One of the newer Timmermans concoctions devised by owner John Martin, from a Vichy bottle with crown cap and apparently intended as a (literally) peppered version of their sweet 'kriek'; clearly an 'industrial' product, considering the ingredients list shows that it contains more added sugar than wheat (!), cherry juice instead of real cherries and additives like E300 (ascorbic acid) and E330 (citric acid)... Thickly moussey, foamy, regularly shaped, membrane-lacing, pale pink-tinged, even-bubbled and stable head over a crystal clear, ruby red robe with deep fuchsia hue. Aroma of candied cherries and indeed industrial sweet cherry juice, grenadine, drying apple cake, candyfloss and red Haribo candy, Cherry Coke almost, ruby port of dubious quality (and without the alcohol) and I guess something vaguely spicy in the background which remains so subtle that it could be cinnamon or nutmeg or whatever - but nowhere clearly hinting at actual black pepper. Sugary onset, a bit sticky even, candied cherries galore, hints of marzipan, strong grenadine, wine gums, candyfloss and a touch of honey, lively carbonated; a thin but persistent line of ascorbic acid (and I guess citric acid, artificially imposed) runs underneath and grants the whole thing a red lemonade-like character, but even then the sugariness prevails. Lean body, a thin bready core soaked up in sugar, red candy (indeed very rouge-like!) and grenadine, with that lemonade-like acidity trying to bring a bit of balance, but failing at that. I was hoping for the black pepper to kick some ass here but, predictably perhaps, it remains so volatile and faint that it could just as well have been left out - after a few big gulps I did sense a vague spicy note at the back, but it remains almost completely drowned in all that red-candy sugariness. Sticks to the teeth in the end, too. Apart from a very faint herbaceousness which could or could not be the pepper, there is as good as nothing to be found here that sets this potion apart from its classic, long-lived 'standard' kriek ancestor, which in my memory was even richer, creamier and less lemonade-like the last time I had it (twenty years ago) than this vile offspring is today. Surely the 'rouge' hype in top-fermented Belgian beers has had a big influence here, because it sure tastes like one, albeit it not the worst one around, admittedly. There must be an audience for this kind of beery red lemonades, considering how they keep thriving, but I most certainly am not part of that - doubtlessly youthful, and presumably beer-hating - audience.