Sealand Birk - 2 Reviews

Apparently someone else out there, besides me, doesn't like maple syrup. Said person, whose name may rhyme with Leiland Kirk, most certainly got a tapping kit as a zany Xmas gift, and didn't know what to do with it. Why would he want to go harvest his own maple syrup, when he has no taste for the stuff? Instead he decided to take it another way. Since he was such a big fan of birch beer he went out to the woods behind his house, found the largest birch tree his little eyes could spy, and drove that tap right into it. Rumor has it that as soon as he did a great torrent of birch juice flooded out, nearly drowning our hero. I don't believe a word of it. I tend to think that he left that spout in the tree for a good week before he remembered to go back and check on it, and he had gathered maybe half a bucket full. There's not much juice in them there trees, you see.

Our recipient of an unthoughtful gift was a bit disappointed to find out that the liquid that came from the tree did not in fact taste like his favorite soda. Instead what he got was a slightly sweet liquid that tasted very lightly of trees. On it's own he found it to be a bit bland and nothing that he cared too much about but he decided to add a little blueberry juice to the mix, and he was onto something. The flavors blended together wonderfully, and tasted nice and sweet, without being overly candy-like. It had a taste all it's own, and it was something that he grew to love. It was just unfortunate that the trees would only produce the juice in the spring before they sprouted leaves. This became a seasonal drink indeed.

What a tease. Here I thought I was going to get a delicious, non-carbonated drink birch beer but come on. This tastes like some sort of agave juice. It's smooth, has no definition and won't really offend anyone.

Now that my clear disappointment is out of the way, yeah, this is pretty average. It is from the birch tree. Giants came from the sea and the sky and squeezed birch trees into tiny bottles. This being the "original" flavor is the base in which the rest of the flavors in this line are based. How does it stand up? It's fine. It's non-offensive and therefore a tad lackluster.

Did I know that you could drink that lifeblood of a birch tree? No. Will I try it next time I can identify a birch tree and have a tool to stab said tree to let the juice out? Maybe. Probably.