Thanks in part to people being stuck at home during the pandemic, volume sales of ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails increased by 26.4% in 2020 alone, according to IWSR. Another trend that only amplified during the pandemic was cheeseboards. Already popular on Instagram, cheeseboards created by cheesemakers, cheese shops and cheeseboard businesses became even more common as the pandemic kept people from dining out in restaurants. Cheeseboards have proven a happy hour favorite, even over Zoom, and have also helped to give home cooks a break from slaving over the stove night after night.
Board at Home and Batch & Bottle both businesses that launched during the pandemic, are hoping to take the guesswork out of pairing cocktails and cheeseboards, with a partnership that combines the new range of premium ready-to-drink cocktails with an exclusive cheese and charcuterie collection.
The deluxe collection from Board at Home includes expertly paired cheese and charcuterie including Fiscalini Farmstead Old World Aged Cheddar, Cypress Grove Fog Lights, Rumiano Cheese Co. Dry Jack, Aged Jack Cheese, two kinds of salami, chocolate dipped dates, flatbread and crisps, and pistachios. The collection also comes with easy-to-follow pairing notes for each of the Batch & Bottle bottled cocktails—
Monkey Shoulder Lazy Old Fashioned, Hendrick’s Gin Martini, Glenfiddich Scotch Manhattan and Reyka Rhubarb Cosmopolitan.
The kit also includes a promotional code from online liquor store platform Drizly so customers can order their bottled cocktail from Batch & Bottle to be delivered directly to their home, so they can try the pairings for themselves or effortlessly host an at-home entertaining experience. Each cocktail bottle serves 3-4 people, while each board serves up to 4. It’s also perfect for Father’s Day or a Zoom happy hour.
Ray Rumiano photo courtesy of Board at Home
Pairing to Please
While the partnership between the two brands is a natural, pairing cocktails and food is a bit trickier or more fun, depending upon your perspective. By following a few simple principles however, you too can become a cocktail pairing expert. We reached out to Ray Rumiano, Founder of Board at Home to learn how the pairings came together.
According to Rumiano, “Board at Home has developed relationships with experts from numerous food and beverage industries. One such expert, Trevor Cope, certified Cicerone and food and beverage pairing expert, helped us develop the Principles of Pairings, which has become our system for developing pairings. We focus on the unique attributes of each product, and then we brainstorm to consider potential combinations using four key segments: Complementary, Contrasting, Cut/Clean, Intensity. Then, it’s try, try again (the real hard work…).”
Start with Intensity
While wine is designed to pair with food and complement food, cocktails really aren’t. That doesn’t mean it can’t work, it just takes more effort. What are the keys to pairing cocktails and cheese? Rumiano says, “Spirits can easily overwhelm the nuance of any cheese’s flavors, so when looking to pair, we start with the principle of Intensity. You’ve got to match the spirit’s intensity with the cheese pairing. For example, a gin and tonic (obviously using Hendrick’s Gin) that displays lush citrus and herbal notes and a fairly strong bitterness would easily overpower the nuance of most cheeses. For this, we’d consider something hardy such as a Pecorino, to match that intensity and even beneficially contrast with the citrus and herbal notes.”
Favorite Pairings
Rumiano points out that it was Cope who first mentioned the Rumiano Dry Jack and the Glenfiddich Scotch Manhattan. Says Rumiano, “This really didn’t resonate with me initially, however, once trying it I was really blown away at the complexity of the two. Dry Jack is a salt-forward, buttery and umami cheese and I didn’t expect it to really do much with the Manhattan. I was very wrong – it brought this buttery campfire toastiness out that rivaled waking up in the Sierra Nevadas on a crisp Fall morning, making your breakfast over the open flame. I could talk about this all day…”
Sebastien Derbomez, Manager of Brand Advocacy at William Grant & Sons shares that one of his favorite pairings from the kit is the Reyka Rhubarb Cosmopolitan paired with sweet candied mandarins and soft brie. Says Derbomez, “The flavors in mandarins and brie are the perfect match to the rhubarb, vodka, and orange liquor in the cocktail.”
What pairing will customers like best? Only time and lots more experimenting will tell. The $100 kit which launched recently is available until 7/31/22.