122: Cigar City Beer Goes Head To Head Vs Wine in a Chocolate Pairing Death Match......
So CCB went head-to-head with some excellent wines in a chocolate pairing put on at the NoHo Bistro by the Tampa Independent Business Alliance and their Passport To Indies Event. Granted, everyone who knows anything about beer and wine knows beer crushes wine when it comes to cheese or chocolate pairings and indeed most food pairings. Still it was cool to be asked to participate in a taste test pairing locally produced chocolate from City Street Sweets in Hyde Park Village with 1 wine and 1 beer and letting the tasters decide which liquid made for the most sublime pairing.
As you can probably guess CCB did....pretty good. But, I'd like to take this time not to toot the CCB horn, but to let people know that City Street Sweets makes some damn fine chocolate. In fact they make a Chipotle Pepper chocolate that tastes remarkably similar to our Hunahpus Imperial Stout and I very much hope tp procure some of this chocolate for the tasting room when we are finally ready to release Hunahpus in bottles.
Anyway, I regretably chose not to attend the event as we have been so busy at the brewery that I hadn't been able to see my twins for two days. So I was feeling pretty low and missing my girls and I desperately had to have some quality kid time. But this is the email I received regarding the event:
Debbie isn't embellishing. The Chipotle Pepper Chocolate is freaking amazing. I can't wait to pair it with our Mayan Chocolate inspired Hunahpus Imperial Stout!
As you can probably guess CCB did....pretty good. But, I'd like to take this time not to toot the CCB horn, but to let people know that City Street Sweets makes some damn fine chocolate. In fact they make a Chipotle Pepper chocolate that tastes remarkably similar to our Hunahpus Imperial Stout and I very much hope tp procure some of this chocolate for the tasting room when we are finally ready to release Hunahpus in bottles.
Anyway, I regretably chose not to attend the event as we have been so busy at the brewery that I hadn't been able to see my twins for two days. So I was feeling pretty low and missing my girls and I desperately had to have some quality kid time. But this is the email I received regarding the event:
To Joey, David & Steven,
A big thanks for all of you for your contributions to our TIBA Passport to Indies kickoff party!
The beer, wine, chocolate pairings were a hit. The ChipotleChocolate was a huge hit and I sent quite a few people home with alittle sample for their friends and family. Steven, I would expect tosee some new business for you!
The wines and beers received raves from everyone. I wouldn't besurprised if both of you see some new business from people wantingyou to pick pairings for them.
I know everyone is excited to hear the results of the pairings:
Milk Chocolate City Bark Swirl
Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon
Madagascar Vanilla Bean Aged Maduro Brown Ale - The winning pairing but a close vote on this one!
Dark Chocolate City Bark Swirl
Izadi Rioja
Cuban Espresso Aged Maduro - The winning pairing by a landslide
Chocolate Chipotle Pepper City Bark
Zinfandel Mias
Cacao Aged Maduro - The winning paring
Thanks again to all of you for your help. You truly make Tampa a unique and wonderful place to live and work!
Warmest Regards,
Debbie
Debbie isn't embellishing. The Chipotle Pepper Chocolate is freaking amazing. I can't wait to pair it with our Mayan Chocolate inspired Hunahpus Imperial Stout!
You keep mentioning the bottling of Hunahpus in the blog
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I simply can not say. There are a lot of factors that go into producing a new brand, the least of which are the federal label approvals. Much remains to be done before Hunahpus is in bottles and any estimate I gave would likely change drastically.
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