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.