I took a trip to Seattle at the beginning of May, and I got inspired by a visit to a chocolate factory to come home and conduct a tasting with local chocolates and beers. I grabbed some cans from Fremont Brewing to use as my pairing beers of choice 🍻
The chocolates I chose were a Sea salted 70% Dark (on the left) and Cocoa Nib toffees (on the right) from Theo Chocolate. My beer pairings were a Hazy IPA, and an imperial oatmeal stout. While I figured you can’t go wrong with any beer and chocolate combo, I found that each beer worked better with a certain chocolate, at least to my taste 🍫😍
While some might think intense dark chocolate and an imperial stout may do the trick, I found the Hazy IPA a better fit with the dark. The carbonation and yeast profile in the Hazy helped to counteract the saltiness and richness from this bar. The Imperial stout worked nicely with the Toffees. The toffee was sweeter, more towards a milk chocolate profile, and the roasty notes and dryness from the stout helped to balance that sweetness out 💯
I’d be interested to hear what your experiences with beer and chocolate pairings are! Any that work super well, style wise? Any chocolates you’re still searching for that perfect beer mate to go with? 🤔
