What is Midori, what does it taste like and how is made?
With the Fake Food column we want to inaugurate a new section: a small guide to help you with your purchases. We want to test and lay bare the most controversial food products, those most widely consumed. But there will also be bets on those flirtatious products that hide behind sparkling packaging that trigger convulsive Pavlovian reflections, but then turn out to be colossal ciofeche.
By now we are prey to faceless industrial products, a continuous bombardment, one deception after another, dyes on dyes, fruit-flavored drinks that don’t even have a gram of fruit … Discovering what we really eat is a moral obligation to all of us, we want to try.
But where to start?
From a slam dunk. Today we are talking about a surreal, almost phantom liqueur: Midori. The famous green melon-based liqueur, produced in Japan by the Suntori company.
Why do we talk about the Midori?
You could easily live without it. If taken straight, its syrupy, sweet and the falvor is absurd, incompatible with any need to drink in a conscious way.
Midori drink recipes
But try mixing it with lime and vodka to make a classic Midori sour it gets a lot better. Even the Japanese Slipper cocktail and the Japanese Ice Tea are not bad, certainly not masterpieces, but at least drinkable. Sure they are cocktails with heavy flavors and marked by this impressive sugary presence, however they have a certain following. So much so that Midori is sold in every corner of the planet.
It is true, however, that as a dye it is truly splendid, if you want to add a touch of color to dye and give sparkle to your cocktails, it only takes a little and as if by magic the pigmentation of the cocktail will be spectacular.
Consider Midori like Blue Curacao, but on the contrary, Blue Curacao is sweet, but at least cut by a bitter tone, Midori sweet and artificially aromatic, so use little …
The scents of Midori
Melon, melon marmalade, melon jellies, melon marshmallows and some synthetic lure of flowers and then cherries drowned in sugar and mouthwash. The aromatic profile is redundant and monotonous, mellow.
The flavor of Midori
In the mouth it is thick, syrupy and dripping with sugar from every particle. Traces of mint, low caloric sensation, flavors of candy and green crocodiles from the 80’s candy stand.
The verdict is a sound rejection: Midori is an industrial liqueur that has nothing brilliant to offer. There is no reason in the world, if not cases of masochism-torture, to drink it straight. In the sour version it is acceptable, but not very glamorous.
If you make Midori Sour popsicles the situation improves, especially thanks to an incredible color.
Midori price
20 euros for the 0.70 bottle.
Alcohol content and preservatives
20% alcohol content, preservatives: E102 and E133.