You have to love Whole Foods, any place where I can get a short cheese lecture, taste, and help with a beer pairing is a nice place to spend my paycheck in. The Ponce location is best for the cheese lecture here in Atlanta, as my eyes scanned the cheeses I got beset on both sides by gentlemen willing to help. After much discussion on what to pair with a coffee stout, they sent me home with a Spanish leonora goat cheese, and a truly wonderful soft gray bumpy rind cow's milk cheese that I can't name. I threw away the %$##ing wrapper!!!!On to the beer: The Hitachino espresso stout poured black with practically no head in a regular pint glass. The stout smelled strongly metallic, so much that I had to put it aside for a minute to try to get past the metal. The first taste was sharply bitter. Subsequent tastes mellowed out a little and I could taste the espresso and sweet chocolate, but I ended up always with a bitter and slightly metallic aftertaste. Overall, the metallic smell overwhelmed my taste in many ways; and when I didn't inhale (he he) I tasted full-bodied creaminess in addition to the super coffee taste. I have read extremely good reviews for this beer online, none of which mention the metallic taste/smell so maybe I got a bad bottle. I'll just have to go try it again!
The Leonora was a good foil for the bitter stout; as it was slightly smoky and sweet with a hint of flowers/pasture in it. The other cheese, while incredible on its own, was no much for the metal/bitter of the Hitachino.
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