Many years ago, under the hypercommercial pressure executed by owner John Martin, the Timmermans range of sweet, pasteurized fruit lambics got the company of an even sweeter range of liquid candy beers - no doubt inspired by Belle-Vue Kriek Extra by what is now AB InBev. The original ones, already heavily sugared, were rebranded as "Lambicus" to lend them a fake aura of traditionalism. Strange I never rated the Kriek in this range before - must have confused it with the supersweet one for all those years... Very regularly shaped, desnely moussy, light pink, papery lacing, stable head over a cristal clear, bright ruby red beer with vermillion hue. Aroma has nothing genuinely lambic-like: red candy ('dropveters' and 'poepegatjes' - you don't want to know), cherry-flavoured bubblegum, artificially sweetened elderberry syrup, grenadine and only in the background, somewhat more 'beery' hints of white bread, freshly cut red apple and a peachy ester note - as well as cooked red cabbage, probably DMS due to harsh pasteurization. Very single-mindedly sweet onset, artificial cherry candy and elderberry jam, 'cuberdons' and Haribo candy, sticky with a lemonade-like acidity cutting through. The sugariness and artificial fruit extract flavour continues over a neutrally 'white' bready, bit soapy backbone, leading to an empty finish, filled with nothing more than the same artificial fruit extract flavours (sweet cherry and elderberry lemonade), apart from a late, brief and dull bitterish hint, probably more so from the industrial products that went in here than from hops. It is hard to imagine that actual lambic ever was part of this beer - I sincerely think that this is made with some neutral, bland, hardly hopped blonde or even lager rather than (even filtered and pasteurized) lambic. Shame on you, John Martin: this is even sweeter, red candy-er and more artificial than I remember its original self to have been. And double shame on you for daring to put "Lambicus" on the label, misleading consumers as was custom two generations ago. Expectations weren't high, but this is even worse.