Strawberries and Champagne | Not Always The Perfect Pair?

With Valentine’s Day already just a few weeks away (wasn’t it just New Year’s?) you’ll need to be getting into a romantic frame of mind very soon if you haven’t already. I myself am trying to get prepared and just ordered some tasty looking chocolates for my significant other.

I’m also looking forward to selecting a good bottle of bubbly, most likely one of these great sparklers. What I won’t doing however, is the clichéd yet quintessential Valentine’s Day pairing of Strawberries and Champagne!

Why, you might ask? Because despite the popularity of pairing Strawberries and Champagne, they don’t actually work all that well together. The problem is that most Champagne’s we drink today are actually quite dry as well as being naturally high in acidity.

When you combine something high in acidity with something sweet, like candy or a strawberry, you get a less than desirable puckering sensation and you really lose much of the delicate flavors of both the strawberries and Champagne! Champagne actually fares far better balancing the rich sauces of a heavy meal.

So if you’re wondering how such a fundamentally flawed pairing like Strawberries and Champagne can be so popular – you have to look to the history of Champagne for the answer. Whereas most Champagne today has less than 12 grams of sugar per bottle, it used be considerably sweeter with usually more than 30 grams of sugar per bottle.  In those days, Champagne was more often enjoyed as a dessert wine.

A sweeter Champagne does actually pair better with strawberries so if you in insist on Strawberries and Champagne this Valentine’s Day – try going with an Extra-Dry or Sec Champagne which is sweeter than the more common Brut Champagne. And don’t forget to explain to your date why Strawberries and Champagne don’t mix – they’ll surely be impressed!

– Cheers and Happy Valentine’s Day! –