Nutista — an innovative, artisan-minded stoneground nutbutter company in Carlsbad, California — is releasing a new product in collaboration with Escondido, California’s Stone Brewing.

Nutista / Stone Xocoveza Nutbutter is the nutty counterpart to the brewery’s winter seasonal, Stone Xocoveza. The beer equivalent of Mexican hot chocolate, the spiced mocha stout features cocoa and cinnamon notes upfront followed by flavors of coffee, nutmeg and vanilla, with a finishing flash of pasilla pepper fruitiness and heat. The beer is 8.1% ABV.

Echoing the flavors of the beer, Nutista / Stone Xocoveza Nutbutter features top notes of cinnamon, cocoa and nutmeg followed by rich chocolate and subtle pepper flavors, and a hint of heat on its finale. This nutbutter is made with raw cashews, dry roasted Valencia peanuts, Belizian cacao, lactose (milk sugar), coconut sugar, pasilla peppers, single-origin Brazil Oberon coffee, Korintji cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon, brewer’s yeast, nutmeg and Himalayan sea salt. It does not contain alcohol.

For its glorious flavor, Xocoveza nutbutter has a surprisingly low total sugar of just 6 grams/serving and a hefty 5 grams of plant-based protein/serving.

Starting October 11, Nutista / Stone Xocoveza Nutbutter will be available for purchase at nutista.com and shop.stonebrewing.com and all Stone company stores. Starting October 18, Nutista / Stone Xocoveza and Nutista / Stone Tangerine Express IPA nutbutter will be sold in all 26 Total Wine stores in California.

“It’s like a warm hug,” Nutista co-founder Tristen Cross says of the Xocoveza nutbutter. “It’s sweet and savory with a bit of heat on the back end, and it’s luscious and ultra-decadent but still guilt-free. It’s also perfect for fall and hot chocolate season. This is the first time we’ve used lactose,” Cross adds. “It helps create a milk chocolate flavor and adds a fluffiness to the mouthfeel, while staying very true to the ingredients in the beer.”

Nutista co-founder John Huber says the nutbutter had to have the same rich chocolate character and luxuriance of its namesake beer. “That was very important to the Stone team,” Huber says, “and we met that challenge. The two varietals of cinnamon — one from Indonesia and one from Sri Lanka — made it all come together with both bright and spicy cinnamon notes. The Belizian cacao is really special, too, and provides the depth of chocolate we wanted.”

Nutista co-founder (and Stone Brewing Executive Chairman) Greg Koch, says Nutista’s latest flavor furthers Nutista’s objective of taking nutbutter to new places. “It once again breaks new ground for nutbutters,” he says, “by combining flavors and awesome ingredients in a way that has not previously been done. Once you try it you’ll wonder, ‘Why in the hell not?’”

This is the fourth collaboration Nutista has done with Stone. In March the company released a limited-release Nutista / Stone Totalitarian Imperial Russian Stout nutbutter, in May it released Nutista / Stone Tangerine Express IPA nutbutter, which echoed the flavors of Stone’s popular fruit-enhanced IPA. In July Nutista released Nutista / Stone w00tstout Nutbutter, a nutty counterpart to Stone Brewing’s summer seasonal and Comic-Con tribute beer, Drew Curtis / Wil Wheaton / Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout.

Buy this nutbutter and learn more about Nutista at www.nutista.com.