Join me for a look back at my favorite beers and chocolates of 2020, with some pairings along the way. After you’ve listened to the show, I’d love to hear your own favorites from this bizarre trip around the sun.

As I fell in love with craft beer and bean to bar chocolate, I noticed something curious happening: the role faith had once played in my young life of pushing me to explore my identity and experiences, contemplate my world, and experience wonder and connection to something bigger than myself was now transferring more and more to my senses. The quest for the eternal had become a celebration of the ephemeral.

When highly creative brewers and chocolate makers come together for collaborations, the results can be magical. Hear from the minds behind Branch & Bone Artisan Ales & Violet Sky Chocolate about their partnership and what fuels their creativity.

Malt is the foundational ingredient of beer, but it’s an afterthought for most craft beer fans. A new group of small, artisan malt houses are returning character to brewing malt, and that malt is popping up in unexpected places—including bean to bar chocolate bars.

Many brewers who use cacao in a beer have no idea where that cacao is coming from, or any of its more nuanced flavor notes. More and more brewers are recognizing the flavor diversity of good chocolate and the benefits of working with a bean to bar chocolate company to source ethical, quality cacao.

Beers and chocolates featuring smoke or spice flavors require graceful dance partners that can both set them free and keep them on beat. Find some great examples in this episode.

Many brewers and chocolate makers infuse their creations with ingredients and flavors from their own cultural backgrounds, allowing them to share their memories and cultures with consumers.

Smoke is one of the most evocative aromas in the world. It can be found in abundance in the world of craft beer, and it’s making its way into more and more bean to bar chocolate as well.

Beer and chocolate make graceful dance partners if we just give them the right music and room to move.

A brewery and a chocolate maker in Asheville, North Carolina, are creating beautiful new flavors together.

Beer & chocolate both have their own languages and modes of expression, and each can learn from the other.

Our flavor vocabularies for beer & chocolate are affected by so many things we rarely think about.