Thursday, June 9, 2011

First Impressions & Shiner Blonde

It's safe to say I'm in Iraq now.
The food here is better than I expected.  Spacious dining areas, short lines, and as much variety in the menu as I saw at Fort Hood.  The fruit options in particular have been both ripe and abundant.  Excellent peaches.  I've also had an opportunity to try dates for the first time, which I enjoyed.

I'm sure no one is surprised to hear it's hot and dusty here.  An interesting manifestation of this is the dust storms I've seen so far.  Sometimes they roll in quickly like a thunderstorm with harsh wind and lightning, other times they linger and just fill the air with fine, silt-like particles that can set off smoke alarms.  A recent one actually had brief rain and winds strong enough to blow plywood structures about.  That was a good time to have one's weapon indoors.

There is a no-alcohol-while-deployed policy in reasonably strict enforcement here (for obvious reasons), so forthcoming beverage reviews will be coming from my archives until further notice.

Shiner Blonde is probably the next easiest Shiner product to find and certainly their longest running brew (sold under several names, but allegedly unchanged since 1909).  It's marketed as a "bohemian-style golden lager" with a "blend of European and American Hops."  It seemed like a very clean lager with a pale and light body.  A little hoppier than I usually like, but not bitter and certainly drinkable.  Better than Budweiser or Miller and I wouldn't turn it down if offered one, but I won’t be purchasing this on my own again.

1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear you're doing well - sorry about the sand storms, but hey, yours sound way neater than mine ever were. Ours usually just rolled in, rolled out. No lightning. Though setting off smoke alarms, I do remember that one!

    Hope all is well. Feel free to let me know if there's anything you would like sent to you :)

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