Alex Wright

Theobroma

November 29, 2008

After reading last week's New Yorker profile of Sam Calagione, the Dogfish Head impresario who seems to be emerging as the craft beer industry's gonzo counterpart to Bonny Doon Vineyard's Randall Grahm, I found myself hankering for a taste of their new Theobroma (literally, “food of the gods”).

The beer is based on recipes for Mayan and Aztec ceremonial drinks, based on archaeological research into early fermented cacao beverages discovered on 600-900 year-old Honduran pots. The recipe includes decidedly non-beery ingredients like cocoa nibs, ancho chilies, honey, and annatto seeds. The article quoted brewmaster Patrick McGovern as saying: “I wanted to make it more reddish, because it was equated with blood and human sacrifice.”

Now, blood-colored Aztec beer recipes evoking human sacrifice tend to make for tricky marketing campaigns, so this beer has not quite made its way to the Safeway yet. It's in such limited release that I assumed that I would never get to try the stuff unless I trekked out to the Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware. So I was pleasantly surprised last night to find myself in Richmond's Capital Ale House in Richmond last night, where what should appear on the menu but a plus-sized bottle of Theobrama. $27 price tag be damned, I thought: this is worth a shot. And sure enough, it lived up to its billing. I could try to describe the complex swirl of flavors that emerge on the palate when you drink it, but the folks at Beer Advocate do a far better job than I ever could:

Rich golden in color, with a slight haze and a thin white lace. Fairly clean in the nose with faint notes of powdered cocoa, spicy pepper and fermented honey. Very smooth on the palate. Medium bodied. Creamy carbonation. Sweet up front, mead-like at times, with cereal grains as the base and plenty of residual honey complexities. Mild fruity esters. Notes of annato play well, lending to the sweetness a slight nutmeg and spicy flavor. Suggestions of vanilla. Chocolate flavors are subtly balanced in the mix, as are the chiles, which provide a mild, peppery soft heat. The chiles become more present as things warm, presenting themselves stronger in the finish. Soft honey and spicy finish that eventually dries up nice and clean. ...this is without a doubt one of the more interesting, tasty and experimental brews from Dogfish Head. The balance of flavors from so many distinct sources is pretty much perfect.

Food of the gods indeed.

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