I believe most of the Malaysian folks experienced the rise of the now infamous Musang King durian. Well at least as a Millennial, I do. The rise wasn’t only in popularity, we also witnessed the soaring prices of the Musang King as well. And where there is reward, there is the R&D to fine tune the best quality of the King of Fruits. The tuning of the flavor with different types of seeding, and the balance between sweet and bitterness which a lot of durian seekers use as the standard for Musang King’s quality. And then we have IPA geeks- whose bitter journey begins with a sip of hoppy IPA that explodes with a medley of flavours on your tongue, and continues with seeking and craving for the heavy IBU and hoppy yet fruity flavours that only an IPA can give them. In the end, it’s all in the balance.
For years, we’ve been hearing the “no beers after durian” myth, still there is no stopping local home brewers from trying to blend in or infuse Musang King into their homebrew, where the King meets the King to create an authentic Malaysian flavoured beer. Why? That is how fascinating these two products that are so different in every way, are yet so similar with the same stimulation- balance of the bitterness.
Next time, if any Malaysian drinker asks “Why are beers (IPA) so expensive?” You can always start with our King of Fruits story, “Do you like Musang King?” to skip all the boring details about taxes and similar text book answers. End of the day, I think for those who fall in love with IPAs, I would guarantee Malaysian drinkers should be the first!
