It started as an experiment.
"We had been doing chocolate pairings with wine and chocolate pairings with beer," said Andy Laird, who co-founded Nunu Chocolates with his wife, Justine Pringle. "We thought, 'Why not cut out a step?' "
They teamed up with Brooklyn beer mecca Bierkraft for a limited run of chocolates filled with a ganache infused with a variety of beers. The "Beer Box," which features a six-pack of chocolates and sells for $12, was initially sold only at Bierkraft and created in small batches at the Nunu store.
"The line is always changing," Laird said. "Sometimes it reflects what beers we have on tap in the store. Sometimes people drop beers off to see what they'll taste like in a chocolate."
It's the craftsmanship of the beers and the surprise of whether the chocolate is filled with a limited edition hearty stout or a light grapefruit IPA that keep people coming back for more. Laird said the uncertainty is part of the fun.
One thing that's certain, the chocolates are gaining in popularity -- now the company's second-most popular item behind its salted caramels. The "Beer Box" is sold not just at Nunu and Bierkraft, but in the beer section of a number of Whole Foods Markets.
The demand has grown so much that Nunu is looking to expand to fill more wholesale orders. "More production space," Laird said, "that's what we really need."
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