This Beer Is Inspired By Levain Cookies

Milk and cookies? More like cookies and beer, as is the idea behind a new collaboration between Levain Bakery and TALEA Beer Co. Leading up to Valentine's Day, these two New York City spots have come together to create a dark chocolate cookie stout, per a press release sent to Mashed. The creation draws inspiration from Levain Bakery's dark chocolate chip cookies, which is one of six flavors sold at the famous dessert shop. 

Founded in 1995 by two best friends on the Upper West Side, Levain Bakery now has locations throughout the East Coast. TALEA Beer Co., meanwhile, is a recently opened beer taproom in Brooklyn that's known for its "approachable" beers — and for being the first female-founded brewery in New York City, per VinePair. Not only are both companies led by women, but they were also both founded by people who left corporate jobs to pursue ambitions in the food and beverage space. Together, their products make an "unexpected" but "rich and chocolatey stout" that contains vanilla and milk sugar and is brewed with Levain's dark cocoa and cookies.

In previous years, customers had to trek to one of Levain Bakery's nine locations (and then wait in line) to taste its famously thick and chocolate-loaded cookies. But last year, Whole Foods began carrying Levain cookies in stores. These days, shoppers in the Midwest, West Coast, and beyond can find ready-to-bake Levain cookies in Whole Foods' freezer section. Similarly, Levain is now offering its beer collaboration with TALEA at Whole Foods stores in Long Island, Westchester, and New York City, where the dark chocolate cookie stout will be sold in four-packs. Those who can make it to Brooklyn can also try it at TALEA's taproom.

Those unfamiliar with stouts can expect a dark beverage with a more full-bodied texture and sometimes sweeter flavor than other types of beer. VinePair refers to the category of dessert-flavored beers, like the TALEA-Levain dark chocolate cookie stout, as pastry stouts. Other chocolate-infused beer options include Great Divide's Mexican Chocolate Yeti and Garage Brewing's peanut butter chocolate milk stout.