It appears that the term fancy papers has something to do with cigars. I am not a cigar aficionado, so I genuinely don't know what they're referring to. Also, I may have mentioned in the past that I don't know when Tampa, Florida was designated as Cigar City. Do they make cigars there? I thought the heart of tobacco in the US was in the Carolinas. And if you want the good cigars, you go south to Cuba. I don't know enough about cigars to make an informed decision about the name of this beer, and I don't have the motivation necessary to learn more.
The beer is designated as hazy on the label, and hazy it is. It's not incredibly hazy like a Bearded Iris, but it is certainly hazy enough to know that this was not completely filtered. The hazy amount is similar to that of a somewhat soapy dishwater. The head is reasonable when it comes out of the can, and it settles down to a very thin layer of uneven bubbles across the top of the beer with a strong ring around the sides holding up a modicum of lacing. The aroma is very mango forward with tangerine, grapefruit, and orange in the cut.
First sip is very straightforward and crisp, and a bitterness lingers on the tongue for quite some time afterward. Like with many beers, I'm unsure that this beer was intended to be sipped like this. The sip isn't terrible, but the bitter aftertaste is unjustified by the amount of flavor in the rest of the beer. It's an unassuming flavor and certainly not overwhelming, but the bitterness suggests that maybe it should be...?
Tip-in is a bitter bite with carbonation virtually screaming as the mango tries to settle things down unsuccessfully. The middle continues an assault on the mouth with carbonation stinging the roof of the mouth as bitterness seeps into the tongue while mango, orange, grapefruit, and tangerine try to stomp their feet and make themselves known in the middle of the mouth. The finish is a crisp snap before a bitter funk settles down with a spritz from all of the fruits to have tried valiantly to live up to the onslaught.
Bottom Line: Possibly to ambitious for its own good.
2.0/5
