At mybeerbuzz headquarters there are a few constants in life. First up It’s no shocker to anyone that I love great craft beer, and anyone who follows along with mybeerbuzz.com, knows I’m lucky enough to try some of the best. With Mrs. BeerBuzz in tow, we also manage to do quite a few beer/food pairing “experiments,” so we’re in a great position to try some amazing beers with some really incredible foods.
What most people don’t know, is that I have a pretty serious sweet-tooth, and I especially love the Old Time Candy I remember from my youth.I’m old enough to remember the days when penny-candy ruled my world, and when 50-cents would get you pretty close to candy-heaven. I remember hauling my little brown paper bag full of licorice and Swedish fish, chocolates and candy dots and all sorts of other candy treasures on my walk home from Gossart’s penny candy store. I also remember eating about 35-cents of my haul before I even hit home…so with fond memories in hand, and with a really cool surprise package coming from Old Time Candy, I decided to set out on a beer / candy pairing article.
First off let me tell you about Old Time Candy and how you can get the candy you ate as a kid from OldTimeCandy.com. If like me you remember Nestles Chunky, Sugar Daddy, Jawbreakers, Chuckles , Wax soda bottles, wax lips, Mary Janes, Root Beer Barrels or even Razzles. What about Black Jack Gum, Laffy Taffy or even $100,000 bars? Well Old Time Candy has them all and much more. Are you a child of the 50’s, 60’s 70’s 80’s or 90’s? What about the 1940’s going back to even pre 1920’s? Old Time Candy has your sweets. Shop by decade, shop by item, shop by most popular brands…either way I guarantee like me you will have a childhood memory candy-epiphany when you see an item you loved and forgot about. Click on the banner below to check out the selection….and don’t forget that it’s a perfect gift for yourself or anyone on your shopping list.
Just look at the photo above and you won’t believe all the great candy that’s in the box. Mine is the 4lb “All Decades Mix” and as you can see it’s pretty amazing. Tell me you don’t want one right now! Tell me anyone on your gift list wouldn’t want one too! This box is packed tight so let me pitch you some names in the box: Swedish Fish, Necco Wafers Sky Bar, Turkish Taffy, Wax Lips, Candy Ice Cream Cones, Cry Baby, Candy Necklace, Charleston Chew, O Henry, Bit-O-Honey, Zagnut, Nik-l-Nip Wax Soda Bottles, Sugar Daddy, Zero Bar, Chick-O-Stick, Clark Bar, Caramel Creams, Air Heads, Tootsie Roll, Bun, Laffy Taffy, Everlasting Gobstopers, Razzles, Sour Patch Kids, Chunky, Now & Later, Spree, Pixy Stix, Life Savers, Sixlets, Smarties, Zotz, Rootbeer Barrels, Bob Bats, Hot Dog Bubble Gum, Abba Zaba, Chiklets, Kits, Pay Day, Fun Dip, Chuckles, Planters Peanut Bar, Boston Baked Beans, Candy Dots, Round Up Candy, Dots and even Pop Rocks! And that’s not ALL….there were at least 10 more I didn’t name!
So how do you pair beer & candy? Well it’s really easier than you would think. Much like cheese pairings and food pairings, different flavors of candy have different prominent attributes that are complimented by different styles of beer. The Old Time Candy retro candy selection is as varied in flavors as beer is, so it was actually a lot of fun experimenting with each candy and each beer…and while not every flavor of candy will lend itself to a beer pairing, you’d be surprised how nicely some of the Old Time Candy & beer flavors mix. We tested quite a few and a big thank you to Old Time Candy for offering us the opportunity to relive my candy memories. Below are some of the matches we liked best and again be sure to click on the banners for Old Time Candy to see for yourself.
| Candy | Beer | Notes |
| Nestle Chunky | St. Bernardus Abt 12 | The Sweet chocolate, raisons and nuts go well with the dark fruit flavors and complexity of the St. Bernardus. |
| Zagnut | Lancaster Milk Stout | The mix of peanut butter and coconut mix well with the sweet milk stout flavors. |
| O Henry | North Coast Old Rasputin | The caramel & fudge mix well with the rich chocolate & coffee flavors. of the Old Raspy. |
| Boston Baked Beans | Terrapin / Shmaltz Reunion Ale | This mix even surprised me, but the flavor in the candy blended well with the variety of cinnamon & heat in the Reunion Ale |
| Pearson’s Bun | Saucony Creek Maple Mistress | I’ll admit I started pairing a maple candy with a beer that features maple, but this mix was better that just that. |
| Charleston Chew | Goose Island Bourbon County Stout | The vanilla flavors in the taffy balance well with the oaky and earthy rich flavors in Bourbon County. |
| Swedish Fish | Southern Tier Pumking | I thought this one was odd until I tried it. The Swedish Fish are really sweet and the Pumking balances out the sweetness and compliments it nicely. |
| Pay Day | Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale | Lots of nuts and caramel blend well with this slightly sweet nut brown ale from Samuel Smith. |
| Razzles Tropical | Troegs Perpetual IPA | The mix of citrusy fruit flavors and the citrusy hops work really nicely together. |
| Sour Patch Kits or Air Heads Green Apple | Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale | I was initially leaning toward a cider with these sour guys, and I’ll admit I even tried a sour beer, but in the end the floral and citrusy character of Two Hearted worked best. |
| Goetz's Caramel Creams | Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter | I’ll admit these candies go with quite a few beers, but this mix worked really well….so well in fact that I finished both the candy and the beer together. |
| Clark Bar | New Belgium Fat Tire | There was just something special about the mix of milk chocolate in the Clark Bar with the bready sweetness of Fat Tire. |
| Spree | Bear Republic Racer 5 | You’d think the sourness of the candy would blow out your palate for any beer, but you’d be surprised how well it works with the hoppy flavors of Racer 5. |
| Planters Peanut Bar | Ithaca Dark Vine | This was a simple combination, but the nutty candy and roasty slightly hoppy Black IPA really worked well. |
I’ll admit there were a few I struggled with. I had a lot of fun with the wax lips but ultimately I decided to just enjoy them. The mint flavored candies seemed to only work with a really dark stout, and Bit-O-Honey seemed to work with everything! In the end it was a ton of fun, and stay tuned as I plan to revisit this great box of Old Time Candy with some more beer pairing. Thank you to everyone at Old Time Candy for sending this great box of candy and be sure to get one for yourself and try my pairings. In the mean time if you have any beer/candy pairing suggestions…by all means please comment in.
This post was created in partnership with eAccountable. All opinions and pairings are my own.
Save 15% on All Orders of $50 or More Now through Dec. 2nd! Use code holiday2013
via: www.oldtimecandy.com
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