Am I back?? I dunno. Have I the front?? Where do you side?
Am I back?? I dunno. Have I the front?? Where do you side?
Member since:14.08.2002
Reviews:150
Members who trust:77
Alcopops. Love 'em, loathe 'em, or just quite like 'em, they're here and they're here to stay. But why would people decide to drink a lemon flavoured one? If memory serves, lemon was virtually, if not exactly, the first alcopop flavour. Since then we've gone on to all different kinds of flavours, from exotic fruits to, er, blue flavoured.
Just take as a case in hand the Bacardi Breezer. With lovely, and less usual, pineapple, plus watermelon and cranberry if you can still find them, why on earth would anyone decide to have a lemon flavour? It would be just like getting all the same boring colour jelly baby, or buying a tube of fruit pastilles and hoping they're all green.
Thinking along those lines, the fact that theediscerning walked past tins of passion fruit alcopop at 49p for 440ml, and chose to try just plain ol' lemon ol' Mike's Hard Lemonade, just goes to show how much he loves ya, and telling y'all about what he's eating and drinking.
However, the fact it itself was on offer helped.
The bottle itself is the usual 275ml one, with clear glass, and black and yellow labels, with
the design of a lemon silhouette on. Also, each label has a stupid slogan on - "Grab life by the lemons", "Make it Mike's", "Tastes kinda like homemade lemonade with vodka" - some clearly snappier than others.
This is just silly, and loses marks in trying to appeal to the yoof market with nonsense spelling (or just plain no sense). PACKAGING gets 3 stars, so from now on in we'd better be a bit more scientific.
AROMA
On popping the bottle we remember we're "working" for our readers at ciao, and so try and find a scent. Now theediscerning hasn't the world's best nose for any aromas, but he certainly found one here. Rather peculiarly, this seemed generically citrus - with a lot of orange in there, and not a lot of lemon among the medley of 'notes'.
It was also rather strong, but just on the good side - any more and it might have started to get over-powering. However, surely lemon scent would have been more preferable, so 3 stars.
THE DRINKING
This is, of course, the main point of the exercise, and drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade started as a pleasure. It slipped down quite smoothly, and quickly, and was most enjoyable. Only for the second half of the bottle was a different sensation evident. This might be down to the vodka, something theediscerning has very little history with. Sure, he's drunk vodka alcopops since they first started coming out, but who could ever guess they actually had vodka in? Other alcopops (the rarer kinds) that aren't vodka-based taste just the same.
The words clinical and medicinal might be far too harsh, but they sprung to mind in the way a sort of chemical approach to the flavours became more evident as the bottle progressed. Consequently, the actual drinking became slower, and more of a chore. Very disappointing this - theediscerning taking more than a few minutes to polish an alcopop off - without his partner there to distract him?!
Certainly, the previous reviewer of Mike's on ciao said the vodka wasn't disguised enough, and theediscerning hopes he is agreeing. He doesn't want to think the delayed build-up of this chemical feel was caused by anything else. As a result, a major mark-down for the drinking. 2 stars.
THE LEMON
No, that's not a reference to yours' truly, but the subsection that we really ought to concentrate on for a lemon flavoured alcopop - the actual flavour. Well, it was evident from the packaging that Mike's hoped it was more than an alcopop, indeed, "real" lemonade with alcohol added.
And in this it was a success. The lemonade flavour and texture was there right from the get-go - not a very bubbly lemonade, but certainly this was a more frizzy alcopop than the norm. It was also a tad cloudier, as if, like proper lemonade, this was lemon in suspension.
The flavour was not too strong, either, while theediscerning could concentrate on the lemon(ade) and before the unpleasantness kicked in. However, 275ml isn't a lot of anything, and if you can only drink half a bottle before something else replaces the very taste sensation you thought you were buying, then it can't be put down as a success. 2 and a half stars, please.
Naturally with lemon and lemonade there would be some sort of bitterness, and this was there, but on the weak side. Certainly nothing to deter the 12-year old tweenager on the razz with her big sister, but more could have been made of it instead. 2 stars.
And that is about it. It is 5% proof, just to inform you, and that is about all one can say about Mike's. Were it not for the ingenious double-review theediscerning is writing this morning.
There were two lemon alcopops on sale cheap that day, and theediscerning knew both were on op-site databases. So he got both at the same time, and tried both at the same time. This way, and this way alone, was he able to report on what some people might have missed - namely any difference between alcopops.
As is quite clear to us all, they are completely evident in any shop selling alcohol, apart perhaps from the very snooty wineries. And the number of makers seems ridiculously high. Wherever one goes there seems to be a different brand, from the High Street to the supermarkets to the corner shops for students, like Jackson's.
Previously, theediscerning has only got one batch of booze in, drunk it, and then returned some time later for a different make. Never before has he allowed himself to actually compare different brands, having thought they were all exactly the same, and not worried as to whether one was particularly better than the other.
However, in trying both Mike's Hard Lemonade and Boru Black together, theediscerning is able to say there is definitely a difference.
However, this is just a review of the first, so theediscerning will merely give some pointers to the differences between these two, see if it affects the rating of MHL, and point you in the direction of the sister op for Boru Black, which was done first this morning, so is sitting waiting for you over on the other channel.
Boru Black comes in an equally silly bottle, this time replete with daft piffle about quadruple distilling, and Atlantic Irish oak, and things that make no sense to anyone with just the average care about their alcopops (ie the price!). It too is 5% and comes in a 275ml bottle, but is very different. The aroma is weaker, yet more lemony. The drinking is OK at first, and thankfully stays that way, and as for the lemon...
Perhaps the comparison between the two fails because MHL tries to be an alcoholic lemonade, instead of a lemon-flavoured alcopop, but without a two-way taste test, theediscerning would never have realised the distinction was so strong.
This leaves theediscerning with the resulting thought that Boru Black does not pretend to be a traditional drink, such as normal lemonade, souped up with the kick of vodka. It can't pretend to be a cocktail either. Instead alcopops are a modern invention, living on some ground in between, and they know it.
But back to Mike's Hard Lemonade. This *does* pretend to be a traditional drink with added extra. It's just a pity it isn't very nice to drink. And for all the Irish paddywhackery of Boru Black, with embossed shield on the bottle et al, Mike's turns out to be the more pretentious drink.
Mike's Hard Lemonade, then, is not recommended. You would have to check the earlier op on the other side to see if Boru got recommended, but let's face it - other, exotic flavours would be recommended a great deal more strongly.
Of course if lemon flavour rocks your boat, or you really are still impressed with the thought of home-style lemonade with vodka jumping all over your taste-buds, or this is all you can find, then there's nothing wrong with just trying it out. Just don't get left with the impression that theediscerning is in a hurry to repeat the Mike's experience for another two-way taste test, because he isn't.
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Mar 12th, 2003
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