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  Similar to root beer, originally made with sassafras and sasparilla, birch beer takes on the wintergreen aroma and flavors of birch bark.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...

Libation of the Week: Mistic Tropical Fruit Punch

Name: Mistic Tropical Fruit Punch

 

Brand: Dr. Pepper Snapple Group

Place of Purchase: IGA in Hannibal, NY

Country/Region of Origin: USA

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the bottle

Price in New York: $1.49 for 16 oz.

Description:  A "natural" fruit punch.

Flavor:  A combination of guava, peach and mango.
 

Mouth-feel: Clean and refreshing, despite the presences of HFCS.

Aroma: Flowery and fruity, mostly guava.

Notes: This beverage is a brand that I loved in my college days.  I remember stopping by at the local Wilson Farms on my Friday trip to to Versailles, NY and buying one of these every week.  Mistic used to have a wide-range of flavors in the pre-Snapple days.  Really, their only competition back then was Arizona and New York Seltzers.  Everything else was fruit juice or soda pop.  I liked Mistic because it was mostly juice (it's only 3% juice now, but back then it didn't have HFCS either).  The current brand still had a flavor reminiscent of Hawaiian Punch (another personal favorite), but less artificial.  They still use natural colors, but while the flavor profile is the same, the only juice here is pear.  It's worth a try, if you don't read the label.

Libation of the Week: Mezzo Mix

Name: Mezzo Mix

 

Brand: Coca-Cola

Place of Purchase: Wegman's in Clay, NY

Country/Region of Origin: Germany

Tasting Conditions: Chilled in the can

Price in New York: $1.49 for 12 oz.

Description:  Cola kissed by orange.

Flavor:  A mild, natural orange flavor with the crisp bite of Coca Cola.
 

Mouth-feel: Refreshing.  Almost cleansing and astringent.

Aroma: Hard to describe.  Not cola.  Not orange soda.  Not even a mixing of the two.  A unique citrus and herbal sparkling soda.

Notes:  Mezzo Mix is a Coca-Cola product popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  As a European product, the product is pretty simple: real cane sugar, orange juice, cola flavors.  I wasn't sure what to expect with this beverage and I was pleasantly surprised.  The taste was striking.  I drank it very cold, and it actually refreshed me with a clean, delightful melange.  With orange juice being a primary component, the citrus flavor is in the foreground.  The cola flavors remind me of old Coke in a bottle (pre-1990).  In the end, it's a nice summer drink.  It will probably make an excellent mixer for cocktails or ice cream, as well.