Day 894 : Fall for Beer - TeaHive and Rogue Chocolate Stout

As part of a more comprehensive tasting earlier this week kicking off Fromagical's Fall for Beer - we tasted through a series of different beer and cheese pairings -- the best of fermented friends! Over the course of the next few days - we will look at each pairing in depth.

Going kind of backwards here, I wanted to start with the Rogue's Chocolate Stout and Beehive Cheese's TeaHive. Definitely an out of the box sort of pairing that I think worked wonders!

Rogue Chocolate Stout hails from Newport, Oregon and the creative team behind Rogue Ales. An American Stout clocking in at 6.0% ABV, this is one deep, dark, brooding and fantastic beer. Almost as black as night in color with a petite tan head and slight lacing. It is absolutely all rich chocolate on the nose, with slight hints of malty notes and gentle wafts of hops. And what of the taste? Roasty toasty barley, malty moments are present with an overarching milk and dark chocolate taste with hints of cocoa powder and a nice slightly bitter finish which cuts through the round chocolate notes. Overall -- this is one smooth, delish, dynamic, and delightful chocolate stout.

And what of its spectacular pairing partner?

TeaHive hails from Beehive Cheese in Uintah, Utah. Beehive Cheese was started by two brothers in law who decided to trade in their suits, offices and conference rooms for pastures, milking parlors, and aging cellars. Boy was that the right decision if you ask me, Beehive Cheese makes some of the most unique American artisanal cheeses. TeaHive is one of their newer releases and is an aged raw cow's milk cheese that has been hand rubbed with black tea leaves and bergamot oil infusing the most fabulous bouquet of flavor nuances into this round and creamy cheese. Aromatic, herbaceous, relaxing, and comforting with hints of orange blossoms and an earthy sweet smokiness just delights on the palate.

When enjoyed together the chocolaty notes of the beer will find their counterpart in the rustic black tea orange blossom notes of the cheese. The faint bitterness of the beer will function in perfect harmony with the buttery round creaminess of the cheese. Both the beer and the cheese are big and bold and aromatic in the most fabulous sorts of ways and enjoying them together will coax out their unique flavor nuances to create an interesting and unique pairing just in the way that each is so unusual.