Blondes In Stereo
Torchlight Brewing Co.

Appearance: Pours a hazy deep warm yellow-orange; a bit like the colour of golden pasteurized honey. Finishes with a typical bubbly white one finger head that dissipates a bit quickly to a small ring of bubbles and a bit of surface residue, lacing tends to glide down the glass and settle back into the surface.

Aromatics: The first few sniffs contain a good punch of zest with slight spice (clove), before filling with bright tangy citrus and honeysuckle sweetness; there is a bit of subdued straw/hay that creeps in every once in a while along with an underlying aroma of lightly toasted banana bread.

Taste: Orange rind with a soft coriander blend are the first things that come to mind. I get a little bit of biscuit in the mellower parts of the palate with a fair bit of lime zest notes and a small bit of yeast joining in the slight booziness at the tail end. Fairly subtle (weak) beginning with a pretty good balance of flavours from the middle to the end.

Feel: Pretty crisp and snappy, the carbonation keeping up well, though the start of each sip is a tad watery, but nothing unlikeable. A fairly good medium weight makes sure all the flavours are delivered evenly across the palate. This is a bit of alcohol vapour that sits at the finish for a short time with a soft bitter.

Overall: Not bad. It does a decent job as a thirst-quencher, and has a flavour portfolio that good for the patio - or as they say on the bottle “pair with all your sunshine shenanigans”.

Pairing: I think it’s slightly watery mouthfeel and hints at a spice profile requires some companionship to enhance those characteristics - I’d go cajun-spiced loaded beef nachos with plenty of jalapeños. Or a pub-style peppered beef pot pie.