Episode 02: Beer & Chocolate Language
What do we talk about when we talk about beer and chocolate?
The chocolate world is drenched in evocative and fanciful language, pulling in unlikely analogies, summoning emotion and memory and imagination, and unapologetically playing on whimsy and romance. It seems like chocolate is constantly asking folks to close their eyes and go on a voyage, and chocolate people are constantly saying Yes.
Craft beer, on the other hand, focuses primarily on concrete flavor description, and there is often resistance within the beer world to employing a more holistic or whimsical approach.
Why is the chocolate world seemingly more willing than the beer world to use evocative or fanciful language in description? Can craft beer grow in its willingness to move beyond purely concrete description, and does it want to?
In this episode, we explore the differences in the descriptive language used for beer and chocolate, and look at ways these worlds could be bridged. We talk with a brewer, a chocolate maker, a chocolate writer, a beer writer, and a chocolate educator about how we talk about beer and chocolate, and why it matters.
Also mentioned in this episode: Charlie Papazian and Map Chocolate.
The music for this episode was sampled from instrumental versions of the songs “200 Miles” and “Love’s Not”, written and performed by indie folk musician Anna ps from her 2016 album Umbrella. Anna p.s. conveys a sense of weariness throughout her simple yet resonant songs, but it’s a weariness that keeps a blanket of hope tucked up under its chin, even as the rain keeps falling outside the windows. You can find out more about Anna at her website.
Guests:
London Coe is the founder of Learn, Love, Eat, a conference bringing together experts in different food and drink fields to discuss a deeper experience of flavor. She is also the owner of Peace on Fifth, a shop in Dayton, Ohio, selling slavery-free products. She sells bean to bar chocolate and leads immersive chocolate tasting classes.
Randy Mosher is the author of five beer and brewing books, Tasting Beer and Beer for All Seasons. He is a member of the faculty of the Siebel Institute and teaches for the Doemens Beer Sommelier program. Mosher is also a creative consultant specializing in new product development and design for craft breweries, and is a partner in two Chicago-area breweries: 5 Rabbit Cerveceria and Forbidden Root.
Megan Giller is a chocolate journalist and educator living in Brooklyn. Her food writing has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and numerous other publications, and her website Chocolate Noise was a 2016 Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist. Her book Bean to Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution was published in 2017.
Jess Reiser is the co-founder of Burial Beer, a brewery in the South Slope neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina. After co-founding the brewery in 2013 with her husband, Doug, and their friend Timothy Gormley. In 2018, the group established a second taproom location in a century-old forestry camp building in another area of Asheville.
Jael Rattigan is the co-founder of French Broad Chocolates in Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to founding French Broad in 2012, Jael and her husband, Dan, lived in Costa Rica, where they operated a small bakery and confectionary called Bread & Chocolate. French Broad operates both a production facility and a chocolate boutique and cafe.