Festive drinking

Festive drinking. It’s thrust upon us with a laboured gaiety every year.

It comes from all angles, from the work Christmas party to the obligatory pre-Christmas celebrations with the family you’ll miss to the million catch ups expected with friends before you all depart for the holidays because you won’t see them till … well … next month.

This time of year is unfortunate in the copious shift to quantity over quality. So I thought I’d check out, not how we are drinking, but what we are drinking. What’s the Christmas tipple about town?

Having a pub lunch with some work mates at JJ Murphy’s in Cuba St, I asked the barman what he had in the way of festive beverages? “Ah…is there such a thing?” he replied. I pushed a little more pushingly and he volunteered that “A pint of stout is pretty good.” So I ended up with a pint of Murphy’s, which is about as thick as Christmas pud, but there wasn’t even a shamrock decorating the creamy froth, let alone a sprig of holly.

Maybe Santa doesn’t go to Irish pubs, so I had faith there’d be a festive glass of cheer at the next place.

Another of the Wellington drinking halls serving the Christmas crowds, the Southern Cross, had a similar attitude, once they’d handed out bubbles with a cherry splash in it for the Christmas do, it was back to “just tap beers and house wine mate”. Clearly festive fantasy in a glass doesn’t make the grade for the company bar tab.

Not being one to give up, I ventured to Santa’s Grotto of Beer – Malthouse –  to see whether they had more of a Nod to Noel in their mighty chillers.

While the barman said he’d once tried a “beer that tasted like Christmas cake” at Beervana, there was nothing going on at the Malthouse for the season of Christ’s birth. A bit poor I thought. Even just a novelty Holly-infused beer would have done. But then, the Malthouse Man said, “this here might do the trick…” and gestured to the new drop on tap, Epic’s Porto Marillo.

“Wait, a dark beer with Tamarillo and Pohutukawa flavours?” I said.

“Just so,” he said, winking a bit too much like Father Christmas I thought. A flash of red went past on Courtenay Place and I was sure it was Rudolph, chuckling as he lit the Christmas way. It might have been a red Corolla, but it sure looked like a reindeer.

The beer landed on the bar, looking like a beautiful dark Christmas Eve, sparkling with all the promise of the Star of Bethlehem. The Pohutukawa being New Zealand’s Christmas tree, the Porto Marillo fit the bill as a Christmas beer. And tastes like a proper porter of consequence, clearly brewed with a Christmas conscience.

And so the search for a Christmas carol in a pint glass ended. It’s not a very extensive survey of Wellington’s establishments, so I’d be honoured if you’d share your favourite festive flavour with me. Where do you go for a Pint of Plum Pudding?