The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureFood & Drinks

Shake Shack: one week of Mast Brothers’ Chocolate Beer Floats

Shake Shack: one week of Mast Brothers’ Chocolate Beer Floats
18 August 2015
Daniel Masters
Daniel Masters
Avatar
Shot by Filippo L'Astorina
Avatar
Daniel Masters Shot by Filippo L'Astorina
18 August 2015

Food

Daniel Masters3

Shake Shack Covent Garden

★★★★★
BarQuick & easyCasual foodFine dining

Cuisine

Burgers

Links

MapWebsite

It’s fair to say that Mast Brothers aren’t afraid to push the boat out a little. The New York-based chocolatiers are known for their unusual ingredients, with a trio of mushrooms, figs and walnuts embedded in sheep’s milk chocolate a particularly notable example of the pair’s creativity. So when they first announced their creation of a chocolate beer, there was considerable interest. Despite what the name suggests, it’s not chocolate porter; made from the same process that creates cold brewed coffee, this chocolate beer relies on purely on the excellence of the cacao beans for flavour.

From the 17th to the 23rd of August, Shake Shack Covent Garden will be be offering it in float form, topped with a slick of the ever popular vanilla frozen custard. We had with their signature burgers, the ShackMeister and the SmokeShack. Non-alcoholic, perfect for all ages and potentially full of interesting flavours, it should be a match made in heaven. Shake Shack Covent Garden - Filippo L'Astorina - The Upcoming-2Especially with Shake Shack’s talent for milkshakes, a thing of beauty which so often strikes the perfect balance of sweet and rich flavours to create shakes that are luxuriously creamy without ever crossing the line into over indulgence. Here though, they overstep that boundary a little.

Thick, rich, with more than a hint of sweetness, it initially seems more like a mild shake than an artisanal chocolate beer. It’s certainly not what we would expect a collaboration between these two excellent producers to taste like. Mast Brothers in particular are very good are presenting a diverse balance of flavours in their products, a talent that’s oddly absent here. It’s only at the end, in a robust finish that’s full of caramel and woody notes, that things become a little more clear. The custard is a comforting blanket of sugar that takes all the challenge out of the beer that it’s supposed to compliment. The result isn’t a bad drink by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s too timid and, frankly, mass market. It’s a niche product, dressed up for wide scale consumption in a way that does it no favours.

We scooped out half of the offending mixture and try again, and this time the results were much better. It still started sweet, but there was newfound variety and nuance. Nutty notes and hints of honey both emerged before they gave way to that same excellence finish and a lingering aftertaste that’s devilishly moreish. There’s a great drink here, looking for a way out. Our advice? Go and enjoy it whilst it’s there, but ask for a half or even a quarter measure of custard.

★★★★★

Daniel Masters
Photos: Filippo L’Astorina

Mast Brothers’ Chocolate Beer Float is available at Shake Shack Covent Garden from 17th to 23rd of August 2015, for further information visit here.

Related Items

More in Food & Drinks

Project Gastronomía: How will Londoners eat in 2050? A symposium on gastronomy and multisensory design

Daniel Amir
Read More

London’s coffee revolution: How the scene has changed in the last ten years

Mersa Auda
Read More

Hide in Mayfair: Dabbous raises the bar of informal fine dining with his new restaurant

★★★★★
Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More

London Coffee Festival 2018: Things to see, drink and do

Daniel Amir
Read More

Dinner for Hamish: A charity dinner at Perilla with Phil Howard, Merlin Labron-Johnson, Gary Foulkes and Aaron Potter

The editorial unit
Read More

David Thompson at the Waterside Inn: A taste of Thai cuisine in the temple of classic French fine dining

Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More

Must-see London exhibitions this April

Anna Souter
Read More

Tom Sellers’s Restaurant Story will relaunch on 8th May with a new “bespoke” dining concept

The editorial unit
Read More

Outlaw protégé Tom Brown’s debut restaurant Cornerstone to open in Hackney Wick this April

The editorial unit
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Food

Daniel Masters3

Shake Shack Covent Garden

★★★★★
BarQuick & easyCasual foodFine dining

Cuisine

Burgers

Links

MapWebsite

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Project Gastronomía: How will Londoners eat in 2050? A symposium on gastronomy and multisensory design
    Food & Drinks
  • Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Beast premiere: A chat with Johnny Flynn, Jessie Buckley and Michael Pearce
    Cinema
  • Tribeca Film Festival 2018: On the red carpet with the stars of Westworld season 2
    Cinema
  • The Outsider
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Tokio Myers at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Outsider: An interview with director Thomas Meadmore
    Cinema
  • Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Project Gastronomía: How will Londoners eat in 2050? A symposium on gastronomy and multisensory design
    Food & Drinks
  • Tokio Myers at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Hinds at Electric Brixton
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Half Breed
    ★★★★★
    Theatre

Instagram

Something is wrong. Response takes too long or there is JS error. Press Ctrl+Shift+J or Cmd+Shift+J on a Mac.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • New London restaurant openings and pop-ups
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Subscribe
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Cartel Land | Movie review
Unboxed at Etcetera | Theatre review