According to the Daily Beast, anyway. They’ve got the run-down on what they think are some of the best pieces of travel writing this year’s produced. I found there to be a few doozies, but on the whole, I think they’ve rounded up a swell bunch. A personal fave is definitely the Craft-Beer Revolution in Paris, which might be just what my boyfriend needs to convince him to take me to France…
A section of the article:
“After a few minutes of small talk, Thierry whips out a few glasses and bottles. His unfiltered, unpasteurized, 100 percent organic beers, brewed in small batches, carry the names of local streets and districts in Goutte d’Or. He opens a bottle of Ernestine, an IPA enriched with rooibos and cola nuts that he bought at the local open-air market Marché Dejean. It’s quite bitter and has a subtle fruitiness. It goes down fast. Then we try his Charbonnière. At 7.5 percent alcohol, it’s right up my alley. It’s an amber beer with smoked malts that pours a dark caramel color with a small white head. It’s not overly carbonated or refrigerated, so all the smoky flavors come bursting forward.
I ask Thierry if his fellow Parisians are really ready for the idea of a hip, urban craft brewery. “When you go into rural France,” he responds, “people know the local breweries, they know the beers. They have a relationship with the brand and with the product. So the French people are ready for this. Especially in Paris. It’s an open market here.” Read the rest of that essay here, and check out the full list here!
