Valentines Black Velvet

Valentines Day, the day in the year where men are expected to fork out for the woman in their life, and usually get little in return. Fortunately my wife is sensible enough to suggest that money spent on cards and ridiculous gifts could be better spent on a decent bottle of wine and a bloody huge slab of steak.
Nothing says i love you more than congesting your partners colon and pickling their liver!

Anyway last week I received a gift at work for being good at my job, and whilst my colleagues enjoyed their box of biscuits, I am looking at a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne.

I'm not a big champagne fan to be honest, a little at a toast is more than enough for me, and so the sensible part of me thought immediately of Valentines night. Obviously i was not going to be able to tell the wife i had got it specially for the 14th, she'd never believe me, but i thought we'd enjoy it.
I then remembered in a Nigella Lawson book a drink called a Black Velvet - Guinness and Champagne.

 

That makes the champagne more palatable to me anyway.

I used Guinness FES for this. You are supposed to pour the champagne first, then the guinness on the back of a spoon and it looks like this.

Anyway, I'd liked to say it looked bloody marvelous... but it didn't, they both mixed together. But it tasted smooth, hint of the bitterness with the dryness of the champagne sitting in the centre, quite nice.
Actually i was most surprised that i quite enjoyed the champagne on its own, obviously I have to have the quality stuff to appreciate it!!

Beer post next time i promise, i'm aiming to be at the Cardiff beer shop tomorrow so hopefully i'll post goodies galore.

Guinness Foreign Extra

If, over the last ten to fifteen years, you'd bought me a pint of Guinness i would have drunk it, but i probably wouldn't have had a second, or bought one myself. It was okay but not really my cup of tea so to speak, and as a consequence i figured i didn't really like stouts. Guinness was stout.
Its only over the last year or two that i've tried them, and its really because of Protz's '300 beers...' when i learned about the history and the range of types, flavours and styles. And since then i've found Marstons' Oyster, Marble 'Stouter', Meantime's, and Untapped's Triple S are all fantastic, each individually wonderful beers.
Even so, i had yet to return to the one that had given me that initial impression.
So this afternoon after a good walk with the kids, and slapping a muffin topped beef stew into the oven i went on a beer run, and figured what better hearty meal to pair with a stout. And new just in my local shop is 330ml bottles of Foreign extra, about £1.39 i think it was.

A beautiful light chocolate head, dark dark brown body. A great thick body, surprised me actually how thick and chewy it was, with its rich chocolate and spice aroma. A taste that is a thick creamy maltyness, rich stewed fruit, coffee, and a good bitterness across the whole tongue. Trouble is now, do i have a 'normal' pint of Guinness or will that shatter some illusion i now have of how good it possibly is??
The stew was excellent also, and Liverpool beat Chelsea so i was a happy bunny all round. Yay.

Bigger picture here