ABC Tamarind Drink

Top of the morning to you drinks fans!

Today's adventure in the beverage spectrum takes us to the island nation of Indonesia, with ABC's Tamarind Drink (or for the purists out there Minuman Asam Jawa).

Tamarind is an interesting fruit, as its natural flavour is rather sour one cannot simply pick, peel and smash it down like a friendly banana. Rather, tamarind is blended with other processes to achieve more palatable flavours such as those found in chutneys and pickles. As a preface to this review the Drinks Master thought the readers might enjoy a few interesting factoids from our friends over at Wikipedia:

• tamarind is means of making certain poisonous yams in Ghana safe for human consumption;
• is also consumed as a natural laxative;
• in temples, especially in Buddhist Asian countries, the fruit pulp is used to polish brass shrine furniture, removing dulling and the greenish patina that forms; and
• a tamarind switch is sometimes used as an implement for corporal punishment.

Armed with these tidbits of knowledge the Drinks Master's mind steeled itself to the potential absence of enjoyment that would await.

ABC TJ comes in a 250ml tetra-pack with a handy straw attached. The packaging is adorned in an unfortunate brown colour together with pictures of the tamarind pod, which itself has an unfortunate visual similarity to fecal excrement. Further images of the tamarind tree caused the Drinks Master's mind to devolve into a juvenile state and formally rename the plant to the "Hanging Poo Tree".

Puncturing through the plastic seal no noticeable odour could be detected. Pouring the brew from the small opening proved difficult, however a small portion was captured in a shot glass for the reader's viewing pleasure. The murky brown liquid that flowed from the pack was certainly consistent with the tamarind's formal renaming to the Hanging Poo Tree.

Noting the viscosity of the 'poo juice' time lapse photography was employed to assess whether the solids would separate from the fluids, the 'curds' from the 'whey' if you will... and yes sure enough they did.



Steeling his resolve the Drinks Master took his first sip, and was greeted with a heinous insult of flavours. ABC TJ could be described as putrid liquid chutney, or perhaps left over water after washing a curry pot mixed with apple jam. It is sickly sweet with a revolting hint of sour. A quick check of the ingredients lists reveals both sugar and palm sugar have been added and tamarind actually accounts for only 2.25% of the total contents.

Every subsequent sip elicited a distinct and disgusted "ugh" from your hero's lips, coupled with considerable face scrunching by Reviewer B. To say that it is a battle to finish the entire tetra pack is to say that pushing a square peg through a round hole is both an easy and logical task.

All in all this stuff is foul. It's party prank material, or a post binge drink purge inducer. While the wood from the tree creates a good switch for corporal punishment, the Drinks Master would opt for that over drinking this brew again in more than the most minute quantity.

There's a good reason why tamarind is a brass shrine furniture polish , perhaps there it should stay.