Pairing Beer with Chocolate Bonbons
We know what you're thinking. Beer and chocolate, together? Although they are not two items typically associated together, the earthy flavours of chocolate can make for delicious flavour combinations with various types of beer, like the ones below.
Beer and chocolate have more in common than you may think, and it starts with fermentation. In chocolate production, cocoa beans are fermented in the sun to start developing their flavours, then the beans are then roasted in order to develop even more complex flavours. In beer brewing, barley is converted to malt by steeping, germinating, and then roasting to give distinct colour, flavour, and aroma.
The teams at Born Brewing Company and Cococo have crafted up four mind-blowing beer and chocolate pairings for you to try. Let us know what you think.
The Pairings
To prime your tastebuds, start first by taking a small bite of the chocolate; slowly chewing and letting it melt in your mouth. Then follow with a sip of the paired beer. Try to get two or three bites and several sips out of each pairing, paying attention to the waves of flavour in your mouth.
So as to not overwhelm your palate, we suggest tasting the pairings in this order, from mildest to boldest:
1. Get Lucky American Style Lager (5% ABV) with Butter Truffle
The combination of the smooth, crisp Get Lucky lager and the Butter Truffle coats the palate and makes the beer taste a bit sweeter - the malt notes are enhanced by the sweet truffle. Bright lemon and biscuity malts create a buttery sweetness with subtle nutty notes of roasted hazelnut and oatmeal cookies.
The Butter Truffle is available by the piece at our retail stores in the Chocolate Case, as well as in our 24-piece Truffles Box.
2. Hi Cutie Wheat Ale Brewed with Raspberry and Mint (5% ABV) with Passion Fruit Caramel
This vibrant fruity beer plays well with the bright and tropical passion fruit flavours in the caramel. The caramel highlights the raspberry in the Hi Cutie beer and tones down the mint. The white chocolate adds a level of buttery vanilla, with sweet and tart raspberry notes. The moderate carbonation of the beer allow for a smooth and dry finish, cutting through the caramel to make each sip a bit different than the last. Yum.
The Passion Fruit Caramel is available by the piece at our Cococo retail stores in the Chocolate Case, as well as in the Best In Show Collection.
3. Spice Mouth NEIPA with Mango & Habanero (7%) with Rosemary Fusion Milk Chocolate Wafer
Hang on to your hats — this pairing is spicy! The Spice Mouth beer is mango up front with a slow burn of habanero spice to finish, and rosemary on the nose and palate. The creamy sweetness of the Rosemary Fusion milk chocolate wafer keeps things interesting. The spice lingers, keeping the mouth buzzy the entire time.
Rosemary Fusion is available online and in our Cococo retail stores as a 100g bar.
4. Arm Candy Milk Stout (6.5%) with Coffee Caramel
This pairing is like a deep chocolate dessert after spicy Mexican food. The beer's chocolate malt bitterness and coffee caramel brings out the biscuity malts in both, and evokes flavours of black strap molasses, cocoa, frothy espresso, smoke, and barbeque. It’s a fairly dry beer but the chocolate caramel makes it a bit sweeter and dessert-like (think chocolate brownies). Another slice, please!
The Coffee Caramel chocolate is available by the piece at our Cococo retail stores in the Chocolate Case, as well as in the Scotch Malt Whisky Lovers Tasting Collection.