BELGIAN BEAUTY: Mata Blondie Belgian Wit, better than the real thing. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
BELGIAN BEAUTY: Mata Blondie Belgian Wit, better than the real thing. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
My first experience with a Belgian witbier was the classic and most well known of them all - Hoegaarden - and it happened to be in the land of its creators.
I spent a few weeks staying in a small town near Brussels and really enjoyed their famous beer ontap at the local.
While I'm reminiscing, the bar was actually an Irish bar, run by a Kiwi from Wellington. His mum was ambassador to Belgium at the time.
Anyway, I can tell you that like Ireland's Guinness, Hoegaarden does not travel at all well. Every time I've tried it here I screwed my face up trying to remember what the original tasted like.
However, New Zealand brewers have not produced a lot of great witbier, otherwise known as white beer, so I decided to try Kawerau's Aotearoa Breweries Mata Blondie Belgian Wit. It was a pleasant surprise.
It's a super fruity drop with plenty of lemon/lime citrus flavours finished with a tangy, peppery taste. Full of flavour with unfiltered Belgian yeast.
It pours a very light golden amber, almost see through.
I really liked this offering from Mata, who love to use native ingredients like horopito in their beers. Maybe that's the "secret ingredient" mentioned on the bottle?
