Best Beverage Pairs for Different Food Categories
Everyone has their own favorites when it comes to pairing drinks with food. There’s nothing wrong with that. But choosing a beverage which attributes complement a dish can surprisingly enhance subtle elements of flavor. If you try these basic rules, it will make you want to follow them.
- Sweet & Sour
Do not overpower the sugar and salt of your Sweet & Sour dish. The drink should be in harmony with a fruity taste like a fruit beer, aromatic white wine, and ginger ale.
- Hot & Spicy
This kind of dish needs a more neutral drink to cut the spice and complex flavors. Since spice sharpens the taste, it requires cooling juice drinks, wheat beer, and fruity red and white wines.
- Oily & Stuffy
Pair fish, chips, and other oily dishes with a palate cleanser. Carbonation and acidity like sweet lemonade, classic lager, fizzy wine, and champagne would cut through oilier dishes.
- Grilled & Meaty
Salt and acidity need to be in balance with highly-flavored smoky dishes to enrich the meal. Perfect partners are rich cola, amber ale and bold red wine to complement the barbeque sauce and smoky food. If you eat this type of meal more often, you may consider buying from a Coca cola distributor.
- Rich & Heavy
Braised beef short ribs, red meats, and other rich and heavy dishes require full-bodied beverages. It balances the bitterness and sweet malty flavors plus the acidity that breaks down the fats. Look for soda, pale ale, and red wine.
- Salty & Savory
White meat dishes need an acidic-based beverage to stabilize any fat in the meat and cleanse the mouth. Full flavour juice drinks, light lagers and medium bodied red are an awesome pair.
- Creamy & Thick
Rich, creamy dishes like macaroni and cheese recommend drinks with moderate levels of tannin which is slightly bitter and astringent to intensify drying sensation and contradict the creaminess of the food. Ideal matches are the lager, lemon and lime-based beverages, and dry white wine.
- Sweet Desserts
When eating sweets, you have to drink something sweeter. Go with seltzer and sparkling wine to complement the fruity tastes of your dessert or India Pale Ales for bitterness to cut through the sweetness.
The above guide may be a lot to know and requires some practice but it should be fun for food lovers. The best way to know which food works to which drinks is to play with it. Buy from a wholesale beverage supplier, then try different options and assess if the tastes get better or worse. Which characteristics blend - carbonation, tannin and bitterness or sweetness? Is there something else that would enhance the flavor? Simply look for something to contrast the taste or to show continuity with the food, complementing similar characteristics and helping them stand out.
If you like this article, you may like our earlier article regarding Ways for Restos to Meet the New Normal.