Madam, – What has happened to the Irish pint of Guinness? I have just returned from a visit to my native land and, for the first time ever, in a trip starting in Rosslare and taking in Cork, Kerry, the West and the North before culminating in Dublin, I could barely find a pint of Guinness worth drinking.
In Ireland, the black stuff has always distinguished itself not so much by taste as by texture: a thick creamy head sitting over a full-bodied mass of dense liquid which slips smoothly down the throat, leaving a fullness of flavour and a satisfying coating on tongue and upper lip. During my recent visit, however, in all but two places, I was presented instead with the thin, chilled, loose-headed gruel that passes for draught Guinness in all too many outlets abroad.
Why has the full-cream Irish pint been allowed to wither in this way? Does no one care to pour it properly any more? The urge to chill everything that flows is, I fear, killing what was a unique Irish pub experience. Surely Ireland’s Guinness drinkers should refuse to accept the anaemic second rate version of their national tipple that seems to be gaining a stranglehold on their throats. – Yours, etc,