Flavor tripping "class"

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joefalck
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Flavor tripping "class"

There is a new cafe in my neighborhood by Chef Omaro Cantu that centers around this tropical berry called the "miracle berry".  The miracle berry has a protein that binds on flavor receptors on your tongue and cancels out bitter and sour flavors.  Chef Cantu has a lot of unsweetened pastries and sodas and stuff, so you chew this berry for a minute, then all of a sudden the pastries that were not very sweet at all change flavors and become very sweet.  His intention is to let you eat sweets without the ill effects of sugar on your health.  His savory sandwiches and stuff are awesome too, but this berry is a whole lot of fun.  Biting a lemon tastes like lemonade, apple cider vinegar tastes like kool aid, strawberries taste like the have a pound of sugar on them, I also had some Guinness in the fridge, it tasted like a chocolate milk shake, it was insane.   The effects last about a half hour and that protein can be denatured by drinking something above about 118 degrees.  So I was talking to Conrad about how cool an IPA flight would be with this berry, Berliners and sours too.  There is really no applicable lesson or educational value, but it sounds like it would a lot of fun, to get a load of these berries and have a bottle share.  You can get lozenges with the berry juice online pretty cheap, but they are only 50 cents each at the cafe for a whole berry,  I would want to try and contact Chef Cantu and see if he can come with enough berries for us and maybe discuss them a bit too, I think having him come would be worth while to help us build more relationships in then culinary world, to hear his expert take on the berry, and the chance to discuss flavors with a world class chef will certainly benefit any brewer. I'm posting this just to gauge interest, if interest is high I can try and email him and see if I can hook this up on a Saturday or Sunday.

joefalck
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So the price of admission to

So the price of admission to this proposed "class" would be 50 cents for the berry, and a bottle of something you think would be cool to taste under these circumstances, IPA and sours are good candidates. 

ICEHOUSE 666
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I got to experiment with some

I got to experiment with some of the tablets last night. I tore into my buddy's kitchen and sampled as many things as possible. Lemons tasted like lemon drops, a red onion tasted sweet,and rice vinegar tasted like some sort of fruit juice. Very cool berry. I'd like to use it while sampling some sour beers.

joefalck
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Snozzberries tastelike

Snozzberries tastelike snozzberries, haha

josh s
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I would do this.  Cool idea

I would do this.  Cool idea ive seen on the news before.  Didnt consider beer though.

JimChochola
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I'm down with this. My wife

I'm down with this. My wife did this a few years ago at a party she threw but with tabs you pop in your mouth (available on Amazon, I think) instead of a powdered version she had previously had at a restaurant. I imagine the unadulterated berry is even better!

I also think having Chef Cantu come in - if you can actually book him...for free - would be awesome. CHAOS and Leopold (when it was still Leopold) on Chicago ave did a beer/dinner pairing a few years ago with Chef Hedin-cooked courses and CHAOS-brewed beers. It went off well but we didn't really make any further pushes toward bridging the culinary and cerevisial [which isn't actually an adjective but it damn-well ought to be!] worlds in Chicago thereafter.

Steve3730
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I've done this a few years

I've done this a few years back with the tablets. leamon rimes tasted like candy, coffeemate tasted like cake and grapes tasted like amazing

joefalck
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I spoke with Azeez the Chef

I spoke with Azeez the Chef/partner with chef Cantu at Berrista this morning, he was very interested in coming in to talk with us about creating and perciving flavors, getting some berries and tasting a whole bunch of beers.  Apparently Chef Cantu is planning a brewpub to open at the end of this year, so he was pretty confident he could get their brewmaster along with Chef Cantu to come to the brewhouse and talk/share/drink.  I think this could be very mutually beneficial because we could get to discuss flavor creation/pairing/perception with world class chefs and a brewmaster, just to hear their approach to building flavors is very interesting to me, and they could get some serious market research done for their brewpub since we represent a pretty great focus group for what they are opening.  The fish is on the hook, lets see if i can reel it in and make it happen.

joefalck
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Also, if i can make this

Also, if i can make this happen, Josh, I have what may be a big favor to ask

I haven't kept track of the barrels you got going on, but i remember something about a sour that is aged on cherries, i think i got a taste of it previously but i dont remember if its been bottled, that combination and this berry have me absolutely fascinated to try together. If you could release a bit of that or something similar into the wild for this tasting session, that would be amazing. Thus far the only beer i tried while my tongue was "under the influence" was a guiness, it tasted so sweet it was like a chocolate milkshake, the potential flavors a sour aged on cherries has really interests me.

josh s
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Im interested in the class

Im interested in the class and always have good beer on hand.  Let me know when and Ill bring what we need.