Saison flavoured with the famed Chinese Sichuan pepper - not actually pepper botanically speaking, but a member of the rue family. Apparently this used to be a dark saison (still wondering what that may be to this day - but I digress) with a different hop combination, but the brewery seems to have decided to switch to a 'normal' blonde saison now - so thanks to tderoeck for, after establishing this, already preparing this new entry for me... Thick and frothy, off-white, irregular, uneven-bubbled, breaking head on a misty, ochre-tinged golden blonde robe. Aroma of unripe pear, grapefruit zest, dried lemon peel, pink peppercorns but in this case obviously representing the Sichuan pepper, spiced crackers, dried wild angelica, lemonbalm, curly dock leaf. Dryish onset with restrained but important fruity notes of hard pear, apple peel and unripe courgette, smooth cereally pale maltiness, medium carbonated with quite a lot of aromatic spiciness on top; the Sichuan pepper blends seamlessly with the citric aspect of the hops, even reinforces it into a colourful kind of zestiness, although the pure 'herbal' quality of said pepper remains fairly soft, as does the actual bitterness of the hops. The beer as a whole is however dry enough and does not need excessive hop bitterness: instead the Chinese 'pepper' has been applied in a beautifully balanced dosage, constructing a quenchingly spicy finish that is satisfying enough to make one forget that Sichuan pepper has as much to do with saison as any other exotic ingredient. Nothing exuberant happening here, just perfectly finetuned balance - and I appreciate that.