You’ve likely sampled a root beer or two in your time, a cream soda sure- but have you ever had birch beer or better yet, spruce beer from Quebec? It wasn’t until Auberge du Pommier’s Jason Bangerter introduced the table to the splendors of Spruce Beer over dinner one fateful evening that we all gasped at the new-found flavour. It’s like being a kid and discovering ice cream for the first time. Sugar-coated nirvana! Only spruce beer isn’t cloyingly sweet, nor is it exactly new (see Did You Know below). Au contraire- the beverage, made in Montreal, Quebec (makers of so many cool Canadian products) doesn’t heap on the sugar- and the beverage has just enough “spruce” essence to make you feel like you’re in winter-wonderland Canadian wilds without a grizzly in tow.
The father and son team behind Marco Beverages (or Breuvages Marco en français) began making the old fashioned beer in 1999 in small batches using homemade bottling and washing equipment, purely as a hobby. But you can’t keep a good product a gourmand's secret for too long- and before the dynamic duo knew it- two hundred bottles a week turned into a ten thousand bottle/week production with specialty shops, top toques and in the know and foodistas demanding more Old Fashioned spruce beer. And who could blame them? Crisp, refreshing, unique, and utterly versatile (cocktails, desserts, even as a gelée to go with a side of tempura flash fried mushrooms, for example), this bevvy’s got it all. It’s old world meets new and better yet, it’s timeless.
Here's one to whet your whistle: Imagine a fall or winter cocktail of iced apple cider liqueur (from Quebec bien sur!), well chilled cold apple juice, lemon zest and a shot of spruce beer- c’est magnifique sans doute!
And now for some fun, DID YOU KNOW factoids, courtesy of our friends at Breuvages Marco:
- Root beer, birch beer and spruce beer were North America’s first flavoured beverages?
- These beverages were made with a combination of roots, molasses, and bark. They were then fermented to achieve the final libation.
- Old Fashioned Spruce Beer (the kind that Marco Beverages sells)- was originally made to get this- ward off scurvy! George Washington (yep, the American general), apparently used to give it to his troops for this very reason! Now you know!
For those of you looking for a taste of the forest, you'll find this Spruce Beer in specialty shops, gourmet shops, supermarkets and restaurants all over Canada. The rest of you can contact the company online and remember, a "merci" or two, goes a long way!
 |
