In session...with Ben McFarland
Beer Writer of the Year Ben McFarland on beer and chocolate.
How did you eat yours? Beer and chocolate are not designed to fraternise. Any suggestion to the contrary will, almost inevitably, be greeted with a look of confusion and distain. Beer goes with crisps, nuts and pork scratchings, everyone knows that. "Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps" so goes the saying. Swap the word crisps for Minstrels or Wagon Wheels and it just doesn't have the same ring to it.
I was once told by a marketing suit from a chocolate company that "confectionery is making big footsteps in the on-trade retail channel". What he meant, when translated from marketing waffle, is that pubs are selling more chocolate.
I wasn't convinced. I've never asked for a bar of chocolate in a pub. But, then again, that was before my recent Epicurean awakening: a Beer and Chocolate Tasting courtesy of the Chocolate Society and the Beer Naturally Campaign.
The Chocolate Society aims to develop the nation's taste for the finest chocolate. You know, proper chocolate. Not the stuff you buy in newsagents. As such, not the best place to mention your favourite colour of M&M.
The Beer Naturally Campaign, meanwhile, has been banging on about the virtues of beer and food for quite some time now and it's certainly made some headway with a number of high profile restaurants, such as Aubergine in London and Anthony's of Leeds, stocking some top-notch beers and pairing them with grub.
However, this is the first time there has been a focus on beer's particular kinship with chocolate. The belief being that there are many wine styles and grape varieties that have a problem when drunk with chocolate, but beer and chocolate are a natural double act with many taste nuances shared by both: the chocolate/coffee flavours of stouts and porters, the hop-derived marmalade qualities of India pale ales or the lightly malty and floral aromas of so many lagers.
It also represents yet another attempt to coax ladies away from wine into beer. Unattributed research has revealed that along with kittens and tittle-tattle, the pursuit and subsequent consumption of chocolate occupies a sizeable part of the female brain.
Did you also know that at certain times of a woman's monthly cycle her body craves magnesium and fine chocolate has a high magnesium count? Well, you do now.
Anyway, back to the beer and chocolate. Does it work?
Alan Porter, Mr Chocolate Society, believes so. "Alcohol is a flavour enhancer and really draws out the flavours of chocolate but it's no use having a drink whose flavours don't then match those of the chocolate. We discovered that there are lots of beers that taste fantastic when paired with certain flavours and aromas of chocolates."
And so we turned to a table adorned with a dozen beers and a dozen chocolate bars. First up was a bottle of Gulpener Korenwolf, a luxurious cloudy wheat beer from Holland. Its partnership with Valrhona Porcelona, one of the most expensive chocolates in the world at £50 for 300grams, was simply sublime. You'd expect the dark chocolate to overpower the beer but you'd be wrong. Coming through instead were banana tones, hints of elderflower and a powerful desire to keep stuffing one's face.
From a harmonious relationship we moved to a feisty one.
Hobgoblin Strong Dark Ale and the Scharffen Berger Semi-Sweet pure dark chocolate caused an almighty melèe in the mouth with the caramel flavour of the former and the vanilla character of the latter swapping hands more times than a dog walker on a frosty morning.
Grolsch and a Chiman's Dark Chocolate with cardamom was a chocolate equivalent of a pint with a curry, while cherry beer Liefmans Kriekbeer, joined up with the Chocolate Society's very own Organic Dark label - tasted like hot chocolate pudding with cherry coulis.
However, there was one pairing that hit it off better than any other. Innis & Gunn, the Scottish beer oak-aged in whisky barrels, shimmered seamlessly alongside the scrabble-winning Valrhona Manjari Ecorces d'Orange from Madagascar.
If you thought beer and chocolate didn't go together, think again.
Ben was awarded the title of Beer Writer of the year for 2004 by the British Guild of Beer Writers.
