And apparently so is the Frozen One.
First a little background for the new and uneducated. About a year ago I began a long email interchange with the Wolfboy. I'd noted his rapid rise out of the frozen northern tundra to publish a new rum website that appeared to have potential. I counted on the new kid's honesty and openness to hopefully help challenge the blatant alteration of rum.
Boy was I wrong.
I also became aware of his strange palate when he rejected world class Mount Gay Extra Old as presenting "waves of bitterness". Really!? When I found a couple more unwarranted reports of "bitter" I brought this to his attention, and suggested that he study other reviews to find the actual descriptor that he was calling "bitter".
But it got worse.
I then analyzed about 50 or so of his rum reviews and to my horror, discovered that he reported "bitterness" in more than half of them! Oh, oh. He even admitted that he "tastes things that others cannot" and even finds bagged lettuce "vile". These are the marks of what scientists call "supertasters", the minority of the population whose palates are so sensitive that sensations that most of us find pleasant may be perceived as harsh or vile by the supertaster. He also appears to have what I call "bittermouth", possessed by an even smaller number of people who find a particular phenol (in spirits) to be "bitter".
There's no doubt. It was just two weeks ago that I reported Wolfboy's use of "bitter" six times in just one review! A record I thought. Yet it was only last week that he managed to report "bitter" a stunning seven times. Yes, in one review.
Wow! I thought. Amazing. This guy really IS stubborn. He's gonna show me. And now. And now?? Check this out:
"Launched on the Ukrainian market in March, 2005, its recipe includes the light bitterness of birch buds... the spirit leads out with bitter flavours of birch rather than of juniper.
In the Glass 8.5/10
I smell a mildly bitter birch bark aroma accented heavily by a lemon citrus scent...
In the Mouth 50/60
The entry into the mouth is most unexpected... a sweet sugary lemon citrus which carries hints of mildly bitter birch... A decidedly bitter birch with overtones of sap leads out with the citrus sweetness trailing... (None of ) My friends... are fans of the mildly bitter juniper flavour that gin carries... to have their senses assaulted by a decidedly more bitter birch flavour was just too much to ask of them.
In the Throat 13/15
The finish for this spirit is dominated by the bitter birch flavour. Even in cocktails the bitterness of the birch comes crashing through on the exit...
The Afterburn 8.5/10
...the flavour is more intense and bitter than any gin I have tasted... The Nemiroff Birch is intense; it is bitter; and it is great in cocktails!"
And the Result...
"Bitter" is reported a mindboggling eleven times in just one review! A Tour de Franced Up!! Like Lance, I have no doubt the Great Regurgitator must surely be on some kind of performance enhancing additives of his own. From six... to seven... to eleven usages in a single review, in just three weeks.
Still he denies he has a problem, or special palate. Does he? One really isn't - if you're in the small minority of bittermouth supertasters. Otherwise, it's like Lance Armstrong judging an ethics debate...
