Manananggal at Salamangka, Quezon City, Philippines
Description: Calamansi, cucumber, mint leaves, vodka
Calamansi is the star of this cocktail with mint flakes and fresh cucumber bits floating about like constellation highlights in the vault. Wonderfully complex and coldly satisfying, tasty and bitter. Vodka suffusing throughout kicks gently—the current of a dreamy river.
No dreadful monster here. It’s just a ruse to make you drink.
Rating: 5 stars
Red Sangria at Anila Restaurant, Anya Resort, Tagaytay City, Philippines
Description: Red wine, triple sec, whiskey, lime juice, cinnamon, seasonal fruits and herbs
This version of the classic Red Sangria, the apples, lemon, and lime all get along swimmingly like Scandinavians in an ice bath of red wine, triple sec, and whiskey. So temptingly chill I saw penguins sliding toward the rim.
Deliciously sweet, lightly sour, winningly fruity all around, and best of all, smoky whiskey flavor suffusing throughout. Double size means double kick.
Happily snack on apple chunks as you please. They make a tasty diversion…the Garden of Eden, a distant memory.
Rating: 5 stars
Psychedelic Blonde Craft Beer
Sweet, pleasantly so…fresh, clean taste, little complexity or none at all…appealingly fragrant…delightfully sparkling…slightly intoxicating—a craft brewery pale ale, it satisfies like the finest pilsner. Blonde, yes, golden. Psychedelic, no. Not a molecule of acid.
Rating: 4 stars
B&T at Italianni’s, New Manila, Quezon City, Philippines
Description: Bombay Sapphire, strawberry, dill, lemon peel, tonic water
Deliciously cold play on a classic, Italianni’s offers gin and tonic connoisseurs a crystal, fresh cocktail characterized by mildly sweet, satisfyingly effervescent washes tastily reminiscent of strong lime together with a smoky, bitter gin flavor throughout, including the aftertaste, suffusing with a musky aroma. Gin always kicks rascally like a hare, there’s no exception here.
Rating: 4 stars
Amaretto Sour at Manila Polo Club, Makati City, Philippines
Deliciously sweet, sour, and icy—what separates Amaretto Sour from cocktails with similar flavor combinations is the inimitable syrupy almond flavor, slightly bitter, joined to a strong sour lemonade base. Distribution of flavors is uneven so that the deeper levels are denser. Bittersweet almond and lemony sour strains intensify as you finish more of the drink and descend to lower levels. Chill throughout, upper levels are colder. Ice cubes knock together musically as you empty the glass, clattering brightly. An agreeable aftertaste accompanies a pleasant, palpable kick. Cherry is sweet, crunchy, flavorful, and luscious. You’ve got to be a cherry eater to enjoy it.
Rating: 4 stars
Grey Goose Lemonade at Chili’s, Rockwell Center, Makati City, Philippines
Description: Grey Goose vodka, fresh squeezed lemon juice and syrup
Cocktail for sweet tooths that will leave them licking their sticky lips afterwards. Syrupy, chill, slightly bitter with a distant lemony citrus flavor. More bitter than sour. Adding the lemon slice deepens the flavor, so trample it well below the surface with the swizzle stick. Sipping it quietly bestows intimations of Arctic brine. Best part is the vodka—kick is dreamy, pleasant, mild. Rise self-assuredly from your seat because it’s nowhere near enough to knock you over.
Rating: 4
stars
APEROL SPRITZ at SALVATORE CUOMO CAFÉ, Podium, Pasig City, Philippines
ReplyDeleteDescription: Aperol liqueur, soda water, sparkling wine
Originally a Venetian invention, a Spritz is an ever so lightly alcoholic cocktail usually consumed as an aperitif.
Aperol Spritz, our subject under scrutiny, is a bright, summery variant, indulgent and ephemeral, almost, steeping in vibrant orange liqueur, which consists of gentian, rhubarb, cinchona, and other fine herbs. Exquisitely bitter, slightly tart, crisply textured, with a citrusy fragrant aroma, rousingly chill, it’s definitely worth a try. Syrup settles at the bottom and sweetly collects, serving up a pleasurable finish. Saluti!
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
SAN MIGUEL CERVEZA NEGRA
ReplyDeleteOver a century ago a tradition of brewing the finest beers worldwide began in the Philippines when Enrique María Barreto founded La Fábrica de Cerveza San Miguel under an 1890 Spanish Royal Charter. Over many decades San Miguel’s world-class beers irresistibly progressed to the forefront of the industry. Today, Cerveza Negra, originally concocted in Tacuba, Mexico in 1925, is a globally distinguished dark beer ranking with the very best.
Cerveza Negra is a dark amber lager with a delectably burnt flavor suffusing sweetly fermented roasted malt notes—chocolate, coffee, mocha, molasses, cinnamon, and the like—together with intimations of raisins, honey, cherries, and peanuts even. Mildly bitter and hoppy, lightly foamy, finely carbonated, palatably crispy, it greets your nose with a woody bouquet and caramel fresh water fragrance. Discernibly stout and filling, it is satisfying liquid bread. Along the spectrum of the dark beers, it locates around the mellow, genial end. Highly recommended for aficionados of this long-lived variant.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
YELLOW CHARTREUSE
ReplyDeleteOriginally concocted by Carthusian monks in 1840 as a lighter version of Green Chartreuse, which dates to 1764, Yellow Chartreuse is an alluring golden liqueur renowned for its inimitable taste experience and storied history.
Evicted in 1789 during the French Revolution, the monks were able to return in 1816 to their monastery in the mountains of Chartreuse near Grenoble. After losing their Chartreuse trademark to the French government in 1903, they were able to recover its ownership in 1929.
Today two monks safeguard the secret recipe consisting of up to 130 herbs and plants. Connoisseurs who try out this famous yellow elixir—its color derives mainly from saffron—will be greeted by a minty fresh fragrance and complexly herbal scent. Marvelously, singularly sweet, pleasantly, uniquely bitter, with manifold exotic vegetal notes, it lingers blissfully, warming the lips and inside throat. It has a smooth, creamy consistency, lavish, and a cleansing palate, closing with an indelible aftertaste and incomparable finish—introspective, lulling, and cheery, interiorly transforming. The kick (43 percent ABV) is subtle, gentle, definitely present yet almost imperceptible. On the rocks, it is memorably, dreamily chill, almost a contemplative event—intoxicating introduction to the hermetic spirit.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
GREEN CHARTREUSE
ReplyDeleteGreen Chartreuse is the famous classic herbal liqueur derived from a 1605 “elixir of long life” recipe passed on to the Carthusian monks by François Hannibal d'Estrées, who according to tradition was a marshal of artillery under the French King Henry IV. The formulation today is distilled according to a 1737 adjustment by Brother Gérome Maubec of the original recipe.
Transparently crystal clear and refractive, the color of Green Chartreuse drifts between olive yellow and emerald green. A strong indefinably herbal aroma imbued with unmistakably alcoholic scents greets your nose, satisfying in itself, and invites you to dwell for a time on the lulling fragrance.
Spicy, its sting travels rapidly throughout, warming the inside of your nose and mouth, descending into the gullet and expanding from the sternum. Sweet and markedly bitter, it is smooth, creamy, and licorice-like, dense, with a long lingering aftertaste inviting attention and focus and rising to a contemplation of sorts. Chill from the ice amplifies the inward experience. Kick (55 percent ABV) is mild yet patent. Drink it slowly.
In sum, its singular qualities include its inviting, entrancing aroma; strong, sensual, flavorful herbal fusion—deliciously breathable, exquisitely complex, distinctively bitter, and notably spicy; suffusing, warming heat; and abiding aftertaste, worthwhile in itself.
Magical and embracing, it departs gradually with a touch of sadness. Best means nothing is better.
This review is a take two.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
CHIMAY RED TRAPPIST BEER
ReplyDeleteChimay Red is Trappist brown ale of the finest quality. Originally brewed in 1862, it was nearly lost to history at the beginning of World War II when German soldiers commandeered the facilities and left them in ruins. The monks had to vacate the location in 1940 and again in 1942, and when they returned in 1944, the monastery with the brewery had to be rebuilt.
Brother Théodore was sent to study under the brewing master Jean De Clerck of the Catholic University of Leuven, both of venerable memory, after which in 1948 the monastery released the reinvented product under the Chimay Red label according to a reconstituted recipe.
Today Trappist beers manufactured at the Abbey of Our Lady of Scourmont, Chimay, Belgium, are famous worldwide. They occupy an established place in the celebratory pantheon of beers.
Chimay Red beer has a rich, fluffy head, up to three inches high on first pouring, effusing a fresh water, vegetal, yeasty aroma, appetizing and pleasing. Dark chestnut brown, dim and shadowy in the center and dusky blonde in the perimeter where it is more lit and less dense, it is sweetly luscious and tasty, scrumptious even, strongly tart and bitterly satisfying, suggestively meaty, if that is at all possible. Spicy and tangy, it features berry high notes and fruity undertones against a toothsome chocolate background.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
CHIMAY BLUE TRAPPIST BEER
ReplyDeleteOriginally released in 1944 as a Christmas beer, credits to Brother Théodore of fond and lasting memory, its popularity locally and abroad led the monastery to regularly output it as a fixture in its matchless portfolio.
Pouring it yields a generous, frothy head, three to four inches high, meditative and entrancing, pausing at length. Aroma is fresh and mild, sweet, malty, yeasty, aqueous, and delightfully mineral, surprisingly enticing, luxuriantly sensual. Deeply, intriguingly brown, a tad darker than Chimay Red’s and likewise notably transparent and pure, it is appealingly and magnificently colored. Densely sweet, pleasurably so, it is joined with rich notes of chocolate, coffee, molasses, raisins, and the like, while everything is appreciably bitter and hoppy, especially in the aftertaste. Christmas is here, it is always present—its name is Chimay Blue.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
It kicks a bit harder than Chimay Red, but it won’t tip you over.
DeleteGonzalinho
CHIMAY WHITE TRAPPIST BEER
ReplyDeleteChimay White is the outstanding pale ale brewed by Father, previously Brother Théodore, in 1966, to complete the Belgian Trappist monastery’s globally renowned original triplet. This fine brew upon pouring produces an abundantly frothy head, three to four inches deep. A shadowy golden hue, slightly turbid, shining, appealing, mellow is accompanied by a hoppy fragrance intermixing with sweet fresh water, vegetal scents, all appetizingly pleasant. Deliciously flavorful, tasty, it delivers a rich, luxuriant feeling in the mouth, stimulating and bubbly, with bitter notes, zesty yet diffident, and winning. Aftertaste is lingering, lasting, memorable, and mild. It is filling, satisfying, and pleasurable. It ranks among the very best.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
GUINNESS FOREIGN EXTRA STOUT
ReplyDelete“Extra Stout” describes it rightly. This ale pours out as densely brown and nearly black, exudes a caramel, vegetal, fresh, and watery aroma, slightly pungent, and effuses a shallow head shortly diminishing into a fine frothy ring. Strongly bitter, almost imperceptibly sweet, it comes off at best as unsweetened chocolate or cocoa powder and at worst as cinnamon sticks or even dried-out tree bark, tart and acrid, with a briny texture, palpably crispy. Aftertaste is drying, like the effect of tonguing dark roast ground coffee. I would guess this sort of beer would be an acquired taste.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
CAIPIRINHA at BUCCANEERS RUM & KITCHEN, Makati City, Philippines
ReplyDeleteCaipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail, is a zesty fusion of three basic flavors—sour, bitter, and sweet. Tart, somewhat acrid lime commingles with finely milled sugar turned syrupy when mixed with cachaça, smoky Brazilian white rum distilled from sugar cane, which at 38%-48% ABV kicks like Pelé. Swimmingly chill, together they trigger a whirlpool effect in your head.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
BANANA CUE at ALEGRIA MANILA, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Philippines
ReplyDeleteDescription: Bourbon, banana cordial, bitters, Cointreau
Complex bitters intermingling with aromatic banana flavor and orange candy syrup, suffusing musky, mildly alcoholic Bourbon, all evenly blending and pleasantly chill, with a sticky sweet and bitter aftertaste. At the glass bottom collect sugary bits. Banana leaf is for show and not to be eaten.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho