Taza Chocolate and Drink Craft Beer prove that beer and chocolate make a perfect pair
By In celebration of Valentine’s Day, many couples proclaim their undying love and passion for each other over a special meal. But on Saturday afternoon, Drink Craft Beer, Taza Chocolate, and 550 of their closest friends shared their undying love and passion for beer and chocolate at “Can’t Keep ‘Em Apart -- A Beer & Chocolate Love Story.” Lovers and groups of friends eagerly waited in line outside of Taza’s Somerville factory for their chance to sample four pairings of Northeast-brewed beers and Taza chocolate.
Drink Craft Beer is more than a website where friends and co-founders Jeff Wharton and Devon Regan share their craft beer recommendations; it’s a community (with over 142,000 Twitter followers) and a call to action. For nearly six years, the duo and their team of writers have been scouring the United States for delicious, quality brews and sharing them with the world.
“We want people to go out and have fun…and not worry if they’re with people who like to drink Coors Light,” said Wharton. “We’re not here to be beer experts; we’re here to provide education. We want people to know what all their options are and to drink what they enjoy.” Part of that fun includes hosting beer-centric charitable events like "Love Story" and others that Drink Craft Beer will continue to host in the future.
Wharton and Regan urge others to drink craft beer not simply because it tastes good, but because they want to support small brewers who use artisanal, organic, and/or locally sourced ingredients. It’s no surprise, then, that Drink Craft Beer has a strong bond with Taza Chocolate, a producer of organic and fair-trade treats. Their chocolate is an ingredient in a number of locally brewed beers, including seasonal specialties like Cambridge Brewing Co.’s mole beer and cacao milk stout, as well as the Porter Square Porter from Somerville Brewing Company (a.k.a., Slumbrew).
Building on their shared appreciation for chocolate beers, Drink Craft Beer and Taza saw a great opportunity to unite beer and chocolate in another way. Four years ago, they organized their first successful Valentine’s Day pairing, and they’ve been adding pages to their love story ever since.
“A lot of people think first of pairing wine and chocolate, and those things are delicious, but…I think beer is a more natural partner for chocolate,” said Taza’s Stephanie Larason. “It’s a bit easier to come up with a home-run pairing of beer and chocolate than wine and chocolate.”
Jon Cadoux, co-founder of Portland, Maine’s Peak Brewing Company, tries to keep food pairings (including dessert) in mind when creating a beer recipe. “I think beer is a more versatile pairing beverage because we work with a huge list of ingredients,” he said. “There are so many things we can tinker with to get the flavor profile we’re looking for.”
One of the beers featured for tasting at “Love Story” was Peak’s Oak-Aged Mocha Stout, which uses Taza chocolate in the recipe. “We have a love affair with Taza, so we thought, ‘Hey, we should culminate the relationship and do a beer together,’” Cadoux said.
Coming up with the beer and chocolate pairings for the “Love Story” event each year is a slightly difficult, though thoroughly enjoyable, task. “We want both the beer and the chocolate together to taste better or more unique or different than they would alone, which can be more difficult than you’d think,” said Wharton. Some beers, like Slumbrew’s Happy Sol, are social butterflies and get along well with many types of chocolate. Made from the juice of a thousand blood oranges, Happy Sol has been paired with orange chocolate in the past, but the tasting crew went with ginger chocolate this time around.
The pairing of Sixpoint’s The Crisp pilsner with Taza’s Orange Chocolate Mexicano was a bit more fortuitous. “We weren’t expecting to use a pilsner, but something about this beer pulls out this juicy, whole orange flavor,” said Wharton. “We looked at each other and had a ‘yes!’ moment.”
Guests also enjoyed the Narragansett Porter with coffee chocolate and Peak’s Oak-Aged Mocha Stout with salted almond chocolate, which Wharton likened to a high-end Reese’s peanut butter cup. The brew’s vanilla aroma paired unexpectedly well with the chocolate’s salty character, said Cadoux, but if you’re looking to create your own beer/chocolate love fest, Larason said that Salted Almond Mexicano is a great playmate for just about any beer.
Aside from providing a sensual tasting experience, “Love Story” allowed guests to establish a dialogue with brewers -- a perk for guests like Lydia Abel and Paul Masters of Somerville, who recently began brewing their own beer and wanted to learn more. Finding out that “Love Story” was also a fundraiser for the Greater Boston Food Bank served to sweeten the deal.
“I would have come just for the beer and chocolate,” Masters said with a laugh.
Photos of Drink Craft Beer co-founders Devon Regan and Jeff Wharton (top), Peak Brewing Company co-founder Jon Cadoux, Vanessa Cadoux, and co-founder Rob Lucette (middle), and Slumbrew's Caitlin Jewell and Jeff Leiter (bottom) by Bethany O'Meara
About Bethany -- I graduated from Northeastern not too long ago and decided to stick around Boston, but I'd like to continue traveling the world. In the meantime, I'll be checking out local bars, markets, and festivals. My expertise lies in Trader Joe's products and MBTA survival skills, among other things. Plaid catches my eye, French catches my ear, and videos of baby animals capture my heart. Twitter: @bethopolis
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