The blog has reached one milestone in my journey of alcoholic beverages. Peroni Gran Riserva Puro Malto had the honour of being the 100th beer that I reviewed, and it was actually quite a good beer, considering its bulk quality. Since this blog has achieved a good number of readers, and blog entries, I've decided to update the rating scale. I realized that too many beverages were achieving the same scores, and therefore I've decided to extend the scale. Furthermore, I've decided to add a verbal grade to help readers understand what each score means. From now on, all the beverages will be graded on a scale of 1-100, 1 being the worst and 100 being the absolute maximum. Here are the verbal descriptions of each point category:
95-100 Legendary
90-94 Exceptional
80-89 Great
70-79 Good
51-69 Above average
50 Average
30-49 Below Average
16-29 Undrinkable
1-15 Abysmal
I hope that this makes the reviews even more helpful. Thanks for reading, and cheers!
Beer review: Peroni Gran Riserva Puro Malto (5.2% Italy: Birra Peroni Industriale)
Taste: The Peroni Gran Riserva Puro Malto is a light/medium-bodied beer with a bready, slightly roasted and sweet malty body. The beer offers aromas of caramel, fruits and finishes with a slight grassy hoppiness.
Overall, the Peroni Gran Riserva Puro Malto is actually a good find, considering that it's available in supermarkets so it's a bulk product. It offers quite a wide range of aromas and delivers a balanced flavor profile. Nothing exceptional, but definitely worth a try.
3.5/5
Beer review: Tennent's Super (9% Scotland: Wellpark Brewery)
The Tennent's Super is a lager, more specifically a strong pale lager. It's brewed by Wellpark Brewery, a Scottish brewery located in Glasgow. The brewery was founded in 1740 and is currently owned by C&C Group, a large manufacturer of alcoholic drinks in the United Kingdom.
Taste: The Tennent's Super is a medium-bodied beer with a slightly sweet, malty body. The beer offers fruity aromas and a faint herbal hoppiness which is surpassed by the stingy taste of alcohol.
Overall, the Tennent's Super is a very decent beer. The category of strong pale lagers, especially when it comes to the ones produced in bulk quantities is a tough one. When you add the light body of a lager with the high percentage, the result is usually a very distinctive taste of alcohol. This happens with the Tennent's Super as well, but actually in this beer the alcohol taste is still tolerable. I guess that's some sort of an achievement. However, nothing for the beer connoisseurs.
3/5
Other review: Bacardi Breezer Lime (4% Germany: Bacardi Limited)
The Bacardi Breezer brand is the most popular alcohol and soda mixture in the world. It is a mixture of Bacardi, originally a Cuban rum, and soda with 4.4% alcohol in Australia, 4%/5% in Canada, 4%/5% in Europe and 4.8% in India. Bacardi Limited is the world's largest privately held, family-owned spirits manufacturer in the world. The Breezer was the first brand in the ready-made alcohol/soda mixtures market and they have maintained their popularity against growing competition. Breezers are especially popular among young people who drink them mainly for inebriating purposes. Let's see what they're all about.
Taste: The Bacardi Breezer Lime is a light-bodied drink with a sweet, sugary taste. The drink tastes like your average lime soda, albeit a very sweet one, and the taste of alcohol is successfully lost under the sweetness of the drink.
Overall, the Bacardi Breezer Lime is a sweet drink with a well-thought-out flavor profile. The flavor of alcohol is faded under the sweetness of the drink and it's on the verge of being too sweet. You most certainly won't want to drink many Breezers, but as a single party starter it's an excellent choice. The flavor of it actually beats many lime sodas, although the sweetness might be too much for some. Although it doesn't offer rich aromatic experiences it does its job excellently. It's quite easy to see why the Breezers have achieved their popularity: the drink tastes good, is refreshing, easy to drink and it gets you inebriated, what more could young people and binge drinkers want?
4/5
Other review: Bacardi Breezer Orange (4% Germany: Bacardi Limited)
The Bacardi Breezer brand is the most popular alcohol and soda mixture in the world. It is a mixture of Bacardi, originally a Cuban rum, and soda with 4.4% alcohol in Australia, 4%/5% in Canada, 4%/5% in Europe and 4.8% in India. Bacardi Limited is the world's largest privately held, family-owned spirits manufacturer in the world. The Breezer was the first brand in the ready-made alcohol/soda mixtures market and they have maintained their popularity against growing competition. Breezers are especially popular among young people who drink them mainly for inebriating purposes. Let's see what they're all about.
Taste: The Bacardi Breezer Orange is a light-bodied drink with a sweet, sugary taste. The drink tastes like your average orange soda, and the taste of alcohol is successfully lost under the sweetness of the drink.
Overall, the Bacardi Breezer Orange is a sweet drink with a well-thought-out flavor profile. The flavor of alcohol is faded under the sweetness of the drink and it's on the verge of being too sweet. You most certainly won't want to drink many Breezers, but as a single party starter it's an excellent choice. The flavor of it actually beats many orange sodas, and although it doesn't offer rich aromatic experiences it does its job excellently. It's quite easy to see why the Breezers have achieved their popularity: the drink tastes good and gets you inebriated, what more could young people and binge drinkers want?
4/5
Other review: Frizzantino Spritz Aperitivo Happy Hour (8% Italy: Unknown)
The Frizzantino Spritz Aperitivo Happy Hour is a ready-made cocktail drink available in Italian supermarkets. Spritz is prepared with prosecco wine, some bitter liqueur such as Aperol, Campari, Cynar or Select. The drink is then topped off with sparkling mineral water. Since this is a ready drink mixture, one can't expect much of it but let's give it a go.
Taste: The Frizzantino Spritz Aperitivo Happy Hour is a light/medium-bodied beverage with a bitter, yet quite sweet body. The beverage also features a distinct taste of wine. It's easy to drink and reminds me of alcohol and soda mixtures such as Bacardi Breezers, the main difference being the bitterness of this drink. The drink finishes with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Overall, the Frizzantino Spritz Aperitivo Happy Hour is an OK drink. It doesn't come anywhere near the actual cocktail, but then again the sweetness of it makes it easier to drink than the real deal. Personally I'm not a big fan of the bitter alcohols and that's why the sweetness of this drink actually counts as a good thing. If you judge this drink in the category of alcohol and soda mixtures, and you don't compare it to actual Spritz (because that would be like comparing a restaurant meal to a microwave dinner), it's actually relatively good. If you're into slightly bitter drinks and want to buy a drink straight from the supermarket, this one's your choice. Don't expect anything close to the real deal, and instead expect a sugary soda version of it and you'll be fully satisfied.
3/5
Beer review: Menabrea Original (4.5% Italy: Birra Menabrea)
The Menabrea Original is a lager, more specifically a pale lager. It's brewed by Birra Menabrea, an Italian brewery located in Biella and founded in 1846. They produce about 10 million litres of beer annually so the brewery is medium-sized. Let's see what the flagship of the company tastes like.
Taste: The Menabrea Original is a light/medium-bodied beer with a soft, round and slightly sweet malty body. The beer offers a pleasant sweetness with a faintly bitter hoppy finish.
Overall, the Menabrea Original is a really nice find from several Italian supermarkets. The beer doesn't offer anything extaordinary but it delivers the basic features of a pale lager in a very sophisticated, pleasant manner. If you want a nice lager, which tends to sweet maltiness, this is definitely your choice!
3.5/5
Beer review: Peroni (4.7% Italy: Birra Peroni Industriale)
The Peroni is a lager, more specifically a pale lager. It's brewed by Birra Peroni Industriale, a brewery founded in Vigevano in Lombardy, Italy in 1846. The brewery has been based in Rome since 1864 and is now owned by SABMiller brewing group, the world's second largest brewing company.
Taste: The Peroni is a light/medium-bodied beer with a soft slightly roasted, dark bready and faintly sweet malt. The beer finishes with a slight bitter hoppiness.
Overall, the Peroni is an above average bulk lager. Personally I enjoy the slightly roasted malty aroma of it and overall the beer was a pleasant surprise. If you end up in Italy and enjoy roasted beers with easy drinkability, the Peroni is your choice!
3/5
Beer review: Birra Moretti (4.6% Italy: Heineken)
The Birra Moretti is a lager, more specifically a pale lager. It was formerly produced by the Italian brewery Birra Moretti founded in Udine in 1859. The brewery was acquired by Heineken International in 1996. The Heineken International is the third largest brewery group in the world. Well, it seems that almost all of the most popular beers around Europe are part of one of the big brewery groups so let's not let that fact affect our judgment about this potentially good beer. At least the label seems cool, let's see if the taste follows that line!
Taste: The Birra Moretti is a light-bodied beer with quite a watery, slightly sweet malty body. The beer finishes with a slight grassy hoppiness.
Overall, the Birra Moretti is your average bulk lager. What sets it apart from the other Italian bulk beers is the slightly sweet taste and especially the grassy hoppiness which is surprisingly potent, considering the macro quality of the beer.
3/5
Beer review: 3 Luppoli (4.8% Italy: Birrificio Angelo Poretti)
The 3 Luppoli is a lager beer, more specifically a pale lager. It's brewed by Birrificio Angelo Poretti, an Italian brewery founded in 1877. The brewery is located in Varese and it was bought by the Carlsberg Group in 2002. The Carlsberg Group is the fifth largest brewery group in the world.
Taste: The 3 Luppoli is a light-bodied beer with a faintly sweet malty body. The beer is quite light, soft and finishes with a faint bitter hoppiness.
Overall, the 3 Luppoli is a decent lager with a taste that offers nothing to write home about, but neither does it make you grimace. It's not offensive in any way and if you ever come across this beer, you can definitely give it a try...as long as you don't expect anything exceptional.
3/5
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