Smooth Ninja - Fields of Cherry Blossoms
Baa Baa Brewhouse

I don't think I've ever had a cherry jam... until now. Thanks to the brewers of Baa Baa Brewhouse, this flavor, texture and satisfaction was for some reason put in a beer can.

In what should be spooned out of a jar, their Fields of Cherry Blossoms version of Smooth Ninja oozes from the can with a deep burgundy and mauve blend, completely opaque, and when boring samples were taken from the glass, fossils from the mesozoic period were discovered. As a radiant cherry scent floats above the rim, so do a tanginess of citrus and tropical fruit. Nearly crusty in its cobbler-like sweetness, those jam, jelly, vanilla and pastry flavors are obvious.

With an undercurrent of lemon, green apple, lime, red grape, passionfruit and all-things-red, there's a little more to the beer than just cherries, but those flavors are fleeting twinges of taste and are short lived. This beer is all about the rip-roaring, robust zing of the little red pitted fruit and its intensely sweet, cereal-driven, succulent character. A late taste of red wine, cherry pie and cough drops largely frame the beer's final impressions.

Full bodied, creamy and sour all at once, the beer finishes both sweet and sour with an long fruity aftertaste of cherry and slight medicine. Perhaps seen as an abomination in beer making, this beer certainly departs from beer norms. But one thing that's not up for debate is that this thing is delicious!