Happy 2015! Was your New Year’s amazing? Did you pair candy with champagne? Did you make resolutions that you have yet to even start? No matter what your answer, may 2015 be your year.
I am enjoying the last few days before school and my new internship starts. Yesterday, I hiked Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland and then visited a nearby winery to enjoy a tasting and mulled wine! I didn’t take any winery photos, but here is a lovely view from the mountain.
I have done a pairing very recently, which I am impressed by (it wasn’t even a resolution)! I got a lot of candy to pair for Christmas, so we are going to kick it off by pairing a classic on this blog, the candy that started it all: black licorice.
The Wine: 2013 Agua Negra Merlot
The Candy: Rockies Soft-Sweet Licorice
The Dream: I typically pair licorice with reds, but I have not yet tried a Merlot. I actually was not that confident with this pairing, but I wanted to keep licorice pairings fresh. Also for some reason, I thought I had received salted licorice. Sometimes I really worry about my poor attention to detail.
The Reality: I did not take a picture of this pairing and, unrelatedly(?), I did not like this pairing very much. The Merlot did not taste good at first so I let it breathe awhile. However, it still tasted a bit watery and reminded me of weak coffee. Quite frankly it was not for my palate and I never grew to like it.
The licorice is plain black licorice with a creamy sweet center. There was a vanilla and a strawberry center, but I could not tell the difference. I really tried to tell the difference but maybe my tongue has been burned too many times. I never grew to like these. Is there something wrong with me? Am I too negative? We will never know.
The licorice slightly masks the odd coffee flavor. Again, I like coffee notes but this was just…wrong I don’t know. Overalldid not like this pairing. As the title suggests, I felt very “meh” at the end.
While this isn’t the best way to start 2015, we can only go up from here! I have lemonheads and mini-mentos to pair in the near future.
Uncorked, Unwrapped 