Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Bean to Barstool
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cacao Farming, Fermentation, & Beer with Sarah Bharath, Part 2 | 23 Sep 2025 | 01:25:46 | |
Today I'm sharing the second in my two part conversation with cacao agronomist Sarah Bharath about cacao farming and fermentation and some overlaps with beer. You can listen to part one of the conversation here. Listen in as Sarah and I discuss these topics! Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Cacao Farming & Fermentation with Sarah Bharath, Part 1 | 09 Sep 2025 | 01:25:20 | |
Cacao agronomist Sarah Bharath has become one of my closest friends in the craft chocolate world, and she's been on Bean to Barstool a couple times before. (You can listen to those conversations here and here.) Today I'm sharing the first of a two part conversation Sarah and I had recently about cacao farming and fermentation. Rather than getting technical (though there is certainly a lot of science here), the conversation was more philosophical, as we discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by small-holder farms in the cacao space. Farmers need to make money to live, and that means efficiency and predictability are easy to prioritize. But those goals might be at odds with soil health, long-term plant health, and the ultimately goals of cacao production: flavor and complexity. How do we reconcile these? And what do we do with the tension in craft chocolate and other artisan food and drink industries between the romance of terroir and agricultural variability and the need for consistency and agronomic predictability? Listen in as Sarah and I discuss these topics! Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Angi of ChocolateSpiel on Color and Pairing | 26 Aug 2025 | 00:37:05 | |
Angi at ChocolateSpiel takes visual appreciation of chocolate to a new level, using color to make each of her chocolate bars an edible piece of art. Her colorful bars are eye-catching, and they invite folks to try bean to bar chocolate who might not otherwise have taken the plunge. In this episode I talk with Angi about how and why she uses chocolate as a canvas for color, as well as pairing chocolate with beer, cider, wine, coffee, tea, and cocktails. Spiel means “game” or “play” in German, and ChocolateSpiel is all about having fun with chocolate! Founded by Angi—a chemical engineer turned chocolatier—she took one spark of inspiration during a factory tour (where chocolate machines reminded her of her old paint equipment) and turned it into a whimsical reality. From bean-to-bar creations to bonbons and nut spreads, every dairy-free treat is a colorful, playful twist on chocolate craft. You can learn more about Chocolate Spiel and order their bars here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Kumi Arhin of Ofori Brothers Wine | 12 Aug 2025 | 00:37:19 | |
Kumi Arhin is doing something new in wine: he's bringing the flavors of his homeland in Ghana to American wine, offering a Riesling made with Lake Erie region grapes accented by Ghanaian ginger. His innovative Ofori Brothers Wine honors winemaking tradition but caters to members of the West African diaspora in the U.S., providing familiar flavors that speak of home. The name Ofori Brothers harkens back to his family's background in cocoa production in Ghana in the early twentieth century. The Ofori brothers were quire successful in that trade, and he wanted to honor them with this new project. Kumi recently won Crafted For Action's Crafted Fellows microgrant competition, and he has more unique wines planned (a rosé with hibiscus is on the horizon). In this interview, Kumi talks about how his family's legacy in cacao has impacted his current venture in wine, the significance of including a flavor ingredient from Ghana in a American wine and how that helps him reach new audiences, and the importance of storytelling along the way. You can learn more about Ofori Brothers Wine and order bottles here. Guest: Kumi Arhin is a Ghanaian-American entrepreneur, engineer, and founder of Ofori Brothers Wine, a brand that redefines premium wine through the bold, expressive flavors of Africa. Inspired by his family’s legacy in Ghana’s early cocoa trade, Kumi blends heritage with innovation to craft culturally rooted, sensorially distinct wines. His debut release, a ginger-infused Riesling, launched at the beginning of 2025, quickly sold out, and recently won the top prize at the Crafted for Action pitch competition. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Pairing Tea and Chocolate with Estelle Tracy | 01 Jul 2025 | 01:22:24 | |
In this episode, chocolate pairing expert Estelle Tracy walks us through making various loose leaf teas and pairing them with craft chocolate. Along the way, she explains what tea is and the basics of different common types of good tea. Teas tasted and paired in this episode: Highland white tea, Jade oolong, Matcha, Hojicha, Genmaicha, and Honey black. You can learn more about Estelle at her 37 Chocolates website. Estelle has been on Bean to Barstool a few times before! You can listen to us talk about pairing with craft chocolate with beer and wine here, and you can listen to our 100th episode in which we discuss pairing particularly challenging bars with beer and wine here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| The Award-Winning Chocolate Beers of Third Eye Brewing | 17 Jun 2025 | 00:46:40 | |
Third Eye Brewing Company, with locations in Sharonville and Hamilton on the north side of Cincinnati, have won numerous awards at the Great American Beer Festival, World Beer Cup, and many other beer competitions. Led by brewmaster Kelly Montgomery, they've medaled in styles as diverse as Scotch Ale, Pumpkin Beer, and Milk Stout, but they've had particular success with chocolate beers. Their Double Astral Chocolate Imperial Milk Stout won gold as the best chocolate beer in the country at GABF in 2023. In May 2025, I led an event with Kelly at Third Eye's Hamilton location called Chocolate, Beer, & Chocolate Beer. We led attendees through a tasting of Double Astral and Dark Aura (a chocolate peanut butter Imperial Stout), and a pairing of two of Third Eye's non-chocolate beers (details below) with two craft chocolates, before a tour of the brewery and the barrel cellar. In this episode, Kelly and I talk about brewing with cacao, working with Maverick Chocolate and Violet Sky Chocolate, collaborating with River North Brewery in Denver, writing beer recipes with cacao or barrel-aging in mind, and pairing with craft chocolate. Listen in as one of the best brewers of adjunct stouts in the country shares his expertise! You can learn more about Third Eye Brewing on their website, or follow them on Instagram. Beers discussed in this episode include: Pairings from the Chocolate, Beer, & Chocolate Beer event: Second Pairing: Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: Dorothy Neary of NearyNogs Chocolate | 10 Jun 2025 | 00:05:39 | |
Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. Today we hear from Dorothy Neary, one of the founders and chocolate makers at NearyNogs Chocolate in Northern Ireland. In this clip, Dorothy talks about the influence of Irish music on much of her chocolate making and shares the stories behind a few specific examples. Enjoy! You can learn more about NearyNogs Chocolate here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Piety & Desire Chocolate In New Orleans | 03 Jun 2025 | 00:44:42 | |
In this episode, we talk with Christopher Nobles of Piety & Desire Chocolate in New Orleans. I visited New Orleans a very long time ago on a college road trip, and a lot of my images from that trip are still so sharp and clear. My impression of the city was that it didn’t feel like it could exist in the United States, like it existed in a parallel version of the US or in a foreign country. The buildings and the foliage and the cemeteries—it all felt like it was just draped in this elegant decay. I haven’t been back, sadly, but would love to revisit it now after having seen a lot more of the world and see how the city has changed, but more importantly, how I’ve changed and how my impressions of a place change with that. Christopher Nobles is a lifelong New Orleans resident, and at Piety & Desire Chocolate he brings elegance and indulgence to his range of bars and confections. In true Big Easy style, many of them incorporate alcoholic beverages from some of the city’s new generation of producers. We talk about the flavors of New Orleans, its personality, and how it all makes its way into his chocolate. You can learn more about Piety & Desire Chocolate and order their bars on their website, or follow them on Instagram. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Front Porch Chocolate | 20 May 2025 | 01:06:03 | |
In this episode, we talk with Greg & T from Front Porch Chocolate in Montana. They've crafted many of their excellent inclusion bars—Including Chai Rose, Fig & Cherry, and Strawberry Lemon—with beer pairing in mind, and here we talk with them about the concepts behind their bars and the beer pairings they've designed for each. The bars we discuss include: As Greg says during our interview, "You could experience a chocolate bar on its own, you could experience a beer on its own, but when you put them together you experience something completely new." You can learn more about Front Porch Chocolate and order their bars on their website, and you can follow them on Instagram here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Pairing and Tasting with Estelle Tracy (Episode 100!) | 06 May 2025 | 01:03:25 | |
For our 100th full length episode of Bean to Barstool, we're talking with an old friend and supporter of the pod, Estelle Tracy. Estelle leads chocolate tastings and pairings through her business, 37 Chocolates, and in this episode we're tasting and pairing the adventurous bars from her new curated collection. Which wines and beers do we pair with a bar inspired by Beijing lamb skewers? How about the always challenging 100% cacao bar, or a bar loaded with chili pepper? Listen in as we have a fun time coming up with pairings for these unusual bars. You can learn more about Estelle and her work on her website, and you can follow her on Instagram. You can order the "Adventurous Palate" pairing box we taste and pair in the episode here. You can listen to our previous episode on pairing with wine and beer here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Chocolate, Music, and Irish Whiskey with NearyNogs Chocolate | 22 Apr 2025 | 00:50:27 | |
In this episode, we talk with Dorothy Neary of NearyNogs Chocolate in Northern Ireland. We discuss the importance of music in Irish culture and how it's influenced several of their chocolate bars, the use of distinctly Irish ingredients like gorse flower and seaweed, and the beautiful natural landscape around their factory that influences them creatively. We also discuss their use of Irish whiskey in several bars, and pairing with whiskey. You can learn more about NearyNogs on their website. You can learn more about the Chocolate, Beer, and Chocolate Beer event I mentioned at Third Eye Brewing and purchase tickets here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Drinking Intentionally with Namesake Coffee | 08 Apr 2025 | 01:07:53 | |
In this episode we talk with Michael Beans of Namesake Coffee in Dayton, Ohio. Michael and his wife and business partner, Jessica Beans, run Namesake with thought and intention, infusing their personalities into every aspect of their business. They want to remove the intimidation factor from good coffee, eliminating the snobbery and gatekeeping that can keep people from seeking out good coffee, but that doesn't mean they want to remove education and appreciation. Instead, they take coffee drinkers by the hand and lead them into a gracefully self-guided exploration of great coffee. Michael and I discuss how to make great coffee at home without fancy equipment, how he develops roast profiles for new bean origins, and how to taste coffee thoughtfully. You can learn more about Namesake Coffee on their website, where you can order their beans or sign up for a coffee subscription. You can also follow them on Instagram here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Nico Silverman of Diego's Chocolate | 25 Mar 2025 | 00:57:22 | |
Diego Hernandez started Diego's Chocolate at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in 1990. Diego and his family are of Tz’utujil Mayan heritage, and he adapted his abuela's sipping chocolate recipe into a unique format—rolls of untempered chocolate, often made with unique inclusions. All of the cacao and inclusions are grown in Guatemala. In this episode, we talk with Nico Silverman, Diego's U.S. representative. We talk about Diego's story, the details of their chocolate, and Nico's experiences with pairing Diego's Chocolate rolls with craft beer and craft cider in New York state. Listen to the end of the episode for an exclusive discount code for 20% everything on the Diego's shop! You can learn more about Diego's on their website and follow them on Instagram. You can also learn more about Wolf Hollow Brewing, Dancing Grain Farm Brewery, and Nine Pin Ciders. Guest: Nico Silverman—While employed at Etsy.com in 2012, Nico stumbled into the world of craft chocolate and discovered Diego's unique chocolate rolls, a revelation that changed his trajectory. Drawing from a background in nonprofit development and project management, he saw an opportunity to create meaningful impact through ethical commerce. Since then, he has brought Diego's Chocolate to thousands of consumers across North America while creating jobs in Guatemala where each roll is handcrafted and packaged. His work bridges traditional Mayan chocolate-making with conscious consumers, preserving ancestral practices while building economic opportunities for artisan and farming communities. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Chasing Wonder with Serge Savchuk of Vaka Chocolate | 04 Mar 2025 | 00:37:06 | |
I recently talked with Serge Savchuk, owner and chocolate maker at Vaka Chocolate in London, Ontario. We talked about the inspiration behind his spirits-infused or -inspired bars, including bars made with whisky, absinthe, gin, and rum, using spirits from North of 7 Distillery and Junction 56 Distillery. We also talked about what motivates him in developing unique inclusion, like his unexpected dill pickle and peanut butter bar. What I was left with from this conversation was Serge's childlike sense of wonder at what flavor can do, an idea that has been central to Bean to Barstool since we launched nearly 5 years ago. We also discussed bars from Rozsavolgyi, Ritual, and Soma. You can learn more about Vaka Chocolate on their website or on Instagram. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Roots Forged In Fire—Tandy Peterson of Embers Chocolate | 18 Feb 2025 | 00:49:29 | |
Much of Tandy Peterson's life and career has been shaped by fire, from childhood memories of camping to working as a chef in a fine dining restaurant that cooked exclusively over fire. When she started making craft chocolate, she chose the name Embers as a nod to point when a cooking fire is perfectly cooked down, a moment of perfection. In this episode we talk with Tandy Peterson of Embers Chocolate in Phoenix, Arizona. We discuss her spirits-infused bars using bourbon, mezcal, and other spirits that are made utilizing techniques not many makers are using, including soaking sugars, milk powder, and inclusion ingredients in the spirits themselves. We also discuss her unique, award-winning Elote bar that emulates the flavors of Mexican street corn. You can learn more about Embers Chocolate and order their bars here, and you can follow them on Instagram here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| "How Great Is Mexico?" — Cervercería Itañeñe & Tout Chocolat | 04 Feb 2025 | 00:57:12 | |
In today's episode, we talk with Lucia Carrillo—founder and head brewer at Cervecería Itañeñe in Mexico City, a very small brewery that’s big on flavor, often using ingredients from Mexican culinary traditions, or even endemic to the country—and her partner Rodrigo Romo, who also brews at Itañeñe and works at Tout Chocolat making craft chocolate bars and bon bons, pastries, and coffee at its cafes in the Mexico City area. Rodrigo and Lucia have worked together on beers and chocolates that use similar ingredients—including flavors and ingredients endemic to Mexican ecology or used in Mexican culinary traditions—as well as beers using chocolate or its ingredients, or chocolates using beer or its ingredients, to blur the lines between these worlds. I first tried one of Itañeñe’s beers at the Great Mexican Beer Fiesta at Cervecería Colorado in Denver, several years ago. The one-day fest takes place during the Great American Beer Festival at the same time, and it’s my favorite part of GABF week. Cervecería Colorado and Itañeñe had collaborated on a beer brewed with rosita de cacao, a flower unrelated to theobroma cacao, but sharing some cocoa-like flavors. This past fall I had the privilege of being a judge at Copa Cerveza Mexico, and finally got to meet Lucia and Rodrigo. Later in the trip, I walked to Tout’s beautiful Hippodrome location and sat at an outdoor cafe table enjoying a flat white and several of their excellent bon bons. I had the chance to talk with Lucia and Rodrigo recently about their pursuit of unique flavors, their chocolate and beer collaborations, and what makes Mexican beer and chocolate unique and exciting. At the outset, I asked how they got involved in these worlds in the first place. Guests: Lucia Carrillo—Food engineer, beer judge, sommelier, sensory panel judge, and Itañeñe brewer with more than 50 beer medals. Rodrigo Romo—Itañeñe brewer, pastry chef, winner of the Sweet Arts competition, chocolatier, and winner of more than 30 beer medals. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Yellow Bird Chocolate & Albion Malleable Brewing | 21 Jan 2025 | 00:38:45 | |
In this episode, we talk with Jenny Risner-Wade, owner and chocolate maker at Yellow Bird Chocolate, and her husband, Ben Wade, co-founder and brewer at Albion Malleable Brewing Company, both in Albion, Michigan. When a chocolate maker and a brewer share a home and a life, ideas can flow back and forth and lead to unique collaborations. In this case, collaborations have included Unnecessary Evil, an Imperial Milk Stout brewed with cocoa powder, cacao husks, and cacao nibs, a chocolate bar made with nibs used in the beer, a number of beer-infused truffles, and an ice cream beer float with beer-infused chocolate shavings. Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen recently sat down with Jenny and Ben to talk about the collaborations between Yellow Bird and Albion Malleable, and the creative opportunities provided by having these businesses run side by side. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Flights Across America with Joel Geier | 07 Jan 2025 | 00:48:45 | |
I love beer flights. One of the things that makes craft beer so much fun is its sheer variety of styles, interpretations of those styles, and ways of using those styles for flavor experimentation. A flight is an opportunity to explore. A flight board might have an Abbey Dubbel, a Munich Dunkel, an ESB, and a Biere de Garde, taking you on a sensory trip to Belgium, Germany, England, and France a few ounces of beer at a time. Flights aren't without their critics—and valid criticisms—but at their best they represent curiosity, excitement, and joy, all qualities craft beer needs right now as it weathers its current market challenges. Why am I talking about flights? Because today we’re talking with the king of beer flights, Joel Geier. Joel runs the @brewery_travels Instagram and Twitter accounts and is the author of the new book Flights Across America: A Brewery Lover’s Journey, chronicling his beer adventures to over 1,300 breweries across all 50 states. That’s an incredible number, meaning Joel has probably visited one in every six or seven breweries in the entire country. And at as many of those breweries as allow it, he’s ordered a flight. In the book, Joel gives tips on beer travel, provides hundreds of brewery recommendations, and reminds us how much fun beer is supposed to be. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: Pairing the Beers of Chimay with Craft Chocolate | 17 Dec 2024 | 00:11:29 | |
The Chimay line of Belgian ales are brewed at Scourmont Abbey in bucolic Chimay, Belgium, under the supervision of the Trappist monks who call the abbey home. The monastery was founded in 1850 and has been brewing and selling beer to support the upkeep of the property and the lives of the brothers since 1862. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Kathryn Laverack and Victoria Hopper on Cacao & Chocolate Cocktails | 03 Dec 2024 | 00:53:42 | |
Chocolate educator Kathryn Laverack of Cocoa Encounters and The Brown Cow pub proprietor Victoria Hopper have partnered on numerous chocolate and drink pairings, and events highlighting chocolate or cacao cocktails. I recently sat down with Kathryn and Victoria to ask them about the union of cacao and spirits, what they’ve learned from each other, and what they’d like people to understand about making chocolate or cacao drinks. Along the way we discuss specific cocktail and pairing ideas they’ve used in the past, and even workshopped a few ideas for the future. They’ve introduced on-trend craft lagers, seasonal themed menu evenings, and live music events, and they’ve created strong bonds with the community through their support of local charities and sports groups. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: Nick Davis of One One Cacao | 19 Nov 2024 | 00:06:17 | |
Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. Today we hear from Nick Davis, the founder and chocolate maker at One One Cacao in Jamaica. In this clip, Nick talks about some of the challenges facing cacao farmers and laborers in Jamaica, what needs to change give craft chocolate more visibility, and how making chocolate can help Nick’s family and other Jamaican families reclaim their heritage. Enjoy! You can learn more about One One Cacao here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Zadkiela Rios on Pairing Beer, Chocolate, and Other Indulgences | 12 Nov 2024 | 00:41:12 | |
Zadkiela Rios is a chemical engineer by training and a brewing professional by trade. Zadky isfrom Venezuela originally and is currently working in Australia, and she's best known to beer, beverage, and chocolate fans on Instagram as @Zadky_Beer_to_Bar. She and I have followed each other for years, and it’s been fun to not only follow her interest in pairing beer and craft chocolate—a niche interest not too many other people have put an emphasis on—but also her polyglot fluency in a range of indulgences, including spirits, wine, and cigars as well. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival: Cacao, Farming, & Flavor in the Heartland | 29 Oct 2024 | 00:44:49 | |
The inaugural Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival will take place Friday-Saturday, November 22-23 in the small town of Rushville, Indiana. This is a really unique event in the world of craft chocolate. Most of our festivals are in big cities on the coasts—New York, Seattle, San Francisco—but craft chocolate is all about cacao, the farms where it’s grown, and the farmers and farm workers who grow it, so where better to hold a celebration of chocolate than a farming community in America’s heartland? Rushville is a small town about an hour southeast of Indianapolis, and the town leaders are eager to introduce their downtown to the world and vice versa. During their annual Christmas on Main event on the weekend before Thanksgiving, the town will welcome a craft chocolate festival that will bring bean to bar makers, chocolatiers, cacao farmers, and educators together to celebrate all things craft chocolate. This festival is the brainchild of Dustin Cornett, the chocolate maker who owns Chocolat Cafe. He’s also the creator of the Craft Chocolat Challenge, an internationally-recognized competition for bean to bar chocolate makers. The event is being hosted and supported by the great folks at Heart of Rushville. In today's episode we talk with Barb Genuario, whom many of us know on Instagram as @chocochaser. Barb is an educator and writer and the co-founder of the D.C. Chocolate Society. For many years, she was an assistant chocolate maker at Harper McCaw before they closed, and she is one of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for craft chocolate. Barb is one of the organizers of the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival, and I talked with her recently to get the details for the event and learn the unique vision behind this festival. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Coffee, Cacao, Cocktails, and Curiosity with Charlene Cabioch | 08 Oct 2024 | 00:45:00 | |
While the bean in Bean to Barstool primarily refers to cacao for chocolate, and the barstool to craft beer, we have also covered craft coffee and spirits on this podcast periodically, and we’re looking at doing that more often going forward. Today’s guest brings both of those worlds together, giving new meaning to the name Bean to Barstool. Charlene Cabioch is a barista and mixologist from France who has a deep knowledge of both specialties, and has professional awards to prove it. She was a winner at the Aeropress World Championship in 2019, and the Coffee in Good Spirits Championship for coffee-infused cocktails in 2021 and 2023. In our conversation today, Charlene talks about what happens during a coffee or cocktail competition, how her love for coffee developed, and how curiosity drives her passion to learn more about her favorite foods, beverages, and the processes and ingredients behind both. Charlene also works with cacao in her cocktails, and we talk about that as well. Charlene is an enthusiastic and energetic personality, and I loved getting to learn from her during our conversation, so listen in as we talk coffee, cacao, cocktails, and curiosity with Charlene Cabioch. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Every Bean Has a Story: Monica Rogan of Goodnow Farms | 24 Sep 2024 | 00:45:49 | |
Few names in craft chocolate carry as much esteem as Goodnow Farms. Tom and Monica Rogan founded the company in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 2015, and they cover pretty much the full spectrum of what bean to bar chocolate is all about in their portfolio of chocolate bars, including elegant single origin bars, classic inclusion bars with coffee, nuts, or fruit, unusual inclusions like caramelized onions or green Sichuan peppers, and bars made in collaboration with craft alcohol producers. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: 5 Minutes with Raven Hanna | 10 Sep 2024 | 00:05:15 | |
Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. Today we hear from Raven Hanna, a molecular biochemist and biophysicist and the author of the book One Cacao Tree: Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics. In this clip, Raven talks about tasting everything we can to expand our flavor vocabularies, and about how creating stories around tasting experiences can help us remember those flavors. Enjoy! You can learn more about Raven here, and purchase her book here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: How To Pair Standard-Strength Porters and Stouts with Craft Chocolate | 03 Sep 2024 | 00:09:20 | |
Standard-strength Porter and Stout styles such as American Porter, English Porter, Oatmeal Stout, Milk Stout, Irish Stout, and some American Stouts feature roasty flavors and aromas from the presence of roasted malts. These grains are roasted similar to how coffee beans and cacao beans get roasted, and take on many of the same flavor notes—coffee and chocolate are two common flavor descriptors for these beer styles. Beers in these styles tend to cast a wide net when paired with chocolate and can work solidly with a wide range of chocolates, making them good to have on hand for impromptu pairings. The trick here is transcending the good pairings to find the great ones. The versatility of beers in these Porter and Stout styles make them good choices if you’re hosting friends for an in-home beer and chocolate pairing. If you don’t have specific courses planned, one of these styles will work with a number of different bars and allow your guests to find some easy combinations. You can order my book Pairing Beer & Chocolate on the Bean to Barstool shop or on Amazon. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Looking Back, Looking Forward: 4 Years of Bean to Barstool | 03 Sep 2024 | 00:26:22 | |
Bean to Barstool celebrated its 4th birthday in August, and today host David Nilsen looks back at the initial idea behind the site and podcast, what's changed over the years, and what the plans are for continuing to grow Bean to Barstool. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: Pairing Fruited Sour Ales with Craft Chocolate | 27 Aug 2024 | 00:10:42 | |
Sour ales are a fantastic platform for fruit flavors. The acidity of the base beers dovetails with the brightness of the fruit and can help sell the flavors of the fruit more authentically. There are challenges to pairing these beers though, and most of them are related to variability of the beers themselves: there are so many different ways to make a fruited sour ale. In this bonus episode, David Nilsen walks through the different types of fruited sour ale and explains which types of craft chocolate and seek out and which to avoid when pairing with them. You can order my book Pairing Beer & Chocolate on the Bean to Barstool shop or on Amazon. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: Brian Simpson of Riverbend Malt | 13 Aug 2024 | 00:05:55 | |
Hey, everyone. Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. Today we hear from Brian Simpson of Riverbend Malt in Asheville, North Carolina. I spoke with Brian all the way back in 2020 for this podcast, but we met up recently for a beer when he was passing through Dayton, and I want to reshare some of his thoughts from that older episode here. Brian shares his thoughts on the meaning of local in craft beer. We prize beers that are brewed locally, but where are the ingredients from? Can a beer be local if it isn’t grown locally? Take a few minutes this morning to hear from Brian on what local or regional malt can do for beer. You can find out more about Riverbend Malt here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Coffee, Chocolate, & Beer in Panama with Franz Zeimetz of Lost Origin Coffee Lab & Casa Bruja and Jaime Pérez of Bocao | 06 Aug 2024 | 00:58:28 | |
In this episode we talk with Franz Zeimetz of Lost Origin Coffee Lab and Casa Bruja brewery and Jaime Pérez of Bocao chocolate, all from Panama. We discuss the state of craft chocolate, craft beer, and coffee in Panama, and a series of experiments and collaborations they've pursued between these three worlds. Franz has used raw cacao fruit from Jaime in a mixed-fermentation Saison, and is experimenting with various cacao and coffee fermentations. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: Hi-Wire Brewing 10W-40 | 30 Jul 2024 | 00:05:54 | |
Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. Today we hear from Hank Marshall and Peter Batinski at Hi-Wire Brewing in Asheville, North Carolina. Hi-Wire brews an Imperial Stout line called 10W-40, made with French Broad Chocolate cacao, Dynamite coffee, and Ugandan vanilla, as well as a range of other flavor ingredients to evoke specific flavor concepts like Vietnamese coffee, blueberry crumble, or chocolate taco. Listen in as Hank and Peter talk about the base beer for 10w-40 and how they work with coffee, cacao, and vanilla. You can find out more about Hi-Wire Brewing here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Pairing Spirits and Chocolate with Shay Pal | 23 Jul 2024 | 00:37:32 | |
While I mostly pair craft chocolate with craft beer here at Bean to Barstool, there's a world of great beverages out there for pairing with great chocolate. My good friend Shay Pal seems to have paired bars with most of them through her adventurous tasting and traveling. In this episode, Shay and I discuss how she approaches pairing with craft chocolate, how she avoids getting overwhelmed by the choices in front of her, and how she selects which spirit, wine, coffee, or cocktail to pair with any given bar. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: How To Pair IPAs with Craft Chocolate | 16 Jul 2024 | 00:14:30 | |
IPAs are the most popular family of beer styles in craft beer today, they aren't the first beers most people think of for pairing with craft chocolate. While IPAs can pair beautifully with craft chocolate, it’s not an effortless pairing. IPAs present challenges that can lead to chocolate pairings with harsh, bitter, astringent, and/or clashing flavor qualities. In this bonus episode, we’ll look at some common styles of IPA, discuss their sensory attributes, and discuss chocolates to seek out and chocolates to avoid when planning pairings with each. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Judging, Pairing, and the Definition of Craft with Clay Gordon | 02 Jul 2024 | 01:20:22 | |
There might not be a more loaded term in beer and chocolate than “craft.” What does it mean, who gets to use it, and who gets to decide who does or doesn’t fall under its umbrella? Is craft about size and ownership? Is it about processes and ingredients? Is it some other ineffable quality? There is no perfect answer, and the parameters and stakes are different for both beer and chocolate, but it’s a fascinating topic for discussion. In this episode I’m talking with Clay Gordon, one of the most respected names in the world of craft chocolate, to discuss the meaning of craft, how the term’s usage and meaning differ in the beer and chocolate worlds, how tasting and judging have influenced beer and chocolate differently, and, toward the end, how we both approach chocolate pairings with beer and other beverages. You can learn more about Clay and his work at his website The Chocolate Life. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Moksa Brewing's Pastry Stouts with Head Brewer Cory Meyer | 25 Jun 2024 | 00:30:32 | |
Moksa Brewing in Rocklin, California (just outside Sacramento), is one of the country's most prolific and best producers of Pastry Stouts. These usually high alcohol and high gravity Stouts use ingredients like cacao, coffee, vanilla, and others to recreate the flavors of beloved desserts or create whole new flavor concepts. Moksa's Pastry Stouts are indulgent but precise. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| How to Host a Beer and Chocolate Pairing! | 28 May 2024 | 00:29:44 | |
My new book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together is out now, and you can get it from Bean to Barstool or Amazon! In honor of the release, we’re talking today about how to host a beer and chocolate pairing at home. How do you plan it, how do you guide the event itself, and how do you give your friends a memorable evening with beer and chocolate? I’ve got you covered. Listen to this episode for all the information you need, and reach out if you have any questions! You can find recommendations for specific pairings to incorporate here. Want to hire me to run a pairing for you remotely? Get in touch. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: Beer Tarot for World Tarot Day with Courtney Iseman | 21 May 2024 | 00:09:49 | |
Saturday, May 25, is World Tarot Day, and this is the perfect time to learn more about what beer and Tarot have in common. Beer writer Courtney Iseman's zine Beer Tarot: Pulling Cards, Pouring Beer, and Discovering Self is a fantastic way to learn more about both, whether you're a beer fan who's curious about Tarot or vice versa. Listen to this quick interview Courtney to learn 3 things Tarot folks might be surprised to learn about craft beer, and 3 things beer lovers might be surprised to learn about the world of Tarot. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| The Wonder of One Cacao Tree with Raven Hanna | 07 May 2024 | 00:45:57 | |
Raven Hanna lives on the big island of Hawai'i, and her backyard is a picture of what most of us see when we hear the phrase tropical paradise. She has a PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and she loves science, but she also loves her senses, and the opportunity to immerse herself in the natural world. Her book One Cacao Tree: Backyard Cocoa, Tiny Fermentations, and Chocolate Making in the Tropics is an accessible, tangible guide to every step of cacao's journey, from growing to fermenting, grinding to tempering. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: All About Beer Fermentation | 23 Apr 2024 | 00:07:27 | |
Beer is fermented (usually) by one of two closely related species of yeast. In this quick bonus episode, we look at what how beer fermentation works, the differences between ale and lager, and how yeast and fermentation impact beer flavor. Enjoy this quick primer on beer fermentation! Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Somerville Chocolate & Aeronaut Brewing | 16 Apr 2024 | 00:54:25 | |
Today we're looking at a fascinating collaboration between a craft chocolate maker and a craft brewery. Eric Parkes at Somerville Chocolate is a tenant in Aeronaut's building, so he makes chocolate just a short distance from where brewmaster Mark Bowers and Director of Brewing Operations Filipe Garcia are brewing beer. This has allowed for an ongoing creative exchange between these worlds, yielding unique beers made with cacao and unique chocolate bars made with beer, brewing ingredients, and cacao and other ingredients that have been first used to make beer. The relationship has allowed for creative experimentation and mutual education. In this interview, Eric, Mark, Filipe, and I discuss the benefits of this arrangement and look in detail at the beers and chocolate bars that have come from it. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: All About Hops | 09 Apr 2024 | 00:07:52 | |
Hops are the primary seasoning in beer, but what actually Are hops, and how are these used? In this quick bonus episode, we look at what hops are, how they're used, when they're added during the brewing process, and how they impact beer flavor. Enjoy this quick primer on hops! Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Nick Davis of One One Cacao | 02 Apr 2024 | 00:46:41 | |
Nick Davis makes bean to bar chocolate at One One Cacao on the northeast coast of Jamaica. The cacao trade on the island has been tainted by a colonial past of slavery and oppression, but is now being reclaimed as farmers and makers take back agency. Nick shares his thoughts on the good and bad of inclusions, the challenges and opportunities in Jamaican cacao and chocolate, the historical and modern impacts of colonialism on both, and how making chocolate has allowed him to reclaim some of his family’s story and power that had been taken by that colonial harm. I’m so grateful to Nick for his time and his insights, and I think you’re going to enjoy this conversation as well. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: Arcelia Gallardo of Mission Chocolate | 26 Mar 2024 | 00:06:20 | |
Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. In today's Bite Sized we hear from Arcelia Gallardo from Mission Chocolate in Sao Paulo, Brazil. When Arcelia first moved to Brazil and began making bean to bar chocolate, the quality of the Brazilian cacao that was available at the time was not great, but she was committed to working with it. After her friend at Chocolate Maya in Santa Barbara tasted one of Arcelia’s two ingredient bars and suggested the cacao wasn’t quite ready for that challenge, Arcelia decided to set her chocolate apart by using the natural bounty of Brazil, employing fruits and nuts that were unique to the new culture she found herself in. Here’s Arcelia to talk about the steps that led to working with ingredients like cupuacu and baru nut. You can find out more about Mission Chocolate here order their bars through Bar & Cocoa here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Episode 77: Brad Kintzer of TCHO Chocolate | 19 Mar 2024 | 00:53:16 | |
Today we’re talking with Brad Kintzer, the chocolate maker for TCHO Chocolate in Berkeley, California. In our conversation, we discuss TCHO's corporate ownership and how they source their cacao. We also talk about the flavor labs TCHO has established in many cacao growing regions to work with growers on a mutually-informed flavor lexicon for chocolate, and to improve quality. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bonus: All About Malt | 12 Mar 2024 | 00:08:54 | |
Hops get a lot of buzz from beer lovers because of their expressive, fruity aromas and flavors, but malt is really the foundational ingredient of beer. You can technically brew beer without hops (though all commercial examples contain them), but you can’t brew it without malted grain, and the different malt varieties offer a dazzling rainbow of potential colors, aromas, flavors, and textures for building a new beer. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Mushrooms in Beer & Chocolate | 05 Mar 2024 | 01:18:25 | |
Mushrooms aren't the first ingredient we usually think of for flavoring beer or chocolate, but many craft brewers and craft chocolate makers are using different species of mushrooms to create unique flavor experiences and, in some cases, provide unexpected health benefits. In today's episode, we talk all about using mushrooms in beer and chocolate. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: 5 Minutes with AJ Wentworth of Chocolate Conspiracy | 27 Feb 2024 | 00:06:20 | |
Welcome to Bean to Barstool Bite Sized, where we spend about 5 minutes with some of our favorite people from craft beer and craft chocolate. In today's Bite Sized we hear from AJ Wentworth from Chocolate Conspiracy. AJ loves craft beer almost as much as he loves craft chocolate, and has collaborated with several breweries around the Salt Lake City area on beers and bars that blur the flavors lines between beer and chocolate, including bars made with Uinta Baba Black Lager, Level Crossing Soul Rex Doubla IPA, and Kiitos Coffee Cream Ale. We talk about his development process for those bars and working with the bold flavors of Double IPA. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Guest Episode: Luke Owen Smith Interviews Phoebe Preuss of Living Koko | 20 Feb 2024 | 00:32:02 | |
In our first ever guest episode of Bean to Barstool, New Zealand beer and chocolate journalist Luke Owen Smith interviews Phoebe Preuss of Living Koko. They talk about Living Koko's relationship with Samoan cacao farmers and Savai'i Koko. They also discuss Penina, Living Koko's non-alcoholic beer brewed brewed in collaboration with Brewicolo and made with cacao and hopped with Citra, Amarillo, and Ekuanot hops. You can learn more about Luke Owen Smith here. Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||
| Bite Sized: 5 Minutes with Michele Hauf, Author of Lust & Chocolate | 13 Feb 2024 | 00:04:57 | |
Is chocolate really an aphrodisiac? Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together. | |||