Good thread Stroller.
I don't mind the occasional drop of Archa- it's innocous, but not unpleasant.
Can't stand that Cheers stuff, and we don't get Issan beer down here.
Leo is my usual tipple, but if you drink a fair bit of it the residual sweetness becomes a bit cloying. Plus the local shop just raised the price by 2 bht to 42 bht for a large bottle! Archa remains at 35bht.
Beer however is a relatively expensive way to get drunk. So are imported spirits, and wine horrifically so, relatively speaking. So heres to Yaa Dong, which at 85 bht per large bottle (locally) is a cheap and pleasant way to get buzzed.
Yaa Dong, if you don't know it, is that ghoulish red looking liquor you may have seen being drunk around the place. It is made by steeping herbs in a base of Lao Kao (Rice spirit/ firewater) for a few days, and adding honey. Actually it's not bad- I've gotten quite a taste for it, and it's helped to reduce my expensive red wine habit. Old momma at the local shop is reckoned to do a good one, and even my yuppie friends from Bangkok pick up a few bottles now when they come down for a visit.
Does anyone know any half decent Thai fruit wines? I heard there was a reasonably priced dry lychee wine that could pass for a blended white.