Calgary's craft chocolate boom helps infuse new flavour into local craft beer

How well do craft chocolate and craft beer go together?

That's what two Calgary artisans want to find out.

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McGuire Chocolate prides themselves in teasing subtle flavours from exotic cocoa beans through carefulselection and roasting, while Annex breweries makes small limited batches of boutique beer.

They've decided to pair up to make a chocolate beer, that should hit the market onMarch 7.

"It's just kind of fun to play around with different flavours," said Annex brewer and founder AndrewBullied, who was previously the head brewer at VillageBrewery.

"We have made what we're calling 'Unifying Concept.' It's a chocolate stout, comes in at 7.2 per cent alcohol."

McGuire Chocolate sources cacao beans from around the world, but thenibs used by Annexare from Haiti.

"It's got this really nice sweetness to it. We think it's gonna add a lot of complexity to our beers," he said.

Craft chocolate booming in Calgary

Craft beer and all its many flavours is booming in Calgary, but so is craft chocolate.

"Craft chocolate is honouring the natural cacao bean," said Mark McGuire withMcGuire Chocolate.

"All of our chocolates have the same recipe. It's cacao bean and cane sugar. We don't mix it withflavours. We don't add anything, so when you taste differences in our chocolate, you know that thedifference comes from the different cacao beans."

McGuire says there is an entire community of "grassroots" craft chocolate makersin the city, and he personallyknows a handful of companies.

"I think there are technically six that we know of," said his fiance, Victoria Myers. "They're all doing something a little bit different."

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