Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) introduced their new Guinness variant Guinness Smooth in a luxurious ceremony held at the Kampala Serena Hotel gardens on Saturday night.
During the launch, the Guinness Global Master Brewer Peter Simpson who played a major role in the making of Guinness Smooth took the invited guests through the four Flavour Rooms that speak to the character of the new beer.
The rooms included the Bittersweet Room, the Bold Room, the Rich Room and the Refreshing Room where consumers were let in on the sight, flavour, feel and taste of the new beer.
They were taken through the perfect serve for a Guinness Smooth, tasting and appreciating the perfect balance of sweet (butterscotch and toffee flavours) and bitter, and also smelling the chocolatey-coffee aromas and rich notes from roasted barley.
Speaking to guests, Simpson commended Ugandans’ love for the famous black liquid and couldn’t hide his excitement about people finally tasting a product that he has worked on with Ugandan brewers for a very long time.
“I cannot mention how proud I am that you all get to taste Guinness Smooth today. It is every brewer’s dream to see people taste his creation,” he said, before imploring guests to toast to Arthur Guinness who first brewed the world-renowned beer in 1759.
“Brands that don’t innovate don’t survive. 261 years and counting, this is the first innovation extension or variant of brand Guinness in Uganda. This right here is history in the making,” UBL’s Marketing Director Juliana Kaggwa said at the event.
“We are giving young vibrant millennials an opportunity to join the family of Guinness through a variant called Smooth. The brand is smooth and therefore easy on the tongue,” Ms Kaggwa added.
She noted that people have different palates and Guinness Smooth is a variant that maintains the full-bodied character of Guinness, though with bitter-sweet undertones. “It is a beer with a distinctively smooth and refreshing taste,” she said.
The night also featured performances from Uganda’s very own soul star Maurice Kirya and Sheebah Karungi, arguably the hottest female artiste in the land who took guests on a musical rollercoaster of some of her hits songs like Mummy Yo, Enyanda and Sweet Sensation, her banger with Nigerian star Orezi.
With the frothy, but smoother version of Guinness flowing endlessly, it was indeed a smooth life for guests and there were no ‘Jan-worries’ of having to dig into their pockets as it was on the house.
