Chocolate, coffee and beer #2

Greenwich brewers Meantime have made a name for themselves with a range of award-winning bottled beers. As they brew a coffee beer, a chocolate beer and stouts/porters offering both flavours, they may be able to offer me all I'm looking for. But can they deliver?




First off was London Stout. Knowing this is brewed without roasted malts, I was expecting a smooth beer but this was silken to the point of offering no resistance. And little in the way of flavour, too. A little washy vanilla, a drop or three of americano. Perhaps I shouldn't have followed the Meantime tasting notes and chilled the beer as the subtlety felt frozen out of it. In fairness, there was some cocoa powder itching around the edges towards the end, but it developed too late for my liking. By no means a bad bottle but underwhelming.

Could the chocolate beer excite me more? Now, I've tried this before and, frankly, found it to be a superb after-dinner beer. This bottle poured with a thick head like a cappuchino gone wrong. Certainly a sweet aroma - my wife thought it too banana-esque - whereas I thought more of hot chocolate bubbling on the stove, on the point of curdling. The flavour had two chocolates fighting against each other, one sweet and creamy - almost cloying - alongside a dusky darker tang (cooking chocolate?) like a bar only recently snapped.

On the palate, those chocolate flavours are tempered by a bittering coffee shot. Consistant carbonation means that a swift flick of the wrist reactivates the head into a slowly disappearing pillow of coffee froth. This could be a car-crash, but Meantime have produced a bitter-cream beer that deserves the awards and shouldn't be denigrated as a novelty flavoured ale.

The London Porter is a longtime favourite of mine, so it would be rude not to crack open a bottle. And a fine looking bottle it is, too; champagne bottled with cork closure. And it's chock full of malts, coffee crema tussling with spent charcoal and brooding dark chocolate. That first sip - OK, first gulp - brings bitter chocolate and an assured hop astringency. There's some slight caramel before the sweeping coffee and chocolate crescendo. Damn, I love this beer.

I tried the Coffee Porter on cask recently and liked it. I rated the same beer bottled (then just called Coffee) and wasn't too impressed. Time to try the bottle again, then; now billed as Coffee Porter and rejigged with - I think - less coffee than before. Well, there's certainly a better balance, with pronounced coffee notes on the nose and more deep-set roasted chocolate flavours than before. The coffee cushion is sat on by a fat chocolate arse, an indentation of itching beans remains in the mouth. I'm impressed by this - clearly the recipe has changed and Meantime have achieved a balance that's enviable where these flavours are involved.

I'm impressed overall by these Meantime beers. London Porter has always been a fave beer and was an enjoyable glug. The Chocolate beer was still as good as I remembered it and one that I'd gladly buy in for Christmas and try to bring beer-sceptics I know over to the dark malty side. And the Coffee Porter was a surprise - a vast improvement on the previous bottled version and even better than the cask version. Only the London Stout disappointed - I may have to give it another go.

All this beer gave me an appetite for chocolate, so I raided the war chest for some single origin bars. Thorntons are currently selling a selection so I gave them a go.

Papua New Guinea is a 35% solids milk chocolate described as 'exotic and aromatic'. Very vanilla with a little lemon. Fairly good for a milk chocolate but could be cloying in any more than a sampler bar.

Ecuador edges to 40% solids and is billed as 'fruity and floral'. Sounds like a good golden ale! This bar offered more caramel and quite a keen citric vein. A bit nondescript - still rich but no killer flavour for me.

Mexico sees the step up to dark chocolate with 66% solids. This was described as 'fruity and herbal'; I got oranges, lemons again, all mixed in a surprisingly creamy finish. Just a hint of licorice on the nose.

Sao Tome steps up the solids to 70% in a 'fruity and bittersweet' bar. I like the bitterness here, still an underlying fruit feel but the thicker chocolate feel starts to stick to you teeth. The feel gets softer in the mouth and ends up being a pleasingly well balanced chocolate that I could have more of.

Last bar is Tanzania, 75% solids described as 'bitter and intense'. Well, I demand a recount. Decent aroma, strong chocolate with a little vanilla. The astringent taste is there, but it needs working round your mouth to release it at the end of a rather oily palate.

Interesting to have these chocs, but to be honest they all felt a little samey. Tanzania's bitter edge was as average as Papua New Guinea's vanillaness. I enjoyed yomping through the range but wish one of them had been knockout. As it is, I feel like I have a little bit of chocolate sick in my tummy.

Time for bed. (Burp).

Thanks to beermerchants for the beers. All photos (c) Meantime Brewing.