7.8

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

It has been quite a while since OWA came up with a new Japan-themed lambic but here it is: suika lambic, with 'suika' being Japanese for watermelon, a fruit originating from Africa but cultivated for centuries or even millennia elsewhere including East Asia. This lovely fruit is quite popular in Japan: splitting them with a wooden stick is a national game known as suikawari, and perhaps even more weirdly, it is Japan which came up with strange new shapes of watermelon (square being the best known). Made with De Troch lambic as usual. Thin, off-white, open ring of foam, quickly dissolving over a misty 'dirty' ochre-tinged golden blonde robe. Aroma of old leather, preserved grapefruits, dandelion juice, furniture polish, indeed a whiff of sweet watermelon fleetingly passing by, cucumber in vinegar, old wood, unripe peach, green gooseberries, lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, shrivelled wild apples, motherwort. Tart onset, wild apples, lots of green plums, some lemon juice and gooseberries, but not overly puckering, just sharp and dry; very active but fine-bubbled carbonation in a rounded, vinous body. Dry-cereally core under strong lactic sourness, very dry, paired with very tannic woodiness and that 'stubborn' bitter plant- or inedible nut-like aspect I always find in De Troch lambic (and will pull out of a blend with other lambics any time). Watermelon in the actual flavour remains unsurprisingly very subtle, but it does pop up every now and then in the overall "parcours", unveiling itself in volatile whiffs of juicy fruitiness. Long, dry, astringently woody, earthy and 'Bretty' finish - and the watermelon, watery and 'diluted' as it naturally is, cannot do anything about that. Granted, the fruit is at least recognisably present here and that is more than I was actually expecting - and I love watermelon so that was a lucky break - but I think another lambic than De Troch's would have been a better option: De Troch lambic, though in itself interesting enough, is just too bitter, astringent and tangy for something as delicate as watermelon, especially considering actual fruit was used here and no extracts. I wonder what this same recipe would have tasted like if it had been made with e.g. Lindemans or Girardin lambic... Still, an interesting one, daring as usual in this series, but closer to a hit than to a miss for me.