Hoegaarden

A weissbier, a whitebeer, a bière blanche, even a Hefeweizen would sound good attached to a bottle of Hoegaarden. It's really quite a lovely beer, and one that I first fell into on the Mediterranean coast.

Nostalgia's a funny thing...for me it was less about who I was with and what I was doing, more like where I was and what I was tasting. A Belgian beer on the Mediterranean coast might not seem logical, but I accidentally ordered a Hoegaarden at a café overlooking Nice's Marché des Fleurs. The lemon that was wedged into this white, wheat beer's tall glass made the sweet taste of summer wheat as delicious as lemonade used to be when you were young. But as an adult, you might be looking for something more complex. I regret to say that Hoegaarden isn't terribly complex as far as wheat beers go...you might compare it to Widmer with a little more subtlety. But what I like about it is its ability to transport me to a place I used to know, and a time I used to live.