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The ultimate Halloween candy and booze pairing guide (INFOGRAPHIC)

Every Halloween, you do a lot for your kids, including walking around the neighborhood with them for an hour or more — and they make bank. No one thinks you’re a bad parent for taking your cut. And what better way to enjoy it than with your favorite beers, wines and spirits (after the kiddos are in bed, of course)?

If you come across a candy that’s not on our list, there are a few things you need to consider to come up with your own perfect pairing.

Flavor

When it comes to pairing candy with booze, you can almost always pair like flavors. If you have a chocolate-covered caramel, chances are a chocolaty, malty or caramel-noted beer will pair nicely. But just as with shoes and purses, you don’t have to be so matchy-matchy. Complementary flavors work too. An orange cream cocktail goes beautifully with dark or milk chocolate.

Mouthfeel

Some drinks are smooth and creamy, while others are thin or chewy or velvety… and more. A Werther’s Original’s velvety-smooth mouthfeel makes it the perfect pairing for a thick, creamy stout. Sour candies like Warheads pair well with heavily carbonated cocktails and beers with low-intensity flavors to cut the sour.

Intensity

Intensity is fun to play with. You can pair a candy with its polar intensity opposite for a playful juxtaposition or even to reduce the intensity of a flavor with a lot of kick. Pair a sour beer or apple martini with a deep, rich chocolate to have a brief reprieve from the punch of sour. But it’s also fun to be adventurous. Have your sour beer or apple martini with Sour Patch Kids to amp up the flavor.

Pair your chocolate candy with beer, wine and cocktails

Next: Halloween candy pairing guide — non-chocolate candy

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