If you are unfamiliar with this series of posts, start here.
Alanna and I spent several months in France learning how to make cheese prior to moving to the farm. The bulk of this time was spent in the Alps about two hundred yards from the Swiss border.
It was an unfamiliar place in many respects, and one of the strangest things was the alcoholic beverage called gentian jaune. It had an intense aroma, with notes of flowers and nail polish, that permeated any room the moment a bottle was opened. The brother of the farm’s proprietor was obsessed with making it, and he spent many long hours digging huge burlap sacks of the bulbous roots from the steep cow pastures. It was strange in that it had basically no appealing flavors, and yet I nevertheless found it strangely enjoyable to drink.
Moxie, which contains gentian extract, has several enjoyable flavors, and yet I nevertheless find it strangely gross to drink. It’s an interesting blend of root beer and cola, and a faint note of gentian, but the overwhelming taste is of cough syrup with a bunch of extra sugar added to it. I’ve mentioned before that eating relatively little refined sugar has made me more sensitive to sweetness, but Moxie is so ridiculously, over the top sugary, it’s harder to drink in quantity than the incredibly harsh, incredibly alcoholic aperitif I had in the alps, with none of the attendant benefits.
While Moxie has turned out to be not to my taste, I am grateful to the reader who was kind enough to send us two bottles. I still haven’t had my wine day yet, so if anyone wants to send me a bottle of ‘61 Petrus I won’t complain.
-Garth
