Cheese with chocolate. It is now a fact and produced in Epirus.

An innovative product, unique in Greece, is a special taste delight, as the aromas of cheese and chocolate are in balance.

8 months ago, sample production started. The venture was successful, as the result of the product tasting last week in a well-known restaurant in Ioannina, excited the experts and the most demanding in taste.

The inspiration for the special cheese belongs to Giorgos Zarzonis, who has a chocolate workshop, but never, “doesn’t stay in the traditional relationship with it”, as he reveals to APE-MPE. After the inspiration, he made the proposal to a certain dairy industry, which responded positively to the idea-challenge.

Spyros Karalis vice president of Dairy Industry KARALIS S.A. spoke to the Agency about the ambitious new product.

“We have been a traditional dairy industry for three generations. We found Giorgos Zarzonis’ idea attractive. We decided to make a chocolate product.

During the test, we saw how the paste bonded very well with the sheep’s milk, specifically with the gruyere product, both in proportion and in texture and aromas. The small first production is a trial run. Surely the product will be better”, he pointed out.

Giorgos Zarzonis, satisfied with the result, answers speaking to APE-MPE the question, what was the reason for the inspiration. After explaining to us how his searches for unique quality chocolate flavors often lead him to Latin America, he describes a day in a Colombian chocolate shop. “I’ve been looking for cacao, for varieties in the Colombian jungle for two years straight.

Last year, when I went to a classic chocolatier, they served me the cup with the chocolate and next to the tray, they put slices of cheese.

As a Greek, I took the slices with the cheese and ate them with the bread. The waitress who saw me realized that I didn’t know their cuisine and then brought a piece of cheese, dipped it in the chocolate and offered it to me. So, I had the first feeling. Chocolate with cheese. Then the idea came to me. Returning, I made my own chocolate, cocoa butter, cocoa and pepper and proposed to Spyros Karalis”.

Spyros Karalis tells us that there is already great interest both in Greece and abroad for chocolate cheese. The first production will be on the market after 8 months.

Giorgos Zarzonis did not fail to tell us the phrase that the Colombians say and he likes it very much. “Chocolate without cheese is love without kisses.”

The cheese tasting took place at the Ioannina restaurant, “Kantari”, which recently won a gold award in its category. The first taste of the cheese was accompanied by Valia Calda wine, a dry red wine from Voutsas Monastery in Eastern Zagori.