Cloudwater – My Continuous Improvement #4 Chocolate Orange
Cloudwater's MCI series has been dazzlingly good this year and I could happily have swapped in any of the others I was lucky enough to try (I got my mitts on all bar the blueberry) for my BOTY runner-up position but this was going to take some beating given that flavour combo!!
This 11% impy benefited from a major whack of orange zest being added to Cloudy’s double vanilla, double cacao MCI base and whilst the brewer compares this to a dark chocolate mousse with fresh citrus, I have to say my childlike palate largely picked up liquified Terry’s chocolate orange and that brought be more delight than any grown-up dessert ever could. I had this early December and definitely found it more festive than number 5’s Black Forest Gateau flavourings – I mean I can’t be the only one who gets a choccie orange in their stocking each year!!
A lot has to be said for the density and smoothness of the body that Cloudy manage to get on their stouts which for this iteration, transported those wonderful flavours of rich sweet chocolate and zingy orange superbly to deliver a truly decadent and indulgent winter treat.
In other posts, I have bigged up Deya’s excellent ‘Saturated in’ series of single-hopped DIPAs and for me, Cloudwater achieved that same level of quality and reliability with this series of stouts that inevitably led to each new release generating all manner of hype and FOMO amongst the craft community. It will be interesting to see where the Mancunians take their stout game in 2021 but whether the MCI series continues or not, here's hoping for a rebrew of this gem!!
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