For about a year and a half my wife and I lived in St. John’s Newfoundland, the “Rock” – the easterly most land in North America. When we were there Americans were still drinking American beer, if you can believe it. Oh, I guess you could find a few off-shore beers, like Becks, but generally no Canadian beer, even in New England. So Newfoundland was a great learning experience, drinking-wise, and Newfoundlanders love both their beer and their Screech (rum).
But when I was a St. John’s resident there was no Iceberg Beer - made from water derived from the icebergs that float down to Newfoundland from spring breakup in Greenland. Beer made with thousand year old bubbly water. Sounds good to me. (These same icebergs did in the Titanic 100 years ago this April, by the way).
I gather the distinctive blue bottles and their labels are considered something of a collector’s items as the brewing company is having trouble getting their bottles back, even with the required cash deposit. Patrons at restaurants have been known to purchase the beer, then buy the empty bottle as a souvenir.
3 comments:
The bottle and the cachet of drinking iceberg-water beer. Exactly the sort of thing that absolutely convinces us that the beer tastes better.
I do not know any Newfies, but according to the Canadians I met in the oil field, their reputation was not a bland one.
Come to think of it, their reputation paralleled some observations I made of the Scots I had met in the oil field.
As I recall, there is a strong Irish and/or Scots element to Newfoundland.
You're correct Gringo, it was mostly Irish and English that settled Newfoundland, after kicking the butts of those French guys and sending them home. Newfoundland brogue definitely sounds Irish - at least to the American ear. The Scots settled more in Nova Scotia than Newfoundland.
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