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Aug 02

Ginger Beer Extravaganza II: Part I

Fight Night!, Mixers, ginger beer 8 Comments »

ginger_beer_mast_2
Yes, it’s been awhile since I wrote on my stable of ginger beers I’ve had in the wings but, frankly, that’s primarily because there are only so many ways one can describe “ginger-y” and various levels of “gingeritude” before becoming that guy at the party that asks everyone about their mortgage refinancing rates. In other words, I grew bored of myself. But, with the advent of one particular product coming to market and seeking to maintain consistent posting around these parts¹ I felt it was time to reopen the vault. In this installment I’ll be looking at Fever Tree Ginger Beer, AJ Stephan’s Ginger Beer, and Ginger People Ginger Beer. This was an interesting line-up with a couple of surprises. As always, I’ll be testing the products on their own and in the timeless Moscow Mule (See the original post to review my testing process).

I’ll start this round-up with a brand highly-regarded among cocktailians for its tonic water with all the best hopes and goodwill alongside me.

Fever Tree Ginger Beer:

Fever Tree has yet to create a product I’ve disliked² , and they maintain that streak with their ginger beer. The first thing you notice in the bottle is how quickly the solids (presumably ginger root extract) separate to the bottom of the bottle making this one you must up-end prior to serving. Once you do, the cloudy sediment permeates the bottle and builds your anticipation.

As with all Fever Tree products, the first thing you notice is the quality of carbonation. This fizzes lightly in the bottle and then explodes into a champagne-like cream once it’s poured. Tasting it on its own its simplicity and direct approach come through. It strikes you with a gently balanced sweet and an almost ginger ale quality. I was prepared to be disappointed by its lack of punch. Then, as it settles in and proclaims its desire to be friends, it builds into a long-lasting, fresh, and quite welcome heat that is focused on ginger almost exclusively. This plays out in a Moscow Mule by letting the lime come very forward at the start (almost too much so) and then building into familiar ginger/spice territory.

“Spring water, ginger extract, cane sugar, natural flavour³ , ascorbic acid,” proclaims the bottle, almost daring you to assume otherwise. The simplicity of that list plays out in the product. My only complaint, and it’s a minor one, is that the heat seems reminiscent of what you get from dried ground ginger instead of ginger root. Instead of the rounded-off and bright flavor that comes from fresh root this has a sharp bite capsicum-bite quality at the back of it that I associate with an inferior attempt at building heat. All in all a great ginger beer that does nothing flashy but executes wonderfully.

AJ Stephans Ginger Beer:

AJ Stephans hails from Boston, MA and lists its ingredients as “pure carbonated water, cane sugar, flavor, coloring, sodium benzoate (preservative),” and it’s that vague “flavor” item that always causes me pause. This ginger beer has two levels, the first is a mild version of what I’ve come to call “old bookstore” and the second a huge, and uncomplicated, blast of burn. The source of that burn, I can only assume, is the “flavor.” AJ Stephans also has a pronounced edge that using cane sugar brings. This isn’t a bad thing but it’s more pronounced in AJ Stephans than some others.

This beer performs admirably in a Moscow Mule as the musty “old bookstore” flavor is muted and the bite comes in at the back in a clear, if uninteresting, way. It does seem to over sweeten the drink a bit so if you use this you might consider increasing the volume of the lime juice and vodka. AJ Stephans isn’t exactly bad, but it won’t be winning the hearts and minds of exploratory drinkers anytime soon. I put it squarely in the middle of the pack and, if you like the whole crusted paper/dusty bookstore thing, I present it as a superior alternative to Cock ‘n Bull.

The Ginger People Ginger Beer:

Ginger People is best known for two things – 1: their unerring and slightly deranged commitment to ginger and all products that can possibly be conceived of possibly including ginger and 2: having a ginger-homunculus as a mascot that falls unnervingly into the “uncanny valley.” I had high hopes for their ginger beer. This will teach me.

Attractive packaging boldly announcing “Made with natural ginger juice,” featuring the ginger-homunculus riding a tiger a ‘la Harold & Kumar, and a showing a visible amount of sediment and solids floating in the bottle all had me hoping for the best. These were dashed against the unforgiving rocks of reality upon the first taste. On its own Ginger People Ginger Beer is overly sweet and insipid and smacks of ginger ale wrongfully cut with limoncello. I was more realistic going into tasting it in a Moscow Mule. Vodka fixes everything, right? RIGHT?!!

Not quite. As difficult as it is to kill something as simple as lime juice and vodka it manages to bludgeon it with a flabby ginger-man arm of lousy. Comprised of water, cane sugar, naturally pressed ginger juice, natural ginger extract, citric acid, and natural flavor, this tastes like a ginger beer designed by people who had ever tasted ginger beer and focused solely on wanting to make it a stand-alone, and unchallenging, drink to sip. They need to lay off on the citric acid and, based on this drink’s flaccidity, I recommend creepy ginger dude go see a urologist. Stat.

Fever Tree Rating:

AJ Stephans Rating:

Ginger People Rating:

Things you should also read:

cocktailnerd’s Ginger Beer Extravaganza Part I, Part II, and Part III

From Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink?”

Serious Eats’ Ginger Beer Taste Test

SLOSHED!’s Sparkly Showdown

Wikipedia’s entry on Ginger Beer

Scottes’ Rum Rundown of Ginger Ales and Brews

A nice discussion at Ministry of Rum

EGADS!!! [↩]
and that’s saying something when it comes to Bitter Lemon [↩]
The Queen’s English, if you please [↩]

Jan 13

Ginger Beer Extravaganza: Part III

Fight Night!, Mixers, ginger beer 13 Comments »

As I mentioned in my last installment of this series, I’ve acquired several additions to my original round-up pictured above and this series will likely extend into late February¹ as I locked myself into reviewing certain ones at certain times in this process. And, for this segment, I’ll be looking at Stewart’s Ginger Beer, Reed’s Premium Ginger Ale, and Maine Root Ginger “Brew”. I found the results pleasantly surprising. Once again, please take my ratings of the Reed’s Original and Premium products with a grain of salt and understanding that I’m rating them as Ginger Beers and testing how they play on their own and in a Moscow Mule. (See the original post to review my testing process)

I’ll take on Stewart’s, a brand I associate with cheap attempts at recalling memories of a “better time” when you ordered from a soda jerk in a striped shirt.

Stewart’s Ginger Beer:

If you couldn’t tell from the previous sentence, I expected the worst from this. I have no idea where my prejudice came from as I think the only Stewart’s product I’d ever had was the Root Beer. So, on tasting it, I expected very little. And sure enough this hit the tongue and it was a slick, syrupy, and overly sweet² mess with nary the lovingly-harsh punch of ginger I was looking for. Ready to dismiss it, grabbing my pen for notes, and move on, it hit me.

Unlike most ginger beers which greet you at the front door with a hearty “How d’you do?” this one bangs on the back door and grabs you by the scruff of your neck unexpectedly. And that was pleasing. The heat comes through as a purely ginger profile and then lingers, for just longer than is welcome, as something more peppery. Hell, their tagline for this even states, “Then enjoy the slow burn at the back of your throat.” Well, right they are.

This brew consists of carbonated water, HFCS, natural flavor, citric acid, sodium benzoate, caramel color, and quillaia extract. The quillaia extract would most likely affect the mouthfeel³ that I mentioned above. The caramel coloring is also of note because this is, by far, the darkest of the ginger beers I’ve had to-date. While not quite a cola color it’s somewhere between the straw of a ginger ale and RC Cola and it’s slightly off-putting. All-in-all this is a damned fine ginger beer that, if it just evened out its approach and toned its finish down a notch would end up in my Top 3. As it is, it’s a Top 5 contender that you should try if it’s available.

Reed’s Premium Ginger Brew:

So, here we are again with the Reed’s line of “brews” that, as I mentioned,⁴ really aren’t in the same category as the Reed’s Extra Ginger Beer product or, truly, other ginger beers at-large. But, slog through them we must.

While this doesn’t have the ridiculously brash front of pineapple and honey the Reed’s Original does, it’s still very mild, fruity, and, even for a ginger ale, too thickly sweet. Unfortunately this all leads to a ginger ale that is frumpish and flaccid and needs to be spanked with a switch and made to step lively. At least Reed’s Original had oomph and guile and dared to be something. In trying to refine it to be “Premium” they’ve stripped most of what made Reed’s Original worth trying at all⁵ and still failed to make a passable ginger ale.

Sadly, in my opinion, this makes the Reed’s Premium worthless as a ginger ale or ginger beer. Using this, the Moscow Mule just rolls over and brays in the desert sun with no support from the heavy dose of ginger beer it requires and as the ginger ale in a Pimm’s Cup it is flaccid and uninspiring. Move along and use Reed’s Extra Ginger Beer if your choices are limited to the Reed’s products, both the Original and Premium are uninspiring and misplaced as ginger beers.

Maine Root Ginger Brew:

I had just loaded my Whole Foods basket with all the Reed’s products when I was walking back to the registers and “Maine Root Ginger Brew” caught my eye. “You’re reviewing ginger beers, numbnuts, move along, ” I told myself. But I took one look at the Reed’s ginger ales in my basket, and knew that maintaining any sort of arbitrary principles would be allowing hobgoblins of consistency to overtake my little mind.

And, I’m terribly glad I beat those hobgoblins down like the toothy abortive step-children they are. This has been the surprise of the bunch so far. It bites nicely very early on and then builds to a good long finish without making you wish you’d ignored it on the shelf all those weeks ago. One of the simpler, and cloudier, of the brews it has a very clean, if unfiltered, taste and feel as evidenced by its ingredients: purified water, certified fair trade organic cane juice, ginger extract, and spices.

This lands squarely in the Top 3 of those I’ve tried so far and hits squarely on what I think a ginger beer should be. Very similar to Regatta it has slightly more depth and character that makes it stand out just a touch. Even with all the additional folderol about its origins from pockets of angel breath found in the clouds covering the unfettered wilderness of Kublai Khan’s dreams I give this a hearty recommendation as something you need to pick up and try after your next visit to Whole Foods…or Kublai Khan’s dreams.

Stewart’s Rating:

Reed’s Premium Ginger Brew Rating:

Maine Root Ginger Brew Rating:

Things you should also read:

cocktailnerd’s Ginger Beer Extravaganza Part I and Part II

From Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink?”

Wikipedia’s entry on Ginger Beer

Scottes’ Rum Rundown of Ginger Ales and Brews

A nice discussion at Ministry of Rum

THRILLING, I KNOW!!!! [↩]
characteristic of HFCS [↩]
I hate that word with its so inherently dirty, but I have no other way to describe it [↩]
and belatedly realized [↩]
i mean, if you’re into that sort of thing [↩]

Dec 23

Ginger Beer Extravaganza: Part II

Fight Night!, Mixers, ginger beer 14 Comments »

Be sure to read the last installment if you want a peek into the diary of a man who is prone to compulsive collecting in very short bursts¹ . Since then I’ve managed to acquire Bundaberg, D&G, Jamaica’s Finest, Blenheim’s, A&J Stephans, and The Ginger People brands of ginger beer that will extend this series by a couple of posts² . And I’m still hunting down a few others, so, hold onto your butts.

In this episode I’ll be reviewing Fentiman’s, Cock ‘n Bull, and Reed’s Original. Before we proceed, a note on the Reed’s line of products. I did my best to keep this exercise strictly to Ginger Beers or “Brews”³ . However, while discussing this project in the Mixoloseum Bar I kept being asked, “Oh, have you tried any of the other Reed’s ginger beers/brews/products besides the Extra?” or some variation thereof. Then, assuming the good folks meant well by me and surely wanted my post to be exhaustive and survive the studious eyes of the cocktail intelligentsia, I bought them. Make no mistake, the Reed’s Original and Premium are definitely in the “Ale” category, folks. So, please take my ratings of the Reed’s Original and Premium products with a grain of salt and understanding that I’m rating them as Ginger Beers and testing how they play on their own and in a Moscow Mule. (See the original post to review my testing process)

We’ll start with Fentiman’s as it seems a good place to start and it’s fun to say.

Fentiman’s:

This is an intriguing beast. Fentiman’s puts out a line of very interesting sodas of which Ginger Beer is one of the more traditional flavors⁴ . Their unique approach to flavors and production come through soundly in this product as well. The ingredients are listed as fermented ginger root extract, carbonated water, sugar, glucose syrup, natural flavouring (ginger, capsicum, lemon, speedwell, juniper, yarrow), cream of tartar, citric acid. It’s that “natural flavoring” section there that gives one pause when first confronted with this. It hits you with a nice twang of ginger and then slowly has a general wave of herbal “otherness” that keeps you guessing without making you think you’ve accidentally grabbed gin for your mule and threw in a dash of elderflower liqueur to boot.

Fentiman’s has a nice clean finish and doesn’t overstay its welcome or overpower the other things the Moscow Mule tries to accomplish. Fentiman’s can be hard to find in the U.S. but is making in-roads. Personally, I had to raid the media suite at Tales of the Cocktail last year as I’d not heard of it and wanted to get a few bottles home for a try.

The carbonation in Fentiman’s is also worth noting as it’s less “frog eyed” than more cheaply-produced brands. It has a nice mouthfeel and the cream of tartar keeps things suspended nicely while giving it a rich texture. A departure from the most traditional of ginger beers, it is well worth trying and having around though I’m not entirely sure its charms aren’t wasted on a mule and it should be used in more delicate applications. Grab it, if you can get it.

Cock ‘n Bull Ginger Beer:

I’d heard good things about this. From people I respect, mind you. And I’m left with the distinct impression I’ve been giving them far too much credit. This stuff is awful. Allow me to put the flavor and impression of this brew in one phrase: used bookstore.

You know that smell of yellowed paper and mustiness that slams into you as soon as you enter one? Put that in your mouth. Mind you, I love the smell of a used bookstore and old books. It speaks of knowledge and time and curiosity but I sure as hell don’t want to taste it.

This, however, is a tale of two bottles. I found a 4-pk at a locally-owned grocery store here and had never seen it in Tulsa before, so, naturally, I grabbed it. As soon as I tasted it, and hearing my friends’ voices in my head singing its praises, I assumed it was bought on-remainder or something and I’d had a bad batch. So, I bought another online and, lo and behold, the bottles were different. Filled with hope, I cracked it open, smelled it, and….despair. Same story. It’s a little less awful when mixed in a Moscow Mule, but why suffer it? Skip it, unless you have always wanted to eat old books. Then, in that case, knock yourself out….freak.

Reed’s Original Ginger Brew (Ale):

Holy pineapple bits, bartender! After having used Reed’s Extra Ginger Beer as my stand-by ginger beer for a good long while I was expecting something more…actually tasting of ginger. As I mentioned earlier it’s almost unfair to include the Reed’s Original and Premium in this round-up as they are completely different beasts. But, still, this is like pineapple juice that had some ginger oil thrown in, got cut and carbonated, and bottled.

And, in reviewing the ingredients, sure enough, pineapple and honey feature prominently. I won’t say this tastes cheap (see: Capt’n Eli’s) or disgusting (see: above), just that it tastes unlike you’d expect a ginger beer to taste and behave in a drink.

Which is to say, as a ginger beer it fails miserably. As a ginger ale? Well, let’s see. I used this to top off a Pimm’s cup⁵ and it pretty much murders it. It’s a shame because it’s not horrible-tasting on its own, it’s just not gingery enough. Overly sweet for me and likely to overtake any drink in which you use it I can’t recommend this for mixing. If you like this sort of thing on its own then maybe you should pick it up. But, if you’re looking for ginger beer or ginger ale to use in mixed drinks, move along.

Fentiman’s Rating:

Cock ‘n Bull Rating:

Reed’s Original Ginger Brew Rating: ⁶

Things you should also read:

cocktailnerd’s Ginger Beer Extravaganza Part I and Part III

From Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink?”

Wikipedia’s entry on Ginger Beer

Scottes’ Rum Rundown of Ginger Ales and Brews

A nice discussion at Ministry of Rum

I have over 5,000 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Collectible Card Game cards thanks to a 3-month fascination a couple of years ago – such is my burden [↩]
of course, I’ll likely also be making my own and will need to resist the urge to test four or more recipes against each other [↩]
a nomenclature that seems to belie a product closer to ginger beer in nature but whose PR firm decided “beer” was too off-putting a term for our delicate children to contemplate drinking lest they proceed to, EGADS!!!! BIRCH or ROOT BEEEEEEERRRSS! [↩]
Burdock & Dandelion?! [↩]
I frequently use ginger ale instead of lemon-lime soda, it depends on what’s available and how hedonistic I’m feeling [↩]
not a poor-quality product, but tough to evaluate or consider and ginger beer [↩]

Dec 11

Ginger Beer Extravaganza: Part I

Fight Night!, Mixers, ginger beer 21 Comments »

It started more than a year ago. I’d be going through some specialty boutique cheese store in Kansas City and, “Oh, look! A ginger beer I’ve never seen!” You can see where that gets me. Over the next couple of months I will be rounding these up in posts and explaining my taste-testing results and rating them on a scale of abysmal-to-glorious. And, trust me, some of them are bloody abysmal.

As you may guess from the photo I will be reviewing, at the very least, the 3 Reed’s products (Regular, Premium, and Extra), Stewart’s, Goya, Fentiman’s, Sioux City, Capt’n Eli’s¹ , Maine Root, Regatta, Barritt’s, Cock-n-Bull, and Buderim. I’m also in the process of acquiring several others over the next month or so² , so those may make a special guest appearance in a future episode of “Ginger Beer Extravaganza”. For now, let’s talk process:

Tasting Process: To my mind, there’s no simpler and consistent way to measure the quality of a ginger beer except in a Moscow Mule. So, I, and a friend of mine who has a predilection for Mules, will try each of them straight from their respective bottles (and can), and then in a Moscow Mule³ .

What I’m Looking For: I don’t drink this stuff on its own except for the purposes of this tasting, and can’t imagine doing so⁴ . So, in a Moscow Mule, I’m looking for a nice ginger bite that, hopefully, has something else to bring along to the party. A little surprise at the door, if you will. And then I’m looking for a relatively light body and a clean finish. After all, guests who linger too long are often worse than those uninvited. The last thing I’m looking for is it to play well with others. In this case, lime and vodka. If it’s unmixable, it’s mostly useless to me.

We will review Capt’n Eli’s, Goya, and Regatta in Part I, Fentiman’s, Cock n’ Bull, and Reed’s Regular in Part II, and Stewart’s, Maine Root, and Reed’s Premium in Part III. Beyond that, I may just shoot myself out of boredom or decide to go with homemade and never speak of this enterprise again. We shall see. So, “Capt’n Eli”, did you and Aquaman ever hang?

Capt’n Eli’s Ginger Beer:

And, if so, did he kick your ass for making such a horrible product? Despite having only 5 ingredients: water, cane sugar, natural ginger flavor, citric acid, and sodium benzoate, it manages to go horribly wrong. There is a nice crisp and sharp ginger bite at the front that makes one hopeful and then it breaks your heart by devolving into a muddled mass of musty cellulose-flavoring. All the woodsy funk of Fernet Branca without the charm or the cache’.

Also, this shit lingers. Terrible on its own, it manages to ruin a a Moscow Mule. And listen, I abhor sinking⁵ drinks. To avoid sinking the drink I let it sit, my mood darkened, on my coffeetable for an interminable amount of time. My pal-in-testing took another sip of the orphaned beverage on the table, his face puckering, and said, “It’s not as bad when it’s been sitting out awhile.” Glancing at the clock I quickly mentioned that it no longer completely sucked because all the ice had melted and our good friend water had come to our rescue. I had another sip after its languorous 10-minute stretch on the table, and then sinked it.

I’m not sure what branch of the service Capt’n Eli was in, but it’s certainly been decommissioned if its standards were so low as to admit him. One of the worst of the lot. Stay away.

Goya Ginger Beer:

Please, Goya, please treat me better than that maniacal clash of manga and bad-60s comics, Capt’n Eli. And treat me better, it does. A slightly less austere recipe than Capt’n Eli’s, Goya’s includes: carbonated water, HFCS⁶ 55⁷ , ginger flavorings, oil of ginger, caramel color, capsicum, citric acid. This is a light-bodied version that hits the palate with a strong bite of ginger and then, that’s odd, something else…something…burny… OMGWTFDIDIBITEINTOABELLPEPPER?! But, it’s not unpleasant; you just have to be ready for it and the capsicum⁸ it brings. While it’s not something I would drink on its own as my tastes don’t run that direction, I do find myself occasionally wanting a Moscow Mule with just this additional touch. A “Burro” perhaps.

You will find this next to the religious candles and Jarritos hyper-sweet sodas in the ethnic food aisle of your grocery stores. I recommend it, not as a traditional ginger beer, but as a great twist on it and an unexpected surprise in a Moscow Mule. As one reviewer noted, “…hotter than Blenheim’s red cap – guaranteed cough with first sip!”⁹ .

Regatta Ginger Beer:

This, along with Barritt’s, is one of the “Bermuda Stone”-style ginger beers available on the market. The primary difference being in the fermentation process where the ginger ferments in stone containers. Traditionally, it is considered less sharp and to have less “bite” than the Jamaican-style ginger brews. Whether this is a good or bad thing, we shall see.

Regatta’s ingredients are our first foray into thickening and “mouthfeel” agents in the ginger beer line-up. Numbering among its constituent parts are: sparkling water, fructose, natural ginger flavor extracts and other flavors, citric acid, quillaia bark extract, caramel color, gum arabic, ester gum, and guar gum. This litany of tongue-twisting ingredients gives Regatta a smoother and richer feel while, at the same time, clamps down a bit on the harsh bite of Jamaican ginger beers. It also provides a cloudiness that encourages you to tilt the bottle once or twice to makes sure the perceived sediment is incorporated.

Simply put, this beats Barritt’s hands-down¹⁰ . It’s a bit simple in its approach, “one-note”, if you will, but it doesn’t finish in a funky collapse like some or leave you smacking your lips with a tacky “need a chaser of water, STAT!” feeling from being overly sweet. So, if you’re looking for a milder ginger beer that doesn’t bowl you over from ginger¹¹ and/or kill you with sweet, you could do far worse than Regatta though it has more body than I like for a Mule. The packaging is underwhelming but the product is quite clean and quite tasty.

Capt’n Eli’s Rating:

Goya Rating: ¹²

Regatta Rating:

Things you should also read:

cocktailnerd’s Ginger Beer Extravaganza Part II and Part III

From Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink?”

Wikipedia’s entry on Ginger Beer

Scottes’ Rum Rundown of Ginger Ales and Brews

A nice discussion at Ministry of Rum

they really love their apostrophes apparently [↩]
Ginger People, Blenheim’s, Bundaberg, Barritt’s Bermuda and others [↩]
2oz Vodka, squeeze of half-lime, top with ginger beer for those too lazy to click the link above [↩]
but I don’t drink sugared sodas anyway so that may have a lot to do with my aversion [↩]
verb: to pour down the sink with a grotesque expression of disgust, abject horror, and sadness clashing on your face all-at-once [↩]
yes, the “dreaded” HFCS. I think the case against it is more than a little overstated, but that’s for another time [↩]
whatever “55″ means [↩]
the essence of the pepper family of plants [↩]
note to self, double your efforts on acquiring Blenheim’s [↩]
at least the stuff not produced in Bermuda, I’m looking to get my hands on a Bermuda-produced can for comparison [↩]
or capsicum [↩]
just be sure you know what you’re getting into. This is not a “starter” ginger beer nor representative of the classic style [↩]