Miller High Life Causes A Stir (Again) With Bar Snack Flavored Truffles

In 1906, Miller Brewing Company billed its flagship product, High Life, as the "champagne of bottle beer." Indeed, in 2015, MillerCoors (now Molson Coors) archivist Charlie Hosale told Vinepair that the lager did stand out as champagne-like at the time; it was the first beer sold in a clear glass bottle, and the gold foil that adorned its neck and cap gave it a decidedly celebratory look. The brand dropped the word "bottle" in 1969, and its slogan has remained the same ever since. It even sells its own branded coupe glasses. 

More than a century later, the High Life label has made it to the desks of French and Belgian champagne aficionados — and they're not happy about it. In mid-April, customs officials in Antwerp destroyed more than 2,000 cans of High Life, deeming them "illicit goods" on account of the French committee for the protection of Champagne, The New York Times reports. 

Instead of shrinking back in embarrassment, Miller has symbolically leaned into its tête-à-tête with champagne purists — probably not on purpose, given the timing — by launching a line of bar snack-flavored truffles. The jewel-like candies are made in collaboration with a Memphis, Tennessee-based chocolatier.

In true Willy Wonka fashion, Miller's limited-edition box of High Life Bar Snack Truffles, crafted and designed with chocolatier Phillip Ashley, concentrates the flavors of sweet and savory snacks into ornately decorated chocolates. If you're brave enough to nosh from the proverbial bowl of mixed nuts at the local dive, you might reach for the Beernut flavor, made with roasted peanuts marinated in High Life, ground into butter, and coated in a milk chocolate shell. 

Other pub-inspired truffles in the lineup include Buttery Popcorn, which is white chocolate ganache spiked with movie theater popcorn butter; Grilled cheese, made with a triple cream cheese white chocolate ganache in a white chocolate shell; Lemon Pepper Chicken Wing, which features a "unique fried chicken ganache" infused with lemon pepper seasoning; and Sweet Potato Fry, starring mashed garnet sweet potatoes blended with blond chocolate. For the dessert of desserts, there's Pretzel Praline, a sweet and salty option with caramel and blond chocolate filled with salted pretzel and roasted pecan. 

You can snag a $35 box of Miller High Life Bar Snack Truffles for yourself starting National Truffle Day on May 2. The idea of beer-inspired truffles might strike some as unprecedented, but they were a natural next step for Miller. In August 2022, in honor of its 100th anniversary, the brand launched a line of adults-only Ice Cream Dive Bars with Tipsy Scoop, bringing stool-side sippers like margaritas and vodka martinis into the dessert sphere. Each bar is infused with High Life, packing in up to 5% ABV. Perhaps Miller's next move will involve actual champagne (we wonder what the French would have to say about that), but for now, it seems to be sticking to desserts.

Beyond Miller, the worlds of dessert and beer have been getting more and more acquainted. With the recent proliferation of chocolaty "pastry stouts" at breweries around the country, some say dessert beers are becoming the new post-dinner nightcap.