OnTap Magazine

44 | Winter 2025 | ontapmag.co.za BEER MEETS FOOD PAIRING CHOCOLATE AND BEER Olga de Smidt attended the chocolate and beer pairing workshop offered on Saturday afternoon at this year’s BeerEx Africa, and she shares a few highlights below. Given the local nature of both the beers and chocolates selected for this workshop, it seems you, our reader, could try some of these combinations out at home! B eer and chocolate – two of life’s greatest treats – are even better when paired just right. Beer and chocolate have similar flavours: coffee, roastiness, and bitter sweetness, both using a balance of bitterness and sweet to create delicious flavours. Think of the malt sweetness needed to balance hoppy IPAs, or hop bitterness added to balance the darkest roasty stout. Both are undoubtedly better when made by craftspeople. The BeerEx pairing was thoughtfully curated by Advanced Cicerone Lucy Corne, and professional pastry chef and chocolatier, Siobhan Schweizer from AFRIKOA Luxury Craft Chocolate. The tasing included a combination of selected locally brewed craft beers and gourmet chocolate from sustainably sourced cacao beans. Starting with lighter, sweeter flavours and gradually moving towards richer and bolder combinations, this was an interactive activity that allowed the participants to roam free and try different combinations of beer styles and types of chocolate. A cherry ale, pilsner, hazy IPA, nut brown ale and imperial stout all shared the stage with 30% white-, 37% milk-, 55% semi- sweet- and 46% oat milk chocolate drops. (That’s right, this activity can also be vegan friendly!) This selection was a celebration of the variety in local Western Cape craft beers and the bean-to-bar mission of AFRIKOA, who sources cacao beans directly from farmer cooperatives in Africa and produces 100 product variations in their Cape Town factory. Opinions varied widely on which combinations worked better and choosing favorites was a lively debate. In the end, two crowd favourites stood out. One was the fruity, sweet cherry ale Super Crush by Jack Black, paired with a 30% white chocolate. Although bothwere sweet, the citric tartness of the beer balanced the richness of the white chocolate well and resulted in a fruity, rich and creamy aftertaste. Mr Brown Stone, a hazelnut ale from Woodstock, paired perfectly with the 55%dark chocolate. It had lingering roasty notes from both beer and chocolate and a dry, nutty finish. Surprisingly, the Pilsner and the oat milk chocolate was also a good combination. The texture of oat milk chocolate was quite different from the rest. It took longer to melt and started out waxy and brittle, but then melted into a very chocolaty, dry finish that highlighted the malty notes in the CBC Pilsner beautifully. Finding the right combination of beer and chocolate is a leisure activity that should not be rushed. You must take your time to explore the different flavours and combinations until you find what works for your palate. Did you known that 70% of the world's cocoa beans come from four West African countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon? FUN FACT: