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Karjala Terva


My friend told me today, that he prefers Karjala beer over other Finnish bulk beers, so I thought I give it a shot in my blog too. I however, did not buy the basic light lager, but this spiced up version of Karjala, which contains tar as an added aroma. When poured to a beer glass, head is visible and stays in glass for a while, which is good for a Finnish bulk lager. Tar aroma is in there when smelled and tasted, but does it give something to this beer? My opinion is, that it is not especially good spice of beer, and this beer - though its kinda ok for a bulk lager - is not very good because of it.

Tar is of course as Finnish as the saying "Karjala takaisin - vaikka pullo kerrallaan", which goes back to times, when Karjala was a part of Finland and not yet occupied by The Soviet Union in World War II. These is of course part of Karjala inside Finland, so its not just misery over lost land. There is however a large population with Karelian (Karjala = Karelia in English) roots scattered throughout Finland, because there were lots of people, who fled the Russians and were settled in other parts of Finland.

Tar is a Finnish product, as it was since 18th century collected (burned in certain tar pits) from thick Finnish woods (of which much from my homelands in Kainuu) and their endless pine trees and then transported (via river to Oulu and its sea port) to all over Europe mainly to be used in ships.

** Drinkable

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