Sunday, May 20, 2007

Korean Ginseng-D

Right, it's time to stop fannying about with drinks that are barely lumpy. This one is serious.

 Korean Ginseng-D

In fact, I think there might be something alive in there.

Alien?

Korean Ginseng-D presents a whole intact ginseng root floating in an amber liquid in a beautifully sculpted heavy glass bottle. (Incidentally, I found out accidentally that the bottle is study enough to bounce on a laminate floor without ill effect when dropped from counter height.) This lends it the appearance of a pickled medical sample. How could you not want to drink that?

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If you can make out the ingredients at all you'll see that the hunk of ginseng in the first item on the list. You know you’re getting good chunkage when there is more of it than anything else in the drink.

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There is also a quaint verse of Engrish on the label, where it reads, "Korean Ginseng drink is a natural soft drink containing with one Ginseng root." Bless. It continues, "For nutrition information write: WANG GLOBALNET" It's unclear whether one should simply write WANG GLOBALNET on a piece of paper and the information will magically appear. I would suspect that it really needs to be done at midnight, on a full moon, in front of a mirror etc, and some sinister Korean demon will appear over your shoulder and whisper it to you. I can confirm that typing the phrase into Word has no effect. Alternatively, maybe if you write it on a piece of paper that will then have the same nutritional value? Or maybe you're supposed to write to the address given underneath? I prefer the witchcraft theory though. I like my pickled biological sample drinks to have a sinister satanic air about them.

On with the consumption. There is a slight froth formed when shaking that disperses quickly. There is a very mild horseradish like smell when opened. Time for the pour:

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The bear sticks its head out of the cave.

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Squeeze!

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The money shot.

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Isn't that beautiful? The chunk is too large to even fit in the liquid. Now that is serious chunkage.

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Down the hatch. The drink is light with a slightly syrupy flavour. We then get to the chunk.

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Guess I just have to eat it.

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You’d tell me if I had something in my teeth, wouldn’t you?

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Cross section.

The root is very soft, not chewy at all, and can be eaten without problem. It has a very mild almost spicy like taste, nowhere near as strong as ginger or horseradish or lotus root. It leaves a slight after taste and is refreshingly washed down with the remaining drink.

Chunkometer
Chunkage
Chewiness
Chokeability
Taste
Nausea