Thursday, October 1, 2009

Loganberry...really? (by Meredith)

This last weekend I had the pleasure of enjoying some of Buffalo, NY's most famous cuisine...Buffalo chicken wings. Yes, they were juicy, crispy, spicy, covered in bleu cheese and left my lips tingling. But I'm not here to talk about wings. After a great bachelorette party night out downtown on Chippewa Street, the boys came to pick us up and we were all insistent on some late-night food.

Being from DC, I expected pizza, but I was quickly corrected that what I really wanted was Mighty Taco:

http://www.mightytaco.com/


Being a good backseat passenger (after being scolded for trying to order from the backseat) I allowed our drivers to order for me. My only request was for a Sprite. I was immediately told no. I was getting a Loganberry. (Did I mention this was about 2am?). My initial reaction? I do NOT want berries on my Super Mighty Taco! After a good laugh at my expense and a quick clarification I was informed that a Loganberry was another Buffalo specialty. A refreshing fruity beverage.
Ok, whatever. By this time I'm just ready to eat. We get our food from the drive-through, I'm handed my large Loganberry beverage sans straw and scolded again to NOT take the lid off until the car stops moving. We drive home and I'm bursting to try my new beverage, I rush into the house, rip off the straw wrapper and take a huge gulp of the Loganberry.


Now, we've all been here...when you take a drink expecting say a glass of water but really it's a huge glass of vodka. NOT good. Well, I pretty much had that with the Loganberry. No carbonation, crazy syrup-y and tasted closer to cough syrup than anything else. Sulking in the corner of the kitchen with my Super Mighty and wishing I had a Sprite I finished my food while cursing the boys for making me get the Loganberry.


So the next day, I still couldn't get over it. I've polled my Buffalo friends and they're all in consensus that it's pretty much a God-juice. But I disagree. Maybe you need to be from the area to develop a taste for the stuff at an early age, otherwise BLEH!


Knowing I wanted to write about this as my first entry, I went on a google hunt for the stuff to share with all of you who have never experienced the Berry of Logan before. Surprisingly (not) it was hard to find. In the end, Wikipedia came through for me and we have a small reference at the very end of the Loganberry entry...which talks more about the actual fruit.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loganberry


I leave you with this...after a long Saturday night out in Buffalo, NY, when your judgement may or may not be quite where it should be, do not let a local convince you that you will love something called Loganberry. Stick with what you know. And regardless, in the morning all will be ok because while they may have a foul fruity flavored fountain drink...they redeem themselves with Tim Horton's Coffee and Timbits.

3 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, Mighty Taco! I took many a trip there a few years back. I'm with you on the loganberry, though. It's a strange drink. This makes me want to make the 7 hour drive just so I can go to Duffs! (This is Sarah, btw. My cat serves as my alias :)

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  2. The loganberry juice at the Mighty Taco (from a gun) tastes nothing like the loganberry that I enjoyed in Canada. You are right - it is way too sweet and syrupy. We used to rent cottages in Crystal Beach every summer and bought a concentrate in a bottle from the local grocery store and it is very good mixed with vodka. I'm not sure if it is available in the US stores because I haven't tried to find it here. It's a beach thing.

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  3. One thing I learned quickly at the Geneseo dining halls was that I like 1 part Loganberry + 2 parts sprite much more than either loganberry or sprite alone!

    Before you swear off Loganberry completely, give it a try and let me know what you think!

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