MateVeza Black Lager

I have been a big fan of MaeVeza since I first encountered them at the Great American Beer Festival a number of years ago. They had a couple delicious varieies - an IPA and an Original Lager. While those drinks were pretty amazing in their own right, their new flavor is without question the best black lager I have ever had in my life.
Black lagers are something special in the beer universe, as they are not quite a meal like a porter, but not milky and smooth like a stout. Black lager is like Dark Chocolate - as it takes the right amount of bitter and sweet, malt and hop to really get the flavor perfect. In my experience, a black lager is one of the more difficult flavors to get right, and one of the easiest to get wrong.

Taste:10
The drink poured out black - really thick, but a little translucent. The head was not very thick, and foamed into a nice light caramel color. On first drink, you can definitely taste the toasted yerba mate. it is sharper and a little grassy, but the roasted malt flavor balanced it out. There was a little hop to it in the finish, giving it the impression of a really nice dark, not too sweet chocolate. It was darker and drier than most beers, but easy to drink enough that I accidentally drank through two big bombers ( a bomber is about 22 ounces of beer) of it before I realized how easily it went down.

Buzz:10
I know - I should have waited to try this - but the temptation was just too strong.
The problem with drinking two bombers so easily is that there is around 60mg of caffeine in a 12 ounce serving. That meant that at eight at night, I just consumed about 220mg, equal to a triple shot of espresso. also at 5.2% ABV, I was feeling good about it too! And I kept feeling energetic, happy, alert and really buzzed until about 3AM. That makes for a not-so-special 6:30 am workday.

On the good side, the whole beer could not be more premium, classy and delicious. While the FDA fights over whether or not to allow caffeine in alcohol, Mateveza can brush it off, knowing that this product is perfectly crafted to appeal to adults who love good beer. The ingredients are all organic, and all natural - a perfect way to enjoy a good caffeinated rush without either killing your taste buds. Next time though, I'll drink this during brunch.

Packaging:9
This design is a little more toned down than the full color illustration they have used for their other flavors. It has a feel like they took their original art and ran it through an illustration filter to lose the painted style of their original. While I understand what they were going for, I really liked the art of the other flavors.
The rest of the bottle is very nice, with a good description of the beer in the labeling on the neck, along with clever use of the organic symbol to set it apart from others on the six-pack cooler.

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