With 'rouge' (artificial, often strong and very sweet red 'fruit' beer) incomprehensibly being more popular than ever in Belgium these days, it comes as no surprise that Haacht had to incorporate one in their busily marketed Super 8 series - so here we go, with a bottle from the Delhaize supermarket in Lokeren. Tightly cobweb-lacing, very thick and frothy, pillowy, densely moussey, pale greyish off-white head on a crystal clear vermillion red beer with coppery glow and lively sparkling. Aroma of red Haribo candy and 'dropveters' from half a yard away, grenadine, Ghentian 'cuberdons', pink bubblegum, rubber, Fanta Red, fabric conditioner, cotton candy, vague hint of cooked beetroot, fresh laundry - which is nice in laundry but not in beer. Utterly sweet in the mouth as can be expected - extremely sugary even more so than many other rouges on the market right now, and lacking any complexity underneath to at least relativise it a bit; thoroughly grenadine- and cuberdon-like, with an ascorbic lemonade effect underneath, coating the mouth entirely and sticking to the teeth. Thinnish mouthfeel, lively carbonated but very slick and simple in its base, with a cereally core unrecognisably buried under all that red fruit extract and sugar. A perfumey, almost lavender-like but equally artificial scent is added retronasally; due to the thinnish structure of the base beer and the lively effervescence, it feels lighter and a bit easier on the senses than many other rouges I had (from e.g. Van Honsebrouck, Huyghe or Van Steenberge), but obviously that does not change the fact that this whole rouge hype should be exterminated root and branch. The sugariness of this particular one kept sticking to my teeth and those rubbery, artificial 'factory' flavours will haunt me for a long time. About as bad as expected - but of course I know I do not belong to the intended audience, and sickly sweet sugary beers, whether it be the sweetened pasteurised fruit 'lambics' of past decades, the Radler craze we had several years ago or this, will always exist in some or other form, I fear...