Before, this time of Holy Week was quite limited on a culinary level: torrijas, stews and little else. But for a few years almost all of us have bought (or been given) chocolate Easter eggs, or the traditional chocolate mona in Levante. In fact, at the end of these holidays you may have several types of chocolate bars in your house and you don't really know what to do with them.
But that's what we're here for, friend beersapiens, have you ever thought about pairing chocolate and beer? An original and delicious idea. We are going to explain the origin of this greedy tradition and recommend some beers to pair with beers and desserts.
Why do we eat chocolate eggs at Easter?
On Easter Sunday, or on Monday in some places, the houses are filled with chocolate eggs, large, small, filled, with candies, with surprise, white, dark chocolate... but few people know the origin of this practice.
Like many of the traditions we have throughout the year, this one has a religious origin. Holy Week is the end of Lent, which ends just on Easter Sunday and, as we know, meat cannot be eaten during Lent. During the Middle Ages, the prohibition of eating meat applied to all the season of Lent and more foods, including dairy products and… eggs!
According to some explanations, to preserve them during all those days, people impregnated them with wax and, for Easter Sunday, when Lent ended and they could eat them, they made small drawings by engraving lines in the wax, which would be the origin of decorated Easter eggs.
Some of these decorations were made with embossed sugar and nuts, and they were given to children, so they soon became a kind of treat associated with the Easter celebration. From there to the chocolate egg there is only one step, which was given later in time, towards the 19th century, in France and England. As chocolate is mouldable, other related figurines were soon made (hens, chicks, geese...)
In Spain, in the Mediterranean area (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands above all) this custom has taken deep root. On Easter Monday (the one after Resurrection Sunday), the godparents give their godchildren a chocolate figure or an Easter cake, in which the egg goes inside a decorated bun.
Beer and milk chocolate pairing
Most of the chocolate figures, such as monkeys, that we consume at Easter have milk chocolate as their main ingredient.
In this case, we advise you to pair by correspondence, that is, look for beers with notes of chocolate, such as porter or stouts. . We make it even easier for you, you can delight yourself by combining milk chocolate with Castrum Porter. This dark beer, full-bodied and silky, pairs great with all the sweetness, which will join its splashy aroma, with notes of coffee and an addition of vanilla in its ferment.
Another beer with great evocations of chocolate and that goes great with any dessert of the style (truffle, coulant, cake...) is the Pyrene Relaxin Cup of Café con Leche , an Imperial Stout of rye, wheat and oats that also makes it very silky and pleasant on the palate.
Beer and dark chocolate pairing
Surely you also have a cake or biscuit made with dark chocolate, or better yet, a chocolate bar with more than 70% purity.You're lucky! This type of chocolate pairs great with fairly strong beers (although it may not seem obvious) like Belgian strong dark ales or Barley wines
This last style, the Barley Wines, has traditionally been compared to wine because both have a similar alcoholic volume. That makes this beer an explosion of cereal, toffee, and dried fruit flavors. You'll love pairing that almost pure chocolate with a Scone Barley Wine, a surprising beer that evolves towards liquor notes reminiscent of whiskey as it tempers.
Another option to pair this chocolate is to melt it lightly in a bain-marie (or for a few minutes in the microwave, but with short intervals and stirring continuously) and add, while still warm, a few flakes of salt and a dash of very good quality AVOE.
This delicatessen, only suitable for adventurous palates, will earn even more points if you combine it with an Imperial Stout, such as the Althaia Batiscafo, a beer from the "Ilustres" series from the Alicante brewery, dark brown in color, almost chocolate, full-bodied and with a creamy and long-lasting foam. Combined with the warm chocolate you will notice the cocoa and salt in a unique way, but with extremely sweet undertones due to the imperial malt.
Beer and white chocolate pairing
White chocolate is mainly made up of cocoa butter, and that's why it has that slightly buttery texture. We advise you, if you have sweets of this type (or filled with white chocolate) that you make a pairing by contrast.
That is to say, what we recommend here is to look for flavors and sensations that contrast between them to increase their enhancement. For example, it is a good idea to combine this type of chocolate with a sweet wheat beer, because the acidity and smooth balance of the beer would cut well the fatty component of white chocolate. We suggest you try the Guineu Blatdesac Weissbier, a light and refreshing wheat beer that follows the German recipe.
In any case, the good thing about pairings is that you learn by trying and combining. If you want to learn about the basic rules to find the best bite for each beer, you can read this article, where we explain everything in detail. Happy Easter!
Sources: clubdelchocolate.com
.