Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mommy's Chocolate Drink

We had to go to a funeral this past Saturday, so afterward we did what probably everyone else did: stopped at the liquor store. This particular store is a boozehound's connoisseur's delight. It's huge.
I quickly ran down the beer aisle and scooped up a six pack of Dogfish Head IPA, but then I got mesmerized by all the crazy specialty beers. As I was looking, I heard an older gentlemen talking to two 20-something guys about beer. He looked over at me and he said to them, "You want to make sure that you find a wife who knows about beer." I suppose that was a compliment of sorts. In any case, the reason for this post: Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout. I've reported on chocolate beer before, so I was a bit hesitant to try this. But the ingredients called out to me: chocolate malt and actual bittersweet Belgian chocolate. I decided to go for it. As I walked around perusing the other potent potables, another employee came up to me. "Have you tried that yet?" he asked. He said he was anxious to try it, although he didn't care for Young's Double Chocolate Stout. (I agreed with him.)
So what did I think? The aroma is definitely a beautiful, rich dark chocolate with creamy malt. The taste-- very chocolatey with just enough hoppy bitterness to give it an edge. It was yummy, but it's definitely not a beer to drink with food. It's got to be drunk on its own, or with some sort of complimentary dessert. I'm thinking creme brulee or, even better, pour it in a glass with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Beer float, anyone?

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