After Dinner

It’s time for a rematch.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to take mint to task. This time I have a super weapon and it’s called wisdom. Specifically, I refer to the wisdom of those who came before me.

A much wiser pair-er than I successfully paired mint with wine–specifically port with thin mints–and I decided to give it a shot. Giving credit when credit is due is pretty much my mantra (it was also beaten over my head at college), so here is the post. It has a lot of tasty ideas for experiencing Girl Scout cookies with an adult beverage. The basic concept of the pairing is that the richness of the port can balance out the mint and chocolate. Mint and chocolate proves to be an extremely tricky combo to overcome, so I took this advice. Also, I never had port before (it turns out I am not a 45 year old man with an ascot) so it was a new experience.

The “Adult Beverage”: Presidential Porto, from Portugal

Let's just say Santorum won't be drinking this (boodumcha)

The Candy: Double mint! Junior Mints & Andes Mints

The Reality:

I’m not going to pretend that I had a “dream” for this pairing when I used the idea of someone else. But I thought this turned out pretty well. The port is 19% / volumen which is, well, pretty heavy duty. It is heavy and flavorful–there’s a lot to process in one sip. It’s sweet and goes down smooth. It lays very thick on your tongue, which ended up being a good thing. 

With the Andes mint, the port did well.   It was able to wash away the lingering mint flavor while keeping the chocolate present. It accented the richness of the chocolate and kept the mint from overpowering the experience. But Junior Mints have such a sizable minty middle, which is difficult to overpower. There is also so much of it. I never realized how much “mint” is in a Junior Mint.

I recommend port, if you have not had it. And hey, it’s an after dinner drink for an after dinner mint! I would say that was pretty inspired, if I didn’t steal the idea for this pairing from someone else.

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I’m going to try to update this blog with more wine news that I stumble across. Send me some things if you are so inclined, otherwise, stay thirsty my friends.