A writer has to try new things, right? To grow, to learn, to give their characters more depth?
I think so, too.
I was sort of thinking tonight would be a good night to sit down with a nip of Captain Morgan’s Pineapple Rum and crochet a pair of wrist warmers for a coworker’s granddaughter. This is but one of the projects on my to-do list, and one I thought I could knock off in an evening. A little beverage would be nice, and the pineapple rum sounded good.
So I ran into my local grocery store, grabbed a sandwich and fruit for The Bob’s lunch tomorrow and stopped dead in the produce aisle. There was a display of six pack bottles, you see. How odd to see beer in the produce aisle, you know? And I don’t even like beer. At all. But I stopped to read the label more carefully because, after all, I had to know why BEER was in the produce aisle. What I discovered was that, instead of beer, the bottles were labeld as hard cider.
Wow. Hard cider. I admit I only had a vague notion of what hard cider probably was. A logical extrapolition of the term indicated it was more than likely alcoholic apple cider. I’d read the term before in historical novels, but they’d never quite confirmed my suspicion with clear cut words like: “Aileen sipped the cool cup of hard cider, hoping the beverage would give her the courage to face Simon. The apple flavor was faint, and it tasted remarkably like watered down juice.”
So I decided then and there to buy a six pack and see if I’d like it. I don’t like beer, remember? Not at all. Or those malt-flavored beverages, much. So this had better not taste like beer.
OK, I’m going to open the bottle now.
The oclor is very much like apple juice and when I shake the bottle a bit, there’s a tiny bit of foam head.
First sip….
Not at all like beer. I can barely taste the apple (this is the amber draft flavor, there was also an apple crisp flavor with green apples on the packaging. May have to go taste test it too.).
Not bad. Let’s try the second sip. Pleasant, not at all yeasty or malt-flavored.
Actually, not a lot of flavor, which I find disappointing. But, of course, there’s still the rest of the six-pack to go! I’m probably disappointed because I’d hoped this was much like the apple corn liquor we used to drink over in Europe during my military days. That stuff you kept in the freezer and was better than Nyquil if you had a cold.
Would you try some hard cider if it were offered to you?
Sorry for not being around much lately. I’m undergoing one of those “major life changes” that you find on those quizzes in the magazines. You know, things like moving, getting married, getting divorced, having a baby. Changing jobs.
I’m not that big of a TV watcher. I pick my shows, turn them on and settle in with a bunch of yarn, a dog or two, and watch them. When they’re over, I move on to other things.