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Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione missed a golden opportunity to market his newest beverage, based on a recipe from the ancient Aztec world, at this week’s Festival Hispano, in Millsboro.
Over the past few years, Calagione and his brewers have been working in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania’s molecular archaeology department on finding – and recreating – recipes for beers from bygone eras, which have included Midas Touch, brewed from a recipe found in the drinking vessels of the cursed king’s tomb, as well as Chateau Jiahu, a 9000-year-old Chinese recipe dating back to the Neolithic period.
The latest offering, available in September, is Theobroma, which translates to “food of the gods,” in Greek. Far removed from Greece, however, the beer is a recreation of a central American recipe for the earliest chocolate drink in existence, consumed by the Aztecs.
“Before we were eating chocolate, we were drinking it,” Calagione said. “In ancient central America, cocoa was considered to be a very divine and sought-after ingredient.”
Combining cocoa nibs, powder and honey with chilies and seeds of the annatto tree, Theobroma aims to dispel the notion that chocolate-flavored alcohol is only for ladies. At a hearty nine percent alcohol-by-volume, it nearly doubles the alcohol content of the average mass-produced beer.
Modern chocolate beers are nothing new: Sam Adams produces a limited-edition Chocolate Bock around Christmas-time each year, and the Rogue brewery, in Oregon, offers the smoky, cocoa-flecked Shakespeare Stout.
The difference with Theobroma, however, is its authenticity.
“Mainly with other chocolate beers, you have brewers incorporating chocolate powder into their own modern recipes,” Calagione said, “whereas this is based on molecular evidence.
“There’s science behind it!”
Dogfish Head Theobroma will be available at the company’s Rehoboth Avenue brewpub in September. For more, visit www.dogfish.com.
Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione missed a golden opportunity to market his newest beverage, based on a recipe from the ancient Aztec world, at this week’s Festival Hispano, in Millsboro.
Over the past few years, Calagione and his brewers have been working in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania’s molecular archaeology department on finding – and recreating – recipes for beers from bygone eras, which have included Midas Touch, brewed from a recipe found in the drinking vessels of the cursed king’s tomb, as well as Chateau Jiahu, a 9000-year-old Chinese recipe dating back to the Neolithic period.
The latest offering, available in September, is Theobroma, which translates to “food of the gods,” in Greek. Far removed from Greece, however, the beer is a recreation of a central American recipe for the earliest chocolate drink in existence, consumed by the Aztecs.
“Before we were eating chocolate, we were drinking it,” Calagione said. “In ancient central America, cocoa was considered to be a very divine and sought-after ingredient.”
Combining cocoa nibs, powder and honey with chilies and seeds of the annatto tree, Theobroma aims to dispel the notion that chocolate-flavored alcohol is only for ladies. At a hearty nine percent alcohol-by-volume, it nearly doubles the alcohol content of the average mass-produced beer.
Modern chocolate beers are nothing new: Sam Adams produces a limited-edition Chocolate Bock around Christmas-time each year, and the Rogue brewery, in Oregon, offers the smoky, cocoa-flecked Shakespeare Stout.
The difference with Theobroma, however, is its authenticity.
“Mainly with other chocolate beers, you have brewers incorporating chocolate powder into their own modern recipes,” Calagione said, “whereas this is based on molecular evidence.
“There’s science behind it!”
Dogfish Head Theobroma will be available at the company’s Rehoboth Avenue brewpub in September. For more, visit www.dogfish.com.
