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November’s Curdbox is an Herb Party, just in time to coincide with my personal celebration of 3 Floyd’s Brewing beginning distribution to Tennessee. Now this isn’t a box full of *that* herb, but I did pair these herbed cheeses and snacks with plenty of Humulus Lupulus (better known as hops), with results so delicious even I was surprised.
Zombie Dust is a cult classic beer that uses the term Pale Ale liberally, exploding with orange flesh and lemon peel flavors from its generous dose of hops. I paired this beer with Cypress Grove Psychedillic goat cheese on Firehook sea salt crackers. Citrusy hop flavors make a well-balanced, refreshing complement to the cheese’s award-winning flavor and classically creamy texture.
Alpha King is another 3 Floyd’s Pale Ale with big hops, but this time with a warmer malt sweetness behind it. That made this beer a match for the smooth, mild flavor of Beehive cheese curds and perfectly seasoned Mediterranean Herb pistachios from Gilded Nuts. This salty cheese and nut combo is the part of this box I’d most likely find myself snacking on any given day, and these addictively appetizing pistachios were the first item finished.
My big surprise of the box was how much I love Barnier’s marinated olives (rarely part of my daily diet), either on their own or with Point Reyes TomaProvence cheese. This is certainly the most heavily-herbed food combo in the box, so I paired it with Gumballhead, a dry-hopped wheat ale with the softest, most sessionable flavor of today’s three beers.
All three of these pairings were beautifully balanced, but I have to end by confessing I took advantage of the firm texture of the TomaProvence and used one slice as a makeshift cracker for the dilled goat cheese. Together with Zombie Dust and an olive, this was the most intense possible bite in the box, and I thoroughly enjoyed how dirty and earthy it felt.
