Efes Dark

This guest post comes to us from Maria Rainier.  Maria is a freelance writer and blog junkie who is  currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching the best paying engineering degrees and what it means for the gender wage gap.  She recently contacted me when I asked on twitter if anyone would be interested in doing a guest restaurant or beer review.  I was very excited when she said she would like to do a beer review, and so here is her review!

Efes Dark

It was much to my chagrin that, back in November, my boyfriend left for a weeklong business trip to Istanbul while I couch-surfed with the flu in backwoods North Carolina.  To give you an idea of the magnitude of his affront, I’ll say that I’ve dreamed of visiting the Mediterranean since I was a fetus.  So, in typical bad girlfriend fashion, I stewed in my anger for a week, sore that I didn’t have the extra $1,000 lying around the apartment that would fund my jaunt across the Atlantic.

The boyfriend very tactfully returned to bitter ole me with a taste of Turkey.  On the night of his arrival, he poured an Efes Dark in a little Pilsen glass and served it to me with a steak.

Named after the ancient Greek city Ephesius, Efes Beer Group is the Istanbul-based company behind their poster product, Efes Pilsen (“Pilsener” in English), which gets its award-winning taste from the rice added during the brewing stage.  Pilsen has welcomed several siblings into the growing Efes family, including Efes light, Efes Xtra, Efes Ice, and Efes Dark Brown.  The particular bottle that my dearly beloved brought back was Efes Dark, a double-roasted malt lager with 6.5% alcohol.

As a note, I’m not much of a drink-with-a-meal kind of girl.  One beer is usually a meal enough for me, and since I prefer the taste of dark beers over light ones, this makes the whole European have-a-beer-with-your-bratwurst ideal a little difficult to accomplish.  In example, a friend gave me an Arrogant Bastard Ale on Christmas (hint taken) which I naively tried to have with some turkey—to no avail. Efes Dark, however, didn’t give me that problem.  It’s refreshing with a nice body but not overwhelming like a lot of dark beers, even with what looked like half a cow on my plate. As for its taste, Efes Dark doesn’t blow your mind.  Rather, it’s a simple, patient beer with a slightly burnt taste with pleasant hints of caramel and coffee.  And, well, I’m a girl, so I like those things.

Since its founding in 1969, Efes has gone global.  They’re the 8^th most popular European brand by sales volume and 12^th in the global market.  They now export to over 50 markets in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and North America (including the US).  You won’t find it everywhere, but when you do, take it home (and cook up a nice steak).