COFFEE AND CHOCOLATE PAIRINGS

Theres a reason coffee and chocolate pairings just work. And at The Unusual on Rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères 49 in Brussels, we've been matching the two since we opened. Its kind of our thing.

We use specialty coffee from Wide Awake roasters and pair it with real Belgian chocolate — the same stuff we use in our hot chocolate menu. A shot of our house espresso with a square of 54.5% dark chocolate? Thats a pairing that hits different. The bitterness of the coffee and the slight sweetness of the chocolate balance each other out real nice.

Most people who visit us near Grand Place don't expect a proper coffee and chocolate pairing menu. They come in for a latte and then see someone at the next table dipping chocolate into their espresso and go "wait, can I do that too?" Yes. Yes you can.

Here's some combos we recommend: Our cappuccino goes amazing with milk chocolate — the 33.6% one with caramel and vanilla notes. If your more into bold flavors, try our V60 pour over with the 80% extra dark. Its intense but in a good way. For something sweet, the ruby chocolate with an iced latte is surprisingly good, especially in summer.

We're located between Brussels Central Station and Grand Place, and we get alot of visitors from the Ilôt Sacré area who are looking for something different from the usual waffle-and-chocolate tourist spots. Coffee and chocolate pairings at The Unusual is the real Brussels chocolate experience — no tourist markup, just good product.

If you want to go deeper into chocolate, we also do chocolate making workshops upstairs. But even just stopping in for a quick coffee and chocolate pairing is worth the five minute walk from Bourse or De Brouckère.