I'm fascinated with food and wine pairings. But I have to admit, I never really considered food and coffee pairings. I love the flavor of coffee, but I'm not a coffee drinker. Somehow the idea of pairing food with coffee sounds like something your grandmother would do when she eats at a diner. But maybe that's precisely the reason Starbucks is working to bring the two concepts, food and coffee, closer together.

In fact, Starbucks has just launched a collaboration between their master blender, Andrew Linnemann and chef Marcus Samuelsson. They are on tour now, showing off coffee and food pairings. Samuelsson is an interesting choice of partner because he was born in Ethiopia (land of coffee) and yet grew up and learned to cook in Sweden (land of coffeecake?). His influences are far-reaching and his style is very unique often pairing unexpected flavors.

The pairs listed on the Starbucks web site that match coffee blends with a caramelized apple pecan coffee cake or a chocolate cinnamon bread seem somewhat mundane, but the recipes featured in by Samuelsson are a bit more surprising such as Mango Couscous, Beef Stir-Fry and Pineapple Cashew Salad.

Attend a free tasting event with Marcus Samuelsson and Andrew Linnemann

Wednesday, August 29th - - TODAY!
1 - 2:30 pm @ Starbucks
2727 Mariposa St
San Francisco

The event should be eye opening, to say the least!

Note: I know it's late notice but I only heard about this yesterday. If you end up going, please do share your impressions in the comment section!

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