6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

The newest creation from the Italian trappist monks at Tre Fontane, a session blonde flavoured with a combo of olive leaves, cardamom and what is described as 'chlorophyll', i.e. the stuff that makes not only plants but also green algae green, so I wonder where they took it from (could be anything which is alive and photosynthesizes, basically...). Longneck bottle bought from a private collector, as this one is apparently only for sale at the monastery so far. Thick, frothy, snow white, membrane-lacing, stable head, hazy 'dirty' golden blonde robe with odd but unmistakable deep olive-green hue from the chlorophyll - a colour I have never seen in beer actually, somewhere in between blonde, brown and green I guess, but in any case it is the green aspect which pushes this one out of the ordinary. Honestly I never thought I would ever see a green trappist beer in my day... Aroma of strong (green?) cardamom, spiced crackers, green algae, banana peel, petrichor, olive oil or indeed olive leaves (physically present), parsley root, mud, leftover dough. Sweetish onset, banana peel and some pear skin mingled with halfripe plum and - oddly - green olive, the effect of the olive leaves of course; sharp carbonation with minerally effect, white-bready malt core under very dominant cardamom, very 'Indian cuisine' if it had not been so 'dirty' - descending into a kind of 'dark greenness', with the herbal effects of that olive leaf actually fitting in well. Ends with lingering cardamom spiciness, olive leaf herbaceousness and some dirty, earthy yeastiness, along with grassy hop bitterness - a weird yet somehow fitting combo of effects. More bitterness than from hops comes from the cardamom and the olive leaves, no doubt, almost acting astringently; the fact that a lot of the initial banana-ish sweetness stands after all these flavours have passed, also seems to testify that hops have been applied rather frugally here. I am still trying to get my head around the possible intentions here; I had green beers before, acting as gadgets more than anything else, but from the monks cultivating gum trees and actually using them in some of their other beers, I guess this weird 'greenness' means something more... I also still wonder which organism the added chlorophyll came from - could be anything from the famed spirulina (not even algal but bacterial in nature) to spinach or whatever other green plant. An utter oddity, far removed from the austerity I tend to expect from trappist breweries (biased as I am for being Belgian), but somehow feeling seriously intended and not just a practical joke like so many other "unbeery coloured" beers - it has been a long time since I did not 'understand' a beer, but this surely is one. As for rating: a bit 'dirty', overpowered by spice, unbalanced and too sweet in the finish, so yeah...