Thimble Island Mutually Assured Destruction Russian Imperial Stout (PB Cup Edition) and Russian Peanut Cookies
One of the magical things about the internet is how it can dramatically shrink our vast world. Recently we had the opportunity to do a snack exchange with @chip_chipster, send over some of the finest Ruffles available in return for a selection of cookies. We thought the recent Thimble Island stout release was the perfect pairing, for no other reason that the metaphorical.
The name ‘mutually assured destruction’ harkens to a not-too-distant era in our history where there was an enormous rift between our nations. We’d be hard pressed to find a more perfect example of how far we have come than to pair a reference to our shared history with cookies obtained via internet snack exchange from the very country on the other side of this historic divide.
The Beer: A 10% Russian imperial stout brings many things to mind and this beer has all of them. It’s big, decently boozy with lots of malt character and not very sweet. I was excited about the peanut butter cup on the label, but most of the character come through as a nice dark chocolate note. This was one flavor variety of 4 in the pack, I am eager to try the others. Hopefully this box of Russian Cookies will last long enough to partner up with the other varieties.
The Cookie: When trying foods from another country, you always have to leave your expectations at the door, so I did my best to not think about a typical peanut butter cookie when taking my first bite. Different but very satisfying, this is a crisp cookie with chunks of peanut that really add dimension. It is not very sweet but has a wholesome roasted peanut flavor. I could eat a box of these without slowing down!
The Pairing: A dry crispy cookie is a dunkable cookie and this ended up being the best part of this combination. The cookie has such a nice peanut flavor that it gave the beer that part of the Pb cup it had been missing. It’s up to your discretion how much 10% beer you can drink, but putting these two together make it go down easy.
