CUSTOMER
What’s that 1913 Stout? I keep seeing it around on the posters and meaning to try it.
TEENAGE BARPERSON
It’s, er, got chocolate and coffee, er, flavours, and it’s, er, smooth. [Suddenly remembering] Vanilla!
CUSTOMER
It’s actually got coffee and chocolate in? Wow. That sounds interesting.
TEENAGE BARPERSON
It’s an old recipe. They found this old recipe, or something, and, like, brewed it up again, to the old recipe, and that.
CUSTOMER
And they were using chocolate and coffee in beer back then, where they?
TEENAGE BARPERSON
[Totally baffled, backing away] They were, were they? I didn’t know that.
THE CUSTOMER TAKES THE BOTTLE BACK TO THE TABLE.
CUSTOMER’S PARTNER
What’s this? Stout? I don’t like stout. Too bitter.
CUSTOMER
No, this is chocolate flavoured, apparently. [Tastes] Ooh, ah, blimey, yeah… Coffee and chocolate and, er, um, vanilla.
CUSTOMER’S PARTNER
[Reading] There’s nothing about chocolate on the ingredients list.
CUSTOMER
Oh. Weird. [Sheepish] Actually, to be honest, it just tastes like sweet Guinness to me.
5 replies on “Tasting Language in the Real World”
Well, this is confirmation I’d say that the beer writers (Campbell, Jackson) who argued that English stout was sweet and Irish stout bitter were right. 🙂
Gary
I think stout often has a similar flavour in it to the aftertaste of black coffee. I’ve never detected chocolate. I guess mostly they taste kind of stouty, but I like them!
Chris — I guess when people say a stout is chocolatey, they mean very dark, bitter chocolate. There are some that taste of sweet milk chocolate, usually because they have sugar or even actual chocolate added. Young’s Double Chocolate is an extreme example.
Yeah, that’s the impression I get, but the stouts I’ve had don’t really bring chocolate to my mind – perhaps others I haven’t tried yet have more of that sort of flavour or maybe it’s just that different people detect different things. I’ve not had any of the flavoured stouts – the idea of actual chocolate in a beer seems strange to me, but I’m sure I’ll give them a go at some point!
It’s a shame the server didn’t know more about the beer.