Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Still too lazy to transcribe my Oregon tasting notes, but in the meantime, an adventure with cheap swill.
I have been fascinated by cheap booze since I moved to California. "Sin taxes" and the general expensiveness of the region mean you simply cannot buy $2 wine in Massachusetts, for instance. Nor does the 99-cent store in Boston sell beer. (Those stores, in Boston, even sell things that cost more than 99 cents, which is a whole 'nother rant).
So I just couldn't help myself at the 99-cent store a few weeks ago, and I bought a 32 oz bottle of some random beer from El Salvador. You know what? It wasn't bad. Well, yes, it was bad, but it was less bad than I expected, sort of like the lower-end beers available at Penny Markt in Germany. (Those were more like 15 cents a serving, not 50). Certainly, it was better than Bud Lite.
Encouraged, I looked for more when I was at the store again this week. Sure, it was mediocre, but I'm poor. None (discount stores aren't known for their reliability). No big loss. I decided to try a new brand, and picked up two bottles of some other Salvadoran beer, "Cabana." Now this crap was so vile I couldn't drink it. Not just watery, actively bad! I even tried adding lime and salt, as my Mexican workmates had advised to do with bad beer from south of the border. It didn't hurt, but it didn't help, either.
Now I must wonder if that bottle had gone off, since the stuff isn't supposed to suck that bad (here's a similar opinion). I have one more bottle, so maybe I'll try again. Scratch that. I'll make Rick try it! :)
I have been fascinated by cheap booze since I moved to California. "Sin taxes" and the general expensiveness of the region mean you simply cannot buy $2 wine in Massachusetts, for instance. Nor does the 99-cent store in Boston sell beer. (Those stores, in Boston, even sell things that cost more than 99 cents, which is a whole 'nother rant).
So I just couldn't help myself at the 99-cent store a few weeks ago, and I bought a 32 oz bottle of some random beer from El Salvador. You know what? It wasn't bad. Well, yes, it was bad, but it was less bad than I expected, sort of like the lower-end beers available at Penny Markt in Germany. (Those were more like 15 cents a serving, not 50). Certainly, it was better than Bud Lite.
Encouraged, I looked for more when I was at the store again this week. Sure, it was mediocre, but I'm poor. None (discount stores aren't known for their reliability). No big loss. I decided to try a new brand, and picked up two bottles of some other Salvadoran beer, "Cabana." Now this crap was so vile I couldn't drink it. Not just watery, actively bad! I even tried adding lime and salt, as my Mexican workmates had advised to do with bad beer from south of the border. It didn't hurt, but it didn't help, either.
Now I must wonder if that bottle had gone off, since the stuff isn't supposed to suck that bad (here's a similar opinion). I have one more bottle, so maybe I'll try again. Scratch that. I'll make Rick try it! :)
