Beer and Nuts, The Perfect Pair

From Batman and Robin to Eric and Ernie, gin and tonic to fish and chips, it’s fair to say that time has given us some winning pairings. Well here’s another; nuts and beer. Twinning nuts and drinks is nothing new of course, we have since time immemorial thought nothing of pairing a pint of best with a pack of salted or dry roasted peanuts. We made do and thought nothing of it. And while these are noble flavours, we at Sun Valley think it’s high time to dream bigger and examine how different flavour profiles and variants can really work with often complex styles of beer.

Nowadays when it comes to beer, we’re truly spoilt. The explosion in craft styles, which experienced a 90% rise in sales in the 2019 alone*, sitting alongside more traditional but no less loved variants, means there are now more beer brands on offer than ever before.

A new kind of beer munch

The snacks market has been slightly slow to react, with little or no innovation forthcoming despite a burgeoning beer market. We’ve had so-called ‘beer munch’ but munching is so…well, unrefined. What about those who want to savour a snack, just as they would a glass of Beaujolais or a tall, frothy pint of the good stuff. Well, the rot stops here and now, because a little forethought around flavour pairings can go a long, long way.

The perfect pair

To help shine a light, we enlisted unashamed nut enthusiast the Beerbelle, alias one of the UK’s most respected beer sommeliers and writers and all-round good egg, Annabel Smith.

Together we’ve created a video miniseries of pairing masterclasses, entitled For Every Beer, a Nut.

For the series, Annabel takes some of the most popular beer varieties available today and offers up a host of innovative nut pairings – sourced from across our range of premium nut mixes and exciting flavours including; Spicy BBQ Peanuts & Corn with Tabasco Brand Seasoning, Sea Salt and Black Pepper Cashews, Smoked Paprika and Wasabi.

Find your match

These great mixes are available in a range of formats to suit different tastes and establishments including single serve bags, bulk catering bags and handy barpots.