Something Amazing-ish

I'm 50% sure that I liked it.

At War Practice, this past weekend, I was having a conversation with people and my brain took the road less traveled, in mid conversation. My brain wanted to know what would Sikanjabîn syrup mixed with seltzer or club soda taste like.

Tonight, after I finished mowing the lawn, I decided to find out, FOR SCIENCE!

I had no club soda or tonic water in the house, but I did have one bottle of Boylan's Lemon Seltzer in the house. I don't know when I bought it or why, but I had it.

First, I pulled out a small bottle of my syrup of lemon, left over from my class at 3 Ravens. I poured a little bit of the syrup into a glass and topped it off with the seltzer.

Not bad.... Not great, at least to my liking. I'm not a big fan of seltzer... And I just remembered why I had this bottle in my house... But that's a different story. The taste of the seltzer overwhelmed the subtle flavor of the syrup. Even though it was lemon flavored seltzer, it really didn't taste much more than sweetened, lemon-flavored seltzer.

Next, I pulled out a bottle of Sikanjabîn and added about a teaspoon to the glass.

The Sikanjabîn is much, much, much more concentrated than the syrup of lemon. The syrup of lemon was not cooked down all the way, so that it could be poured over pound cake (Mmmmmm! Pound cake). The Sikanjabîn was cooked down to a thick syrup. The way I like it is a teaspoon of syrup to a cup of water. So, a teaspoon of syrup and the rest of the seltzer.

It needed to be stirred to mix together. Now, I know that about half of my readers hate Sikanjabîn. Sugar and vinegar? Yuck! But, I will counter that most people who hate Sikanjabîn have never had good Sikanjabîn and/or had it provided too strong. I think that the sugar and vinegar should be balanced and that the imbiber should be allowed to dilute it to one's taste. I like it watered down enough that the sweet and sour flavors are just noticeable on the tongue.

With the lemon seltzer (about a half a glass) mixed with the syrup, the flavor and "mouth feel" were much lighter, due to the bubbles. The lemon flavor was no longer noticeable and the seltzer flavor blended in nicely with the sugar and vinegar. I approve and will have to try it with tonic water; you know, in case I need protection from malaria.