Monopolowa Gin

CockTale: I'm convinced that walking into a liquor store to select a new bottle is a lot like picking race horses. You find ridiculous reasons to try different types of booze that have no rhyme nor reason to them yet when you walk out with the bottle it seems to make perfect sense at the time. I once won a couple hundred dollars at the race track on a horse named Poker Brad. Now I had recently watched the movie A River Runs Through It which of course stars Brad Pitt, who at the end of the movie ***spoiler alert*** though there should be no such thing on a movie 20yrs old, Brad Pitt's character is killed in what is thought to be a card game gone wrong. So of course I would bet on a 20-1 long shot named Poker Brad. Then what? The jockey is wearing a green shirt with a giant f'ing clover on the back, I love green! I love clovers! Next thing you know, you are dropping money on this horse for no rational reason. I bring this up because that is pretty much the method I have been using when selecting new booze to try out on this blog and exactly what I used yesterday when I selected Monopolowa Gin. I wanted to drink gin and watch the NFL draft last night, so I headed straight for the gin section. First, Monopolowa is apparently made in Vienna, Austria. I just found out my brother is moving there this summer - boom! Then the name Monopolowa, like Monopoly - I love that game - boom! Next thing you know I'm walking out of the store with a bottle of Monopolowa Gin for no good reason.

 

Review:

Taste: I made my first cocktail way too strong, apparently in the Eastern block they don't believe in that little plastic thing that restricts the flow of booze out of the bottle (insert its real name here). But it gave me a great chance to test the flavor of Monopolowa which was quite delightful. It has a little of that burn most usually associated with vodka, so I wouldn't call it very smooth but the taste has nice citrus notes and it was great for gin & juice. "3"

Novelty: Unless your brother is about to move to Austria, I don't think this bottle is very high on the novelty factor, the bottle itself is rather boring and it has weird names written all over it. "1.5"

Hangover Factor: You need to be careful when doing some week night drinking and Monopolowa was right on the edge, I didn't wake up feeling horrible for a Friday but wasn't exactly flying out of bed to work today. "2.5"

Price: $16.95 for a fifth puts us right in the middle of the proper price range for a bottle like this, decently priced for the product you get back in return. "3.5"

Drunk: Monopolowa's above average drinkability leads to a little overindulgence, this was sort of a surprising drunk, like wait a minute - it's 8:30pm on a Thursday and I'm a little plowed, how did this happen? "3"

I liked Monopolowa Gin, if it weren't for some random reasons I probably never would have tried it out and probably have never met another person who has. I guess that is kinda the point of this whole drinking experiment we call CockTales & Reviews. Overall score = 2.7