Q Kola and Ginger

The family and I got to spend a couple of hours at one of our favourite places again today, Roast Coffeehouse.  It's been too long since we've been!

We noticed some new sodas that we just had to try, Q Drinks.  There were 4 flavours, but we chose two; Kola - Superior Kola, the label tells us, and Ginger - A Superior Ginger Ale.

They come in pretty little bottles, with only 237 ml/8 fl oz rather than the 355 ml/12 fl oz you'd get from a canned drink, and quite a bit more expensive.  I don't remember the price per bottle, but after enviro fees and GST, it came out to just over $4 a bottle.

Ouch.

Aesthetic appeal was definitely something the makers paid attention to.

 Even under the caps.

The Kola bottle even went the extra mile, with a personal message from the company founder.

"Real trees and plants," huh.  As opposed to fake ones?  Looking at the website, one of the things that had me rolling my eyes a bit was their going on about using organic agave instead of "high fructose corn syrup and sugar."  It's always disappointing to me when I see companies playing on people's fears and health fads of the day.  Sugar is sugar is sugar, regardless of the source.  Still, I'm not a fan of super-sugary anything, so the promise of these being not too sweet was encouraging.

So were the ingredient lists.  The Kola lists carbonated water, organic agave, phosphoric acid, extracts of cinnamon, clove, coriander, kola nut, lemon, lime, orange and nutmeg. Caramel.  Caffeine.  The Ginger Ale lists Carbonated Water, organic agave, ginger extract, extracts of lemon juice, coriander, cardamom, capsicum, orange peel, rose oil.  Sounds really interesting!

The Ginger Ale bottle did not include a pretentious little message from the founder.

So, did the sodas live up to their hype?

Almost.

The Ginger Ale was not as overwhelmingly ginger flavoured, nor as ... chunky... as some sodas we've tried.

This is a good thing. 

Unfortunately, it didn't really have much else to make up for it.  We could taste a light phosphoric acid bite and a light ginger flavour, but there really wasn't much of anything else to make it stand out.  It was rather pleasant and light (this from someone who does not actually like ginger ale, nor almost any of the clear sodas).  It was nice.  Other family members who actually do like ginger ale didn't find it particularly appealing.  Nice to try, but not enough to want to buy it again.

It was much the same with the Kola.  Lightly flavoured with the light phosphoric acid bite, it was happily as not-sweet as promised, but... it was really rather boring.  I was hoping to taste more of the spices listed in the ingredients, and I really didn't.

They were both good, but not great.  I'm actually more impressed with the bottle design than I am with what was in them.

When it comes down to it, if I'm going to spend more money to get a more traditional sodas, I'll stick with Boylan for cola and Reed's for ginger.

Brewer's ADD, Innis & Gunn Winter Treacle, Skullsplitter.

So the other day I sat down with three beers, my little sister, and the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Because you're not the boss of me.

The first beer is Brewer's ADD, with an appropriately spastic label design. It's aggressive, with a good bite. Not much subtlety, but I like it.

Second up is Innis & Gunn's Winter Treacle Porter. Now, Innis & Gunn is one of my favourite brewers, hands down. My favourite of theirs so far has been the Irish Whiskey finish, but this one might be right up there. It's pleasantly bitter, like black coffee, but with a strong fruity undertone. I recommend it.

The suprise winner for the night, though, was the Skullsplitter. Which I admit that I bought because it's called Skullsplitter. The best way I can describe it reminded me of a good, strong cheese. Not in flavour (I'm not sure even I'd go for that more than once), but in the way the taste is delayed. When it first hits your tongue, it's unremarkable, and then BAM! Flavour! Flavour everywhere! It's bombastic is what I'm saying, and I plan to pick it up again.
Overall, a good night!

St. George Premium Lager Beer

"You gotta try this Ethiopian beer I found!"

All right, what's it called?

"I don't know, it's in Ethiopian."

Oh.

So I really hope I titled this post right.

First off; this label is really nice. I love the colours and the adorable little St. George, and it was certainly easy to pick off the shelf.
Unfortunately, that's about all that distinguishes it. It's a light beer with that typical back-of-the-throat apple-juicy acidity. I can drink it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again.

Guess what image I didn't know I'd be using again so soon.

Ayran

Recently, Spin and I got together with a group of friends at La Shish Taouk.  I was rather glad that the group met here, as it's a place that caught my attention some time ago, and I'd been interested in checking it out.  I'd never had Lebanese food before, and I was curious.

While perusing the menu, I noticed something in the drinks list I'd never heard of before; Ayran.  So I asked the waitress about it, and she told me it was a fermented yogurt drink with salt.

What the heck, I decided.  I'll try that!  I've had fermented dairy drinks before and liked it.

This is what I got.

I've looked up the website since then, and have learned that Ayran is "the healthiest soft drink in the World !"

Soft drink is not how I would have described it. 

The ingredients list is water, yogurt, salt, citric acid and what I think was a preservative, but I can't remember the name of.

It looks pretty much like a glass of milk, only slightly thicker.  As for the taste.

Hmmm...

It kinda tasted like the liquid in commercial cottage cheese, plus salt.

Plenty of salt. 

According to the label, the drink is meant to be served chilled.  I'm not a fast drinker, so it was room temperature by the time I finished it.  The flavour becomes more intense as it warms up.

Spin gave it a try and promptly rejected it.  She didn't hate it or anything, but definitely didn't like it.  Too salty, for starters.


It was definitely an interesting drink, and I don't regret ordering it, but it's not something I'd order again.  I could get used to the flavour, but not the saltiness.  I suppose if I made it at home, I could control for the salt easily enough - basic recipes I've found are equal parts water and yogurt blended with salt to taste, so it'd be simple enough to make. Some recipes include cumin or mint, which sound interesting, but neither are flavours I associate with salt.

Ayran, from what I've read, is incredibly popular in Turkey, but when it comes to fermented dairy, I much prefer kefir.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

GUYS.
YOU GUYS.

THIS BEER TASTES EXACTLY LIKE A BAR OF 80% COCOA CHOCOLATE.

I LIKE IT.

END REVIEW.

Seriously, though. I saved this for the last of my Christmas gift beer reviews because I figured it would, at least, be the most interesting of the bunch. I was not wrong! Young's Double Chocolate Stout, unlike our last encounter with a "chocolate" "stout", really delivers on its description. "Silky rich and creamy smooth" "never overly sweet".

It is definitely on the dark, bitter side. I mean, even I can taste it. That doesn't keep it from being added to my favourites list, and if you're the type to like such things, it should probably go on yours.

(My Mother, uh.   She doesn't like it.)

Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel

The pale ales and ciders out of the way, it's time to get to the darker portions of my Christmas gift beers!

I offered my mother the first taste of this one. I couldn't see her face, but her shoulders hunched and her neck tucked in like those of a disgruntled pigeon.


Philistine.

So maybe I'm just happy to finally be drinking something with discernible hops, but I like this! It's clean, smooth and pleasant with a slightly creamy aftertaste and the tiiiniest hint of malt. The alcohol content is a modest 5.3% and, when not smothered by a prodigious mattress of foam (drink it from the bottle, kids.), it goes down nicely.

I wouldn't rank it among my favourite (hey, I should write about those.), but I might order it for a lunch out.

Overall, I feel I must bestow upon this beer the highest award in ambiguousness I can provide.

Happy drinking!

Riéme Limonade Artisanale

A triple-review today! My mother brought home this lovely trio from a trip to our local Italian (and, by extension, Most-of-European) Grocery a while back. The bottles are dainty and pretty, the label design is uninspiring but not off-putting.

Our flavours for today are Pomegranate, Grapefruit and... uh, "Pink".

The Pomegranate one smells like candy and has a light flavour, but isn't overly sweet. It's clean and refreshing.

The Grapefruit one is a bit more carbonated than the other two and, again, the fruit flavour is understated.

The Pink one is actually white, and I think it's just plain lemonade flavoured. Still, very nice.

There were other flavours available, including "traditional" which was clear as water.  Each cost about a dollar and a quarter (Canadian) apiece, plus enviro fees.

All the flavours are united by a certain unobtrusiveness. They're not too acidic, not too sweet, not too carbonated. Pleasant and thirst-quenching. I think the Pomegranate and Pink ones are more to my liking, but I'd recommend giving any of them a try.

Fuller's Organic Honey Dew

One thing about having a daughter that is on a mission to try lots of new types of beverages is that it makes finding Christmas presents really easy.  That different types of beer is high on her list of beverages to try makes narrowing things down even easier.

The down side is, I'm expected to taste test these with her.

So here we are again, furthering our quest in finding a beer that I actually like, instead of the usual gagging noises and facial contortions.

This time, Spindle chose another of the light beers I got for her.  Fuller's Organic Honey Dew.  It's a Refreshing golden Beer, the label tells us.  From an Independent Family Brewery, since 1845, the bottle tells us.  Now, most of the time, when we encounter a brew that proudly states such things, there's usually some sort of accompanying story on the label.  Some interesting prose to sell us on just how refreshingly refreshing we shall find it, or how awesome it is to be a family business for nearly 160 years.  The labels of this beer do not such thing, however.  What the back label does do is tell us it's beer.  In 9 languages.  It contains malted barley.  Also in 9 languages.  The very brief ingredients list of water, malted barley, hops and yeast... Yup.  Nine languages.  Clearly, this is a beer of international appeal!

It does have a very pretty bottle...

...and it's a lovely golden colour. 

With little to inform us, I had to rely on the website for more information.  There's even a "tasting notes" page.   With Organic Honey Dew, we are told to expect a beer that has "a zesty edge and a bitter sweet flavour."  It's "naturally palatable brew" that's "Soil Association approved."  It's "gentle sweetness" appeals to "even those who perhaps wouldn't usually drink beer..."

That would be me.

Does it?

No, not really.

At best, I can honestly say it didn't make me gag or go into facial contortions.

Much.

In taste testing it with my daughter, however, it illustrated once again just how differently people can taste things.  I could taste the bitter, but not the sweet.  At all.  I found it rather mild overall, which made it easier to taste test then other beers we've tried, but it has done nothing to win me over to the ranks of beer drinkers.  Spindle, on the other hand, cannot taste bitter.  For her, she could taste the sweet just fine.  She's not a fan of light beers, so it's hardly a favourite, but for the type, she liked it fine.  She found it light, refreshing, mildly sweet with a pleasant aftertaste. 

She also likes the bottle design enough to add it to her collection.

Zywiec

"Three ingredients" it says.

"Boy," I think. "I hope one of them is beer."

First official Christmas-gift beer review! And... not the kind I had hoped for.

Let's talk about the design first, though.

I've sort of fallen in love with this bottle. It just makes me happy. There are designs stamped into the glass, the label on the back is cut to curve around a glass "seal", and there are lovely dancing Polish people on the front label! I like it.

And in terms of flavour?
Eehhh.. this is a light beer. And y'all know what that means.
Not that it's bad! Oh no! I just have absolutely no concrete opinion on it.
It's mild! It's refreshing! It has that slightly acrid back-of-tongue taste with little upfront! It's mild!

I mean, it says that it's Poland's number one premium beer, and I'm disinclined to think that the distant land of my ancestors picked a bad one, but...

Oh, give it a try if pale beers are your thing. Send me a note if you do.

Fresh Ginger

One of the fun things about going to Soda Jerks is that they carry beverages we just haven't seen anywhere else.  With a name like Soda Jerks, a long list of sodas is to be expected, but they also have a wide range of alcoholic beverages as well.

I, however, am the designated driver of the family, so soda it is!

On our most recent visit, I decided to try one of these "never seen anywhere else" drinks, and so we have:

Fresh Ginger - Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost
Flavour: Pomegranate with Hibiscus

I figured this was a safe choice.  I'm not a big fan of Ginger Ales, but I do like them mixed with fruit juice, and I really like pomegranate.  I should note that the menu didn't mention hibiscus, so pomegranate was all I was expecting.

This is what I got.

 The ingredients list is pretty basic.  Carbonated water, pure cane sugar, 100% fresh ginger, pomegranate puree, brewed hibiscus with filtered water, fresh lemon juice and citric acid.

Prominent on the label, it tells us that this particular drink is...

 Why yes...

Yes, it clearly ... opaquely? ... is definitely UNfiltered.

Hmmm...  I've seen that sort of thing floating on the bottom of pickle jars.  It typically means the seal has been broken and they've gone bad. 

Not encouraging.

The label does inform the intrepid tippler that "Separation is natural.  Shake gently." 

You mean I'm supposed to drink the dregs? 

Hmmm.

The bottle was already open, however, so shaking my carbonated beverage was not an option. 

 It actually poured fairly clear, but only because the ice filled glass couldn't hold the entire contents of the bottle.  After a few sips, I topped it up and my daughter gleefully stirred it for me, so as to disperse the chunky bits.

She's so helpful, isn't she?

So how did it taste?

Hmmm.

I've been saying that a lot with this drink.

As a pomegranate lover, it was a disappointment.  I could not taste pomegranate.  The dominate flavour was hibiscus.  It was only after I'd drunk about half the glass that I could finally feel - but still not really taste - the ginger. 

It kinda tasted like liquid bubblegum.

Also, because I just know you're wondering, no, I couldn't really tell that I was drinking chunky bits.

May I never write that sentence again.

All in all, it was rather bland.  No pomegranate kick.  No ginger kick.  Not even a lemon kick.  Lots of hibiscus flavour, though.  If I want hibiscus, I'll get tea, not soda.

I can't say that it was bad.  It was all right.  I'm glad I tried it, but it's highly unlikely I'll ever get it again.

Magners Irish Cider.

So I say "nope, not gonna turn this into a beer review blog", and what do I find under the Christmas tree?

Fancy beers. From my Mother.

Curse you, your knowledge of my tastes, and the unwarrented generosity you rode in on.

Not to worry, though. The plan is to stagger the posts a good way apart and fill the spaces in between with sodas and recipes and the like.

The first in the batch isn't actually a beer at all! It's a cider, and it has a nifty sheet of gold foil wrapped around its neck. The label isn't anything special. It wouldn't jump out at me on the shelf. That's not a problem in this case, though, and we can skip straight to the drinking.

Uh, maybe after taking the picture next time.

The carbonation is quite light, but the flavour is satisfyingly bold. Quite strong up front and fading to a sourish apply taste. In all, it's deeper than I usually expect from a cider, and a bit less sweet. Both count in its favour.
If you spot it, purchase and enjoy!


We at Thus Unquenched hope you all had an excellent Christmas, filled with warming beverages.

McChouffe Ardens Brown Beer

Oh fer- another beer? Really? We've gotta get some soda on here. I'm starting to look like an alcoholic.

But this one's a doozy, I promise.

The second of those bargain-bin purchases I mentioned, McChouffe here has a bedraggled label (it looked like that when I bought it, I swear.), very little information (contains malt!), a relatively high alcohol content (8%), and, to top it off, a creepy gnome as a mascot.

After all that, important questions remain unanswered.
What does unsettled-gnome-beer taste like? Does it contain beard? Inquiring minds must know.

Pretty darn delicious, actually. The malt flavour is understated, and it's overall smooth and enjoyable.

I don't know about the second part.

And I have a cute new bottle for my collection!

It all works out in the end.

Roscoe's Hop House Amber Ale.

With Honey Added!

What's the best kind of beer?
If you said "the kind that's on sale"...

You'd be wrong. Go home and re-think your life.

I did, however, decide to try out two of the more interesting looking brews on the "please buy this" shelf by the checkout counter.
Yes, I am guilty of judging by label design.
Mea culpa.

Roscoe's Amber Ale looks very nice in and out of the bottle. Spiffy logo, pleasant golden brown colour. The flavour is clear and mild with a light, lingering malt aftertaste. The honey isn't particularly pronounced, but I'd be able to pick it out without being told. I'd recommend it as a happy medium between aggressive, tongue-killing beerflavour and tasteless pale ales.

Boy, my bias against light beer has just saturated this blog. Sorry, guys.

Anyhow. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again, but if I saw it on a menu next to Kokanee and Coors, I'd choose it.

Uptown Girl Strawberry Blonde Ale.

So by that title you may be able to tell a little bit about today's beverage. Namely, that it's limiting its audience. Not that I'm particularly concerned about ~*girly*~ marketing, but I was pretty leery when it came to the prospect of actually bringing this thing to the checkout. Luckily it was my Mother's duty to buy the tiny, adorable six-pack and I was able to make my purchases in peace. (A tiny, adorable bottle of Jagermeister.)

Basically, Uptown Girl is adorable. It's twee. It's precious. It's impossible not to roll your eyes at it.
I wonder if maybe that's the real target of the image. Not delicate womenfolk who require small and appropriately pinkish version of that strange, intimidating beverage known as "be-er" so as not to offend their sensibilities, but cynical jerks who catch sight of it on the liquour-store shelf and say "Oh man, look. Lookathis. Dude. It's girl beer."

Ahem.

Appearance-wise, the Strawberry Blonde Ale is clear and bubbly with slight foam and it is indeed distinctly blond. The scent is unremarkable. In flavour it is only distinctive in its extreme mildness. In its favour, that means it lacks the back-of-the-throat acidity that usually turns me off from light beers in general. Unfortunately it also has next to no flavour.
Yeah, "brewed with strawberry juice"? Sure. Whatever. It's a light, clear beer and that's all it has going for it.

Except for adorableness.

(Pictured here with a dainty, girlish hand.  Cat hair garnish optional.)

In all seriousness, if you're after a strawberry beer, I would highly suggest the Fruli.

Bad Hare Chocolate Stout.

Oh this one didn't bode well from the beginning.
In my defense, I was sort of against it. $3.99 for a 650 mL bottle? That's low for these parts. There's a chance that it's because it's a new acquisition the shop just can't wait to share with the world, but more likely it's because they want to get rid of something.
So I pour this thing and the first thing I note is that there is NO head. I mean, not even a pretension to one. That photo? Taken about three seconds after pouring. I'm by no means a stickler for that sort of thing (I drink from the BOTTLE because beer comes in a BOTTLE and that's where it SHOULD be rather than up your NOSE in the form of FOAM.) but it could be construed as a warning sign.
I digress.
My mother didn't like it, but she doesn't like any beer so I don't usually let her gagging sounds colour my opinion.
As for me?

Honestly? I don't hate it. I mean, I've had worse. Where I take issue is in blatant false advertising.
"A dark and silky rich stout loaded with chocolate flavours. Is there chocolate in my beer of beer in my chocolate?"
Hahaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
No.
I have had chocolate stout before and you, sir, do not live up in either department. There's very little by way of smell or initial taste, but that is immediately followed by a distinctly burnt flavour and acrid aftertaste. It's weird and unpleasant, but I can't bring myself to rage at it.
On the shelf, your first instinct would likely be to avoid it. Don't think twice.

Sperone Cremevo Marsala Wine Beverage.

It's nice. The texture is smooth and lightly syrupy in an appealing golden red colour. It's sweet, but not tooth-breakingly sugary. A bit of fruit, a bit of vanilla, not bad at all. At fourteen dollars Canadian, I'd recommend it as fulfilling dessert drink on a budget.
 That's not what I want to talk about.

You know what I want to talk about?

I want to talk about how the ingredients list includes frozen egg yolk.

Let's talk about that.



The ingredients list also includes "alcohol". Woah guys let's not go overboard with the florid descriptions here.

Elysian The Immortal IPA

price: unknown

While visiting with a friend of Spindle's, he handed her a bottle of beer.  "Try this," he tells her.  "You'll like it!  Just make sure you don't drink it cold.  It tastes terrible cold!"

Advice appreciated and taken.

The Immortal is an India Pale Ale with a rather high-for-beer alcohol content of 6.3% by volume.  It is "refreshing, hoppy and well-balanced", the label tells us.  A "classic English style" that's got a "New World hop flavor and aroma."

What that means, exactly, I don't really know.

Now, I am not a beer drinker at the best of times.  Spindle likes her brew, and is baffled by my inability to enjoy the stuff.  I still like to try new beers, though, in hopes that one of these years, I'll discover the answer to why beer is such a popular drink.  Perhaps this beer will be the one?

At first quaff, I thought for a moment that the answer had been found.  As I first sipped, the ale was smooth and gently flavoured, and I dared to think, "wow!  I might actually like thi..."

And then that "New World hop flavor" hit, stomping on my taste buds like a dry and bitter old geezer, gleefully shouting "psyche!"

Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad.

It wasn't good, either.  In fact, I'd be hard pressed to find anything, other then that first touch of ale on the tongue, that made it different from any other beer I've ever tried.

But what did Spindle think?

Not much either, it turns out.  She was left with really nothing to say about it.  It didn't look, smell or taste any different then any other IPA.

I suppose it's a good thing we didn't try it cold.

Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock Float

Where: Soda Jerks
Price: $5.75

At soda jerks, one can make any soda selection into a float. My personal favourites are red birch beer and dandelion burdock, the latter of which prompted a waitress to once ask if I was 'really sure' that's what I wanted. Yes, it is. It's delicious, loaded with ice cream and dandelion flavour, thick and thirst-quenching. Try it out!
-spindle, via insufferable phone keyboard.

Krupnik

Another Polish offering for you - Krupnik.  This is a drink that goes back in my family for quite some time.  I still remember when my parents discovered it locally and just had to get a bottle.  It's not every day that you find a drink with your name on it, and butt-kicking booze is way cooler then soup.

It's been a long time since I've had any - the last time we made the road trip to visit my parents, I believe (my mother likes to add it to her tea - I highly recommend it), but I've regaled my children with the story of it, joking that it was an old family recipe.  It isn't, though my mother does have a Polish cookbook with a recipe that my father used.  It was quite the thing to see, and it left the house smelling of honey and spices.

Being a rather cheap sort, I haven't actually bought a bottle for myself in years, though we did find a liquor store that sold it at a much more reasonable price - about $25, or $5-$10 less then anywhere else I've seen it of late.  This particular bottle was a Mother's Day gift. :-D

This is a drink that I've seen classified as a whiskey, liqueur or mead - though the recipe to make it at home calls for vodka.  I've also heard it called honey or fire whiskey.  It is typically drunk straight (though as I mentioned, it does go well with tea) warm, at room temperature or on ice.  At 40% alcohol, it packs quite a kick.  The warmer it is, the more powerful the hit, and the more flavourful.  Sipped from a cognac style glass, allowed to warm in your hand, the vapours rising up are enough to make the eyes burn!  Especially if you wear glasses.  The taste is sweet and wonderfully spiced with cinnamon and cloves.  It's warm and smooth on the way down, and the heat and flavours linger.  This is not the sort of drink to be drunk quickly.  Sip and savour!  I definitely recommend giving it a try.  

Zubrowka Bison grass vodka

So there we were, traipsing through the liquor store (as one does) when suddenly... fur. Green fur. Green suspiciously muppet-esque fur. After a moment of speculation, my mother uttered a happy cry and picked the offending object up.

"Zubrowka!"

Zu-what-now? It's got a bison on it. That's pretty cool.

Zubrowka, as it happens, is a very well regarded Polish vodka that my mother may or may not have tried before but was obviously familiar enough with to be excited. I like vodka well enough, so we brought it home. It was about then that it fully sank in exactly what "bison grass vodka" is.

The answer is "literal".

So yes, not only does it contain a very nice blade of grass but it is very chipper about that fact. It's grass from a primordial forest! Handpicked! Imparts a flavour and colour! And underneath that information was a wealthy list of recipes, most of which included apple. We chose the simplest one. (One part Zubrowka, one part apple juice, with ice, garnished with an apple slice.)

One its own, Zubrowka has an ever-so-faint green tint and is crystal clear. 

We all agreed that it tastes a bit floral, goes down smoothly (for a vodka, so I'll leave that to your discretion) and has an exceedingly pleasant aftertaste. I'd say a little lilac-y.

With the apple juice, the flavours marry beautifully into a light, clear honey flavour.

There was another recipe that involved cinnamon, and I imagine that being a perfect combination. We'll have to try it sometime.

Overall, I would highly recommend it. We got the bottle for under thirty dollars and I plan to pick it up again in the future.

(Are you supposed to eat the grass, though? Is it like the tequila-worm? Mysteries.)

Oh, and we're baaaack~!