Hoplark Sparkling Water – Mosaic Hops

As of the writing of this (see date on bottom), this is my number one sparkling beverage drink. The two-tone, light blue and white can is music to my ears. It goes down faster and with more enthusiasm than beer used to—when I lustily drank (too much) beer. I am composing love letters to the chef who makes it (right here, you’re reading it—admittedly you have had to do the legwork to find this love letter). It’s one of Hoplark’s hop waters—unlike the hop teas, no tea, just hops and sparking water. It’s really good. Maybe one of the more hoppy hop beverages I’ve had—is that because there’s more hops in the recipe, or it’s using hops with more pronounced flavor? I don’t know. According to the can, it’s “Mosaic Hops”—so I’ll have to claim ignorance—or look that up. It’s a kind of hops that’s been developed from breeding other kinds of hops. It seems to be a popular one in beermaking. It’s supposed to be fruity and citrus and pine—according to the can: “Pine-Forward.” Hell yes. To me, it’s just delicious—I can never make all those flavor comparisons, like with coffee, you know (“notes of raspberry, gun oil, and Faulkner”). To me, something is either gross or delicious. But… I read about hops for a while—there’s now between a billion and… infinite varieties—just like you’d expect, as the beer makers have gone nuts. I guess that’s a pretty cool thing—which I’ve more or less ignored since I stopped drinking beer in the early Nineties. But now, at least… I get to enjoy hops! So I’m excited about it. At some point I’ll have to do some taste tests to see if I can tell the difference between this hop and that—and see if I can develop preferences. But for now, I’m just excited about finding more hop water.

7.25.23