This week drinking my Potosi Snake Hollow IPA was not
just something I enjoyed while writing up this post. Instead it was half of the material. The other half was chocolate. That’s right, I decided to try a beer and
food pairing with and IPA and chocolate!
I wanted to try the effects against different kinds of
chocolate, so I picked up three to taste with my beer. I wanted to see how the experience would be
different with different kinds of chocolate, so I used a milk chocolate, a dark
chocolate and what I think of as a novelty chocolate (in this case dark
chocolate with orange and almonds):
- The first chocolate that I sampled was Dove “silky smooth” milk chocolate. Since I love chocolate, I’ll eat just about any kind; but I have to admit that I prefer dark chocolate. Nonetheless, I wanted to do this right so I chose Dove because I prefer their milk chocolate to the old classic, Hershey’s.
- The second beer that I paired with my beer was Ghirardelli
Intense Dark Midnight Reverie. I chose
it because it was 86% cacao, and I tend to like my dark chocolate VERY
dark. Honestly, it was a little less
sweet than I generally like, so although it is a chocolate that is still right
up my alley, I believe I would have been happier with a 70% cacao dark
chocolate.
- The third and final chocolate for my pairing was Lindt
Excellence “Intense Orange” dark chocolate with pieces of orange and almond slivers. I chose this as my novelty item because I
wanted a very distinct flavor coming from the chocolate, and for the sake of my
attempt at pairing, I was willing to risk a bad combination.
Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing, so it took me
some trial and error to figure out how to maximize the experience from combining
of chocolate and beer. I wasn’t sure if
it would make any difference or if, like eating cranberry sauce and drinking
milk, there would be an order of consumption that would end up being a very bad
idea. Fortunately for me, I found that
there is no wrong way to eat chocolate and drink beer; but that doesn’t mean
that every way is equal.
I started by eating a piece of chocolate and then washing
it down with beer. To me, at least, It
tasted like I was just eating a piece of chocolate and then washing it down
with beer. Not bad, but neither element
seemed to bring anything special to the combination.
Armed with a trusty glass of water and some saltines I
cleansed my palate and tried again. I
took a sip of my beer, swallowed it and then, while the aftertaste of the beer
was still strong, ate a piece of chocolate.
This seemed to amplify flavors a little, but not in a way that I could
define very well (I’m not a professional by any means, so my average-joe senses
just weren’t up to the task).
Finally I tried something inspired by an old trick that I
used to do as a kid - and which I’m sure many of you have done too. As a child, I would pour chololate syrup into
my mouth, take a drink of milk and shake my head. When I was a bit older, it was sloe gin and
orange juice. Now, minus the head
shaking, I tried it with the chocolate bar and beer. I placed a piece of chocolate in my mouth,
chewed and then took a sip of beer so that the two mingled in my mouth. Victory!
The flavors of the two together worked to emphasize some elements while
diminishing others.
- Milk Chocolate - The flavors came in a specific order: malty - sweet richness - chocolatey - sweet hoppiness - bitter - just a touch of sour
- Dark - This combination was defined by the flavor of
sweet, floral hops with just a little bit of bitterness. The maltiness seemed to take a back seat,
becoming almost unnoticeable. There was
a slightly bitter finish, but it wasn’t strong.
I enjoyed this combination quite a bit, but if you are looking for the
beer to add something to your chocolate experience, then you might be
disappointed: The flavors of the
chocolate seemed to fade to the background while the beer was the star of the
show. The beer, on the other hand,
greatly benefitted from the chocolate.
- Orange Dark - The flavor of the chocolate alone was
strong, orange not being a mild flavor.
Much like the milk chocolate, the flavors seemed to come in stages. The leading flavor was the orange, fading
into a floral hoppiness and then giving way to a bready finish. In my opinion, this was the best combination
of the three because not only did the chocolate cut the bitterness of the hops,
but the sweet of the chocolate enhanced the inherent sweetness of the beer
(rather than over shadowing it). The
citrus of the fruit paired well with the beer to amplify the floral notes of
the hops so that the shining stars of the flavor were the fruit of the
chocoloate and the hops of the beer, while the chocolate and maltiness acted as
a choir of joy supporting the two stars of the flavor performance in my mouth. Okay, so maybe that’s a little corny, but it
was really good.
