United Nations of Beer

Tui Blond

by Fez Broadbent
(Auckland)

Tui Blond
Tui Brewery, New Zealand
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"In a nutshell, Tui Blond is a sparkling, crisp lager, naturally brewed in the classic, continental blond style. Blond style beers have been going down a treat in Europe since 1852, so we thought it was about time we had a crack at doing it better-er. After all we've been brewing beer since 1889. Although we chose to call ours Blond without the 'e' because Blonde is a bit girly."

Tui marketing at its finest – removing the "e" from its former home of "Blonde" due to the negative connotations associated with the "E" channel and its target audience.

Tui were quite original in the naming of this beer but not so much in its creation. It's clearly a competitor to Speight's "Summit"; not that I'm complaining – it may have arrived a lot later than Summit but it tastes a hell of a lot better!

Vibrantly crisp with more tinge to its hop taste than the original Tui, as well as a smoother malt flow to it and at 4.2% ABV (0.02% more than the original) look for this one to be a hit over the coming summer.

It's also refreshing to see this latest addition to the Tui Family dubbed a Lager – as opposed to the "East Indian Pale Ale" that its original sibling attempts to pass off as.

It's also slightly more pricey than Tui but that is probably due to contributing factors such as increased alcohol content; its "naturally brewed" status and most likely the Tui Brewery boys aiming for a new target audience of those now graduated university students who have since put their days of torching cars on Castle St behind them (I would consider myself a part of this target audience – minus the torching of cars as I didn't go to the University of Otago).

A recommended pickup this summer; grab a case and head down to the beach with your mates to reminisce about your university days.