Kinshachi Matcha Draft | Land Beer
Brewed by:
Land Beer
Japan
kinshachi.jp
Style: Herbed / Spiced Beer
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 5.00%
Availability: Year-round
Notes / Commercial Description:
No notes at this time.
Added by snogglethorpe on 08-20-2010
Ratings: 2 | Reviews: 2
2.16/5 rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5
"Matcha" is high-quality powdered Japanese green tea (it's what they use in the Japanese tea ceremony), so this is basically "green tea beer."
It seemed kinda cool in the store (pretty bottle and label, interesting concept), and it is a very attractive green color in the glass. Unfortunately the taste is quite vile -- it's like cheap vending-machine green tea mixed with cheap beer, but the mixture is worse than either.
The first impression is a weird sort of vegetable taste, along with a mild astringency that reminds me of cheap green tea. After that it settles into a thoroughly unpleasant bitterness, with neither any obvious hop character nor any resemblance to the pleasing bitterness of matcha -- while both beer and matcha are "bitter in a good way", this stuff is "bitter in a bad way", with a flat, one-note character. I could only choke down half the bottle before I gave up and poured the rest down the drain.
A gimmick gone wrong. Avoid.
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look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 1.5
"Matcha" is high-quality powdered Japanese green tea (it's what they use in the Japanese tea ceremony), so this is basically "green tea beer."
It seemed kinda cool in the store (pretty bottle and label, interesting concept), and it is a very attractive green color in the glass. Unfortunately the taste is quite vile -- it's like cheap vending-machine green tea mixed with cheap beer, but the mixture is worse than either.
The first impression is a weird sort of vegetable taste, along with a mild astringency that reminds me of cheap green tea. After that it settles into a thoroughly unpleasant bitterness, with neither any obvious hop character nor any resemblance to the pleasing bitterness of matcha -- while both beer and matcha are "bitter in a good way", this stuff is "bitter in a bad way", with a flat, one-note character. I could only choke down half the bottle before I gave up and poured the rest down the drain.
A gimmick gone wrong. Avoid.
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Kinshachi Matcha Draft from Land Beer
2.62
out of 5
based on 2 ratings.
look: 5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 2.5
A: Pours a beautiful cloudy gold, like a good Weizen, with a lovely white head.
S: An almost minty green tea aroma arises from the glass. Nice.
T: Eugh! Minty green tea left right and centre. Not sure if it's meant to be a Weizen or an English pale ale underneath. Dry as you like with a bitter backbone. No malt character whatsoever. Fizzy. Imagine green tea flavoured Alka-Seltzer.
O: I can see some people really falling for this but it's not my cup of ...
At least the lacing is beautiful.
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