Libation of the Week: White Gourd Drink

Name: White Gourd Drink

 

Brand: Taisun

Place of Purchase: Oriental Suppermarket in Syracuse, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Taiwan

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in a glass

Price in New York: $1.99 for 10.8 oz

Description:  A crisp, clean summer drink

Flavor:  Caramel and nut
 

Mouth-feel: Clean, slightly astringent

Aroma: Burnt sugar and floral

Notes:  White gourd, also known as winter melon, is found almost everywhere in Asia.  This cucurbit can be eaten as a vegetable, but it is also employed in candy- and drink-making.  For New Years, crystallized winter melon is often paired with candied coconut strips as an offering and a treat.  This beverage is not what I expected.  I did expect the clean mouth-feel, but I was used to either candied or stir-fried winter melon.  This luxurious, caramel-flavored treat was a pleasant and refreshing surprise.  With drinks like this, I often don't know what I'm getting myself into.  Sometimes, I get pennywort.  Other times, I get liquid gold.

Libation of the Week: Camlica

Name: Camlica

 

Brand: Ulker

Place of Purchase: European Specialties in Syracuse, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Turkey

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in a glass

Price in New York: $0.75 for 8.5 oz

Description:  A crisp citrus soda

Flavor:  Clean lemon
 

Mouth-feel: Very effervescent, strong carbonation

Aroma: Clean lemon

Notes:  This is what your day-to-day soda should be.  Not too sweet, but real sugar.  Great bubbles with a clean lemon taste.  Sure, the lemon is artificial, but tastes like a sparkling lemonade and doesn't leave a syrupy film on your mouth.  I like it.  It's cheap and the carved glass bottle is pretty.  A complete soda experience. 

Libation of the week: Pennywort Drink

Name: Pennywort Drink

 

Brand: Foco

Place of Purchase: Oriental Suppermarket in Syracuse, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Thailand

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in a glass

Price in New York: $1.99 for 11.5 oz

Description:  Good for the kidneys

Flavor:  Sweet with notes of asparagus, spinach, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and grass
 

Mouth-feel: Clean and crisp, somewhat astringent

Aroma: Asparagus and grass

Notes: There are a lot of Asian drinks to sample.  Typically, I enjoy most of them because they are usually sugar water with some kind of juice or extract.  How can you go wrong.

Sometimes, however, the drinks are made for their medicinal properties and not their flavor.  Pennywort Drink is like that.  Made from sugar, water, 42% pennywort leaf extract and citric acid (for preservation, I would guess), this drink tastes exactly as you would expect.  The herby notes are hidden by the strong flavor of the pennywort, which is touted as a blood and urinary tract cleanser.  If you are having blood problems or kidney issues, I will say that there is plenty of sugar in this drink.  However, that spoonful of sugar is barely enough to make the medicine go down.

Libation of the week: The Sam Adams Milkshake

Name: The Samuel Adams Milkshake

 

Brand: Red Robin

Place of Purchase: Red Robin in Fayetteville, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Boston?

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in a glass, topped with whipped cream and caramel

Price in New York: $4.99 for around a pint

Description:  Red Robin says "Trust us."

Flavor:  Creamy, hoppy, tart, sweet
 

Mouth-feel: Frothy.  The Sam Adams glass provides a continuous flow of evervescence to the creamy drink

Aroma: Milky caramel and hops.

Notes: I want to begin by saying that I enjoy Red Robin.  For a franchise restaurant, they make excellent burgers.  Their restaurants have a pleasant, family-friendly atmosphere.  I was pretty excited when I heard about their Octoberfest specials, including the Sam Adams milkshake.  I thought that this was a stroke of genius.  Why hasn't anyone thought of this before.  I love beer.  I love milkshakes.

When I arrived at Red Robin, the Sam Adams milkshake was not on the menu.  Still, being an informed consumer I knew what I came for.  I ordered it.  It came to the table.  I drank it.  It was gross.  

Of course someone has come up with the beer milkshake.  It was probably invented at the same time as the egg cream, the root beer float and the brown cow.  Unfortunately, beer adds too much tartness and too much foam to an ice cream drink.  The milkshake was sour and intensely hoppy and had enough fizz to give me a stomach-ache.

I will give Red Robin props for trying.  I will also give them props for having the foresight to remove this item from their menu.  It just was not good.

Libation of the week: Jamaican Irish Moss

Name: Jamaican Irish Moss

 

Brand: Big Bamboo

Place of Purchase: Oriental Suppermarket in Syracuse, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Maybe Jamaica?

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in a glass

Price in New York: $1.99 for 11 oz.

Description:  A drink to put lead in your pencil.

Flavor:  An egg-free nog, heavy on the nutmeg and cloves
 

Mouth-feel: Creamy and frothy, with lumps.

Aroma: Strong nutmeg and clove, mild coconut

Notes:  I had no idea what I was getting into.  I knew that Irish Moss was some kind of herbal aphrodisiac, but when I first poured the beige, foamy, lumpy mess into my anchor measuring glass, I'll admit I was scared.  Still, for my readers, I pressed on.  The flavor wasn't bad.  Mostly whipped sugar and milk, Big Bamboo's Jamaican Irish Moss Vanilla Drink tasted pretty close to egg nog.  There were some key differences.  One, this drink was much lighter.  Egg nog tends to be stick and clingy.  This drink was creamy but whipped enough to maintain a lighter body.  The egg flavors were gone, as well, and the spice profile leaned more towards cloves.  The actual drink made fresh would contain Jamaican Irish moss, a kind of seaweed with a high carrageenan content.  This polysaccharide acts as a thickening agent in the spiced milk beverage.  Big Bamboo's mix contains several other thickeners and emulsifiers to maintain consistent body.  Still, there is enough carrageennan to clump up with the coconut milk added for fat content.  This is also NOT a low calorie drink.  Still, for what it's worth, it tasted pretty durned good.

Libation of the Week: Reed's Spiced Apple Cider

Name: Spiced Apple Brew

Brand: Reed's

Place of Purchase: Green Planet Grocery in Oswego, NY 

Country/Region of Origin: Los Angeles, CA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the glass

Price in New York: $1.79 for 12 oz. 

Description:  "A ginger-apple beer that is 50% German Apple Juice" 

Flavor:  Like a cold, sparkling mulled cider.  A nice spice profile, with a robust (but not too sweet) apple bite.

Mouth-feel: Very foamy.  Created a consistent and pleasing head on each pour into my taster glass.

Aroma:  Like mulled cider, but muted, probably due to chilling.

Notes: I like Reed's Ginger Beverages.  They taste natural (even if their sugar sources are a bit nebulous) and the quality is always very high.  This Spiced Apple Ginger Beer was quite a treat.  Because of its high quality juice content it tasted like a fresh cider.  The spice mix was a bit heavy on the ginger (which wasn't a bad thing) but it did taste like a cool, sparkling mulled cider.  I was tempted to warm it up, but I drank it all too quickly to experiment.  I imagine that this is a fall beverage, so look for it in health food stores or organic food sections nationwide.

Libation of the week: Bayridge Birch Beer

Name: Olde Brooklyn Bayridge Birch Beer

Brand: White Rock Beverages

Place of Purchase:  Marini's Italian Cuisine in Syracuse, NY 

Country/Region of Origin: USA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the glass bottle 

Price in New York: $2.99 for 12 oz. 

Description:  Premium, Gourmet Sodas with a New York attitude (they're Kosher, too)

Flavor:  Pleasant wintergreen fizz.

Mouth-feel: Wonderful effervescence.

Aroma:  Minty and fresh.

Notes: I grew up on New York and Pennsylvanian beverages.  I've had my fair share of loganberry, Hires Root Beer, flavored seltzers and peach soda.  Birch beer has always been a personal favorite, especially when it is made properly.  Birch beer is a carbonated soft drink made with birch oil.  Depending on the type of birch tree that the oil comes from, the drink may be clear, brown, red or artificially colored.  Similar to root beer, originally made with sassafras and sasparilla, birch beer takes on the wintergreen aroma and flavors of birch bark.  Since it isn't a fermented soda, every brand of birch beer will have a varying amount of carbonation.  Olde Brooklyn Bayridge Birch Beer has a mild fizz and a full but not overpowering wintergreen taste.  Depending on where you buy it, it might be a cane or HFCS soda.  The Cane sugar bottle that I had was sweet but not sticky or cloying.  I was sad when it was empty.

Cheese of the Week: Buttercup Cheese, Inc.

It's not often that I get to lend a hand to people making a product that I really enjoy.  Two week's ago, I stopped by to purchase a few cheeses at the Syracuse regional market.  Now, as I have mentioned, most of the cheeses in Central New York are cheddars or flavored cheeses.  One of the tables had a huge variety of cheeses, with cheddars of all ages (I grabbed a divine 8-year), but they promised that they had a nice selection of cheeses back at their store in Central Square.  I like going to Central Square, just north of Syracuse, for Alaura's Bakery (she makes the BEST macaroons anywhere on Earth).  So I stopped by the Buttercup Cheese store and I was delighted to find a variety of fresh curd and aged cheddars, along with cheeses and delicacies from Central New York.  I spoke with the owner and she told me that they were selling a special cheddar this year in honor of the brave souls who protested through 2011 and 2012.  This "Protester Cheddar" would be sold to raise funds to update their production facility and retail outlet.

So, if you like high quality New York Cheddar and you want to help promote a small business, click on the link below.  You can even add your own personal protest to the label.  Do a good turn and check them out.

Protester Cheddar

Libation of the Week: Barr's Irn Bru

Name: Irn Bru

Brand: A.G. Barr of Glascow

Place of Purchase: Wegmans in Clay, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Scotland

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the plastic bottle

Price in New York: $1.99 for 12 oz.

Description:  "A carbonated, citrus fruit flavor soft drink.  Original & Best."

Flavor:  Artificially citrusy with a bite.

Mouth-feel: Very effervescent.  Comparable to Vernors for bubbly bite.

Aroma:  Like an orange Little Hug.

Notes: I think I got a bottle made for American markets, which makes me sad.  While it still has the characteristic Irn Bru orange color (with the blue cap) and flavour (thanks to ferric ammonium citrate and real cane sugar), the bottle I have has American colours and perservatives (sodium benzoate, which is not preferred in Britain due to the potential cancer risks).  The flavor is very artificial, reminding me of the foil-capped, plastic barrel Little Hugs.  The carbonation is intense, spikey like Vernor's Ginger Ale.  If I had to be honest, the preservatives made me not want to finish the bottle.  If you can find a bottle directly from Scotland, give it a try for the experience.  The formula should be the same as it was in 1901, and Irn Bru directly competes with Coke and Pepsi in Scotland, so it has to have something to offer.

Libation of the week: Ithaca Soda Company Root Beer

Name: Ithaca Soda Company Root Beer

Brand: Ithaca Beer Company

Place of Purchase: IGA in Hannibal, NY

Country/Region of Origin: USA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the bottle

Price in New York: $1.69 for 12 oz.

Description:  A Natural Soda of the Finger Lakes

Flavor:  A robust, rooty blend with a metallic aftertaste.

Mouth-feel: Effervescent with a decent head.

Aroma:  Woody and sweet.

Notes:  From the label, this soda looked like it would be a real treat.  Cane sugar sweetened.  Panama bark extract with hops, star anise, juniper and vanilla.  Not exactly a root beer, but a nice blend of flavors.

I drank it out of the bottle and got a snoot of stainless steel with my first sip.  I poured it into a glass, and while I could taste the beautiful melange of flavors, it was overpowered by metal.  I'm hoping that it was the bottle cap, but there are some sodas brewed in metal vats that pick up the taste of the container.  Maybe if I tried this one draft-style?

Disappointing...