Pencil & Spoon - Easter, Chocolate and Durham Temptation
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It was 2010 years ago that Jesus invented chocolate. Jumping at any opportunity for a FABPOW, I opened my Easter eggs and looked in the beer cupboard. As if by divine inspiration the golden cross and scripture of the bottle of Durham Brewery’s Temptation shone back at me.
The beer is near-black with streams of sand-coloured bubbles streaming to the top creating a head like a slowly erupting volcano - it looks great. The aroma starts bready, then goes toasty, then moves into nutty, roasty and chocolatey. There’s a sweetness, some vanilla and vinous fruit – sensational. Take a sip and it’s big. The carbonation settles down quickly, there’s a boozy punch, a kiss of sweetness, lots of dark chocolate, deeply roasted fruits, a bitter and earthy finish and a woody dryness to end it all and make you want another sip. Beautiful stuff.
You don’t need anything with this, so scrap the FABPOW. I tried four different chocolates and they weren’t bad, they just detracted from the beer and that isn’t good. Just pour it out and let the beer itself be a luxurious treat.
This is the second beer I’ve had called Temptation. The other was from Russian River and it’s just about a perfect sour beer (it's just about a perfect beer, full stop). I got the Durham bottle from Avery in Beer Ritz; I got the Russian River one from San Francisco (I had it a few times, of course). I would be very Tempted by another couple of each.
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