Founder’s Original Thai Pomelo Rye & Ginger with Dan & Steve

We’ve raved about Founder’s products in the past, and we’re raving about this one too: Founder’s Original Thai Pomelo Rye & Ginger. A quick review of another fresh & refreshing bevvie for the Lost Summer, as reviewed in the Best Summer.

But wait, not so quick, what’s a pomelo, I hear you ask. Or I assume you ask, since I asked. It’s basically a grapefruit, but imagine a natural proto-grapefruit before the idea of the grapefruit was crop-dusted & yield-boosted beyond all recognition. In Latin it’s called citrus maximus because it was the biggest citrus – we call it pomelo because we’ve bastardized the Dutch or French names for its descendants. If you want to call it what they call it where it grows, it’s a jambola or som-oh. Looks like Thailand exports like 6000 tons of them a year, at about $1.33/kg (USD wholesale).

Amazing what you can find out online when you’re procrastinating making dinner.

All that international logistics stuff aside, these are great. *I* personally still prefer the orange bourbon sour, but this, ice cold on a hot day, in a big glass, on a nice porch, with a great girl and good people, waiting for barbeque and having a laugh? It’s pretty good, I guess. Here’s what we thought:

smell
Steve – grapefruit
Dan – gingerbeer-like, mandarin, tangerine, melon
Simon – ginger, citrus, very bright, flowers

taste
Steve – good w/ breakfast, lemony
Dan – kind of like gingerbeer with grapefruit san pelegrino
Simon – sharp, tart, sweet, citrus, ginger beer bite, almost lemonade, bright

finish
Steve – ginger at the back
Dan – soft
Simon – ginger in the throat at the end, very clean

overall
Steve – 9/10
Dan – 8.8/10
Simon – 8.2/10 but 7.9/10 after half the glass

Founder’s Original Thai Pomelo Rye & Ginger – 5% 500ml – $2.50 – Ontario

Try it? Yes. Buy it? Yes.