It’s so succulent and berry-forward— a classic trait of Ethiopian-grown beans—that you might wonder why you didn’t order it for dessert before.