Sweet Blending aka Liquid Love

This year Valentine's Day brought the obligatory heart shaped boxes of candy, roses and cards filled with sappy prose, but the best sweet treat came in liquid form. A couple of weeks back I purchased several beers for a small tasting and realized I had the makings of an interesting blending experiment.  I'm not such a beer purist that I can't have a little mixing fun.  It doesn't happen often other than the occasional Black & Tan or Dirty Ho (Hoegaarden and Lindemans Framboise). However, with a bottle of Southern Tier Choklat on the shelf and a Samuel Smith Organic Raspberry Ale in the fridge I couldn't resist. Come on! Chocolate and raspberry, perfect.

The blending was done in a snifter, courtesy of TJ's 7th Anniversary celebration. Three parts Choklat to one part Raspberry Fruit Ale created a magical elixir.  The rich sweet chocolate blended perfectly with the sweet tart raspberry.  Choklat is often seen as a big, overly sweet chocolate bomb of a beer.  The Sam Smith's tartness helped to bring in some balance and add to the dark fruit notes already present in Choklat. I played with the balance going heavier on the raspberry, but the best combinations where the ones with raspberry as the background flavor.

All in all it was dessert in a glass. Perfect for Valentine's Day.  If you have a sweet tooth and happen to have access to each try the experiment for yourself.  Better yet wait until you have a few people over so that you can share the liquid love.