This Is My Blood: Naturdays

The most interesting thing to me about Natural Light's fruit beer Naturdays is that it instinctively grossed Pam out. She said she bought it as a joke because she hates Natty Light, and so she assumed that Naturdays was going to be gross too. On a purely flavor level, this was an incorrect assumption—Naturdays tasted like a light shandy, with notes of lemonade and strawberries, more cocktail than beer. But I can see where the assumption comes from.

Natural Light—henceforth referred to by its sobriquet, "Natty"—is a beer that fuels high school and college parties, and exists for the sole purpose of getting kids fucked up for cheap. A Natty Light would have no place in the This Is My Blood series because there's nothing to taste. Taste isn't the point. It's basically skunked, carbonated water.

That description is as snobby as I will allow myself to get, because the real truth is that I love Natty Light, I have always loved Natty Light, and I will always love Natty Light. Natty Light was the elixir that made those college nights so legendary. Every great evening during my first two years of college began with a trip to Wister Beer with an empty backpack and a $15 30-bird of Natty Light to fill it. I am eternally grateful.

But Pam is right—we weren't doing this because Natty Light tasted good. It didn't. Natty Light was to be endured, not enjoyed. We drank it because it was a path to a party, full stop. Flavor was never the point.

So then, isn't that the point of Naturdays, though? There are millions of college kids that want to get drunk and don't have a lot of money, but are not afraid to stand up and say ENOUGH, that they no longer have to stand by and drink shitty beer, that they deserve to pay pennies for something that actually tastes nice on their delicate palates. Anheuser-Busch is just catering to that crowd.

When I was real young, before I had ever gotten drunk on beer, my friends and I would pay a dude to buy us sixers of Smirnoff Ice—ya know, the flavored ones, green apple and the like. This was because we didn't like the taste of beer, but still wanted to get drunk. But eventually, we switched to beer, drinking something we didn't like until finally we liked it. That was what you did. It wasn't a question.

But I acknowledge now that maybe there were some people who, if given the option, would not have chosen to switch to beer. Maybe Naturdays is for those people. Maybe there are seventeen-year-olds out there who are drinking Naturdays right now, because there is zero pressure to drink beer, since now there are options. Good for them.

I guess my whole point is that it would be silly to assume that Naturdays is going to taste anything like Natty Light, because Naturdays exists as an admission that Natty Light doesn't taste very good. Naturdays is going to have flavors as far away from Natty Light as is financially possible.

It succeeds in that regard. Even Pam liked it.

NOTES

BEER: Naturdays

STYLE: Fruit and Field Beer

ABV: 4.2%

BREWED BY: Anheuser-Busch

LOCATION: Saint Louis, Missouri

PURCHASED AT: Pam bought this as part of the Father's Day six-pack from IGA, but I figured this would be a good beer to save for a later date

PAIRED WITH: Pancakes and bacon

GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 250.5