Alter Rozen Maiden Shinku

Ah, Rozen Maiden. What more can I say? At first I was highly apprehensive of this series, thinking it was another shoujo piece, period. However, after I watched the anime and read the manga, it seemed quite the contrary. A hybrid blend of shonen, shoujo, otaku and gothic lolita elements coalesced and presented itself nicely in this series. Characters were pronounced and memorable too: there's the web-phenomenon creating Suiseiseki (Desu), the paranoid sadistic Suigintou, the traumatized teenage protagonist Jun Sakurada, and of course, elegance embodied - Shinku. The perfect tsundere, intelligent, compassionate and strong, Shinku is one of my favorite heroines of all time; in part, she strongly reminds me of that person, so far away now. As a side note, to those who aren't aware, a new manga serialization by Peach-Pit is currently running, and the story takes a twist from where it left off in the anime's second season, Traumend (not the first manga series).

Yoichi 10yo

Yoichi either attests to the fact that technology is in its essence disseminative and operates on piracy and copying, or that the Japanese are just too darn good. If their 1987 20yo Cask Strength Single Malt winning the title for "World's Best Single Malt Whisky" in last year's World Whisky Awards - beating Scottish heavyweights like Laphroaig and Talisker in the process - isn't enough of an indicator, I don't know what will be. More than Suntory's crown jewel single malt, Yamazaki, I prefer the products of this distillery, especially its "peaty/grilled" distillery character. Most definitely, when I return to Binghamton in August, I'll smuggle the bottle of 15yo stored in my closet for the harsh winter.

Distillery: 余市(Yoichi), 北海道(Hokkaido), Japan

Color: 淡琥珀色，但稍偏銅褐色。

Nose: 上段中充滿誘人的香甜麥芽，是一股Creamy且宛若太妃糖般的甜味。再來是燒烤泥煤與焦糖的氣息，最後以濃郁的乾棗以及圓潤的雪莉香收尾。

Body: 酒體飽滿、如奶油似地滑順。

Palate: 甫入口是大量曬乾的柑橘類酸甜，以及薄荷的清涼感，而泥煤隨之在鼻梢擴散。這股泥煤和燻烤麥芽、棗子的甜味緊密結合，其中躲藏著一絲線香的蹤跡，或許這支酒在日本橡木製作的桶子中待過？最後清爽的海鹹味將這些豐富的味道整理了起來。

Finish: 感覺溫暖，「燒烤」的印象十分濃厚，各種味道集中在鼻腔上方久久不散。

2/20/08

Transformers Animated Grimlock

Here's the second Grimlock in my possession...please look foward to the last! This guy's transformation remains faithful to his G1 counterpart, and is perhaps one of the best Animated figures out there. Who wouldn't consider a T-Rex with an underbite cute?

Toranoana Black & White Special "Morte"

Wild Turkey 101/8yo

Distillery: Wild Turkey, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, USA

Wild Turkey 8yo 101 Proof (50.5%), 700ml

This is a real American classic, a "Clint Eastwood of Whiskeys", dubbed by Michael Jackson, the phenomenal whiskey/beer critic who passed away in the summer of 2007. So far, the staple Wild Turkey is undoubtedly my favorite Bourbon measured from all aspects - nose, palate, finish, PRICE - simply phenomenal. This is something I'd mourn for, start an insurrection for if a second prohibition were to blight the world.

Color: 枯葉色，深褐。相當深的顏色，是接近10歲波本的特徵。

Nose: 前段是顯著的橡木、香草氣味以及燒焦的木桶，中段則充滿豐富的胡椒類香辛料，最後壓底的是近似水蜜桃(!)般的濃濃焦糖甜香。

Body: 濃稠、厚重、有力，高酒精濃度在此功不可沒。

Palate: 一入口便能感受到Wild Turkey聞名的濃烈香草、焦糖與木桶味，於此同時一股類似玉米/麥類/焦糖/水蜜桃混合而成的甜味在舌尖負責平衡這些強烈的口味。柑橘類的果酸與香辛料在舌後根形成味覺的對比，襯托出彼此的存在。雖然這小子呈現的每種味道都極明顯，但整體感卻十分優異，兇猛與優雅並存。

Finish: 濃郁的炭燒桶香在鼻腔內升起，水果味則滯留口腔，帶來渾厚的滿足感。

Bang for Buck Meter: BBBBB

Tomatin 12yo

Distillery: Tomatin, Inverness, Scotland (Speyside/Highland)

Tomatin 12yo, 43 %, 750ml

Color: 淺金偏褐，說是「太妃糖色」亦不為過。

Tasting Notes: Nose十分悅鼻，充滿波本桶特有的濃郁香草/奶油，這股氣息被幾絲雪莉甜支撐，產生一股近似桑椹、草莓的莓類味道。此外還有柚皮和香料(胡椒)，譜出一道濃香過後的清澈樂曲，相當有趣。在舌頭上，酒體中等偏厚，雪莉味道較明顯，加上香草，整體而言偏甜；莓類、香料和柚子在口中帶出些苦味，融合成類似皮革的感受。Finish短而清爽，若有似無的peat和薄荷令人小感驚豔，卻和其他口味顯得略為格格不入─多喝幾口後，筆者反而覺得是「刻意的不協調」，這支Tomatin缺乏這點的話，彷彿不會如此令人印象深刻。

Comment: 只能說這是一支怪酒！雖說大體風格上Tomatin比起speyside更像highland，其水果類口味的表現方式又比highland顯著些。喜歡香料/水果味重的威士忌迷或許會很欣賞Tomatin，可惜的是finish裡的peat過於扁平、人工(難道說一旦嘗到威士忌裡的泥煤，筆者已經本能地和艾雷的泥煤交差比對嗎?)，而且胡椒太過喧囂。不過，若在口中含不超過10秒便吞下的話，各種口味顯得相當均勻；或許撰寫此文時筆者的心境不適切？Not relaxed enough? 若擇日再飲且想法有改，必然再補上一筆。

1/27/09

Transformers Animated Blitzwing

Everyone's favorite Triple Changer - also the original - is back in Transformers: Animated. This incarnation of Blitzwing gives him 3 distinct personalities, as well as emphasizing on his Third Reich roots, such as a militaristic robot mode, a wacky German accent and vehicle modes of a jet and tank (a la Hitler's Blitzkrieg). In a nutshell, he's nuts, and that's awesome. Overall, Blitzwing is a worthy addition to any fan's collection, being the second actual triple-changing toy of the character in the duration of two decades and a half. A good figure in itself notwithstanding, I still want to throw a complaint about the plastic used by the Animated line: they seem brittle and of low-quality, compared to the Universe or Revenge of The Fallen toy lines. It's also too bad that Animated has ended (in albeit a non-conclusive fashion), and the next cartoon series is still in the mist. Something incipient may ride the tide of success of this summer's sequel, possibly announced later this year, just like how Animated surfaced after the runaway commercial explosion of the first film in 2007.