The Taste Test

Turn In: Grimbooze Thunderbrew — Nesingwary Base Camp

Objective: Offer a sample of Jungle Punch to Hemet Nesingwary, Hadrius Harlowe, and Tamara Wobblesprocket, then return to Grimbooze.

Quick Facts

• Prerequisites: Still At It
• Follow-up: None (chain finale), but unlocks Kungaloosh cooking recipe in Dalaran (see below)
• Series: Part 3 of 3 in Grimbooze’s Brewing Chain

Walkthrough

Grimbooze gives you a Jungle Punch Sample and asks you to deliver it to three taste-testers. This is an item-use quest, not a dialogue quest. Open your bags, right-click the Jungle Punch Sample, then click on the target NPC. You cannot complete this through normal NPC conversation.

Tester 1: Hemet Nesingwary — Nesingwary Base Camp [27, 59]. Right next to Grimbooze. Do this one first since you’re already here.

Tester 2: Hadrius Harlowe — Nesingwary Base Camp [27, 59]. The camp’s Stable Master, standing near Hemet. Knock out both camp testers before flying anywhere.

Tester 3: Tamara Wobblesprocket — Lakeside Landing [50, 62], on the northeast shore of River’s Heart. Grimbooze’s quest text specifically says “head over to Lakeside Landing.” Fly there from Nesingwary Base Camp.

After all three have sampled the punch, return to Grimbooze at Nesingwary Base Camp to turn in.

“Invalid Target” Bug: Sometimes, the Jungle Punch Sample occasionally returns “Invalid Target” when used on Tamara. If this happens, wait a few minutes and try again. It consistently resolves on its own. Deliver to Hemet and Hadrius first since they never seem affected.

NPC Reactions (Verified Dialogue)

Hemet Nesingwary:

• “Aye, I’ll try it.”
• “That’s exactly what I needed!”
• “It’s got my vote! That’ll put hair on your chest like nothing else will.”

Hadrius Harlowe:

• “I’m always up for something of Grimbooze’s.”
• “Well, so far, it tastes like something my wife would drink…”
• “Now, there’s the kick I’ve come to expect from Grimbooze’s drinks! I like it!”

Tamara Wobblesprocket:

• “Sure!”
• “Oh my…”
• “Tastes like I’m drinking… engine degreaser!”

Grimbooze’s completion: “Two out of three drinkers agree, eh? Not bad for a first try. Not bad at all. I suppose I’ll have to whip up something else for Tamara by way of apology.”

Unlocks: Kungaloosh Recipe (Dalaran)

Completing The Taste Test is the prerequisite for learning Recipe: Kungaloosh in Dalaran. After turning in, fly to Dalaran and head to the Underbelly (the sewer level). Find the Washed-Up Mage sleeping in a culvert behind a sewer grate at [43, 24]. He’ll have Fletcher’s Lost and Found available as a quest, which teaches you the Kungaloosh recipe upon completion.

The recipe requires Cooking 350 and uses 2x Tundra Berries + 1x Savory Snowplum (both purchasable from Dalaran vendors). Kungaloosh restores 18,461 mana over 30 seconds and gets you tipsy. It counts toward the Northrend Gourmet cooking achievement.

Note: During launch (Patch 3.0.3), the Kungaloosh recipe was missing entirely from the game despite being listed in the Northrend Gourmet achievement. It wasn’t added until Patch 3.0.8 (January 2009), causing frustration for early completionists.

Easter Egg

• Disney’s Adventurer’s Club (Walt Disney World): “Kungaloosh” was the official greeting and signature cocktail of the Adventurer’s Club, a themed nightclub at Walt Disney World’s Pleasure Island. The club was styled as a 1930s private explorer’s society, with improvisational actors, animatronics, and artifact-filled rooms. Members learned a “Club Salute” that ended with the cry of “Kungaloosh!”
• The club closed permanently on September 27, 2008, just seven weeks before WotLK launched on November 13, 2008. WoW developers appear to have immortalized it as a tribute. The parallels are deliberate: an adventurer’s base camp in an exotic jungle, a makeshift distillery producing tropical fruit liquor, and the resulting drink named “Kungaloosh.”
• Even the Washed-Up Mage in Dalaran’s sewers echoes the club’s theatrical spirit of eccentric characters in unlikely places.

Lore Context

Hadrius Harlowe’s reaction (“tastes like something my wife would drink”) is a classic setup-and-payoff joke. He starts dismissive, then admits the kick wins him over. Notably, Hadrius is the camp’s Stable Master, not a hunter or brewer, so he represents the “everyman” palate.

Tamara Wobblesprocket’s “engine degreaser” reaction fits her character perfectly. She’s a tinkerer who accompanied her husband Marvin (the camp’s gnomish flight master at Lakeside Landing) on the expedition. A gnome engineer would naturally compare strong liquor to industrial chemicals. Her marriage to Marvin is also noteworthy: she’s human and he’s a gnome, making them one of the rarest interracial couples in WoW lore.

Grimbooze’s “two out of three” result mirrors real product testing. For a drink brewed from random jungle fruit in an improvised still, a 66% approval rating from a hunter, a stable master, and an engineer is honestly not bad.

Cross-Expansion Connection

• The Washed-Up Mage in Dalaran’s Underbelly is later revealed to be Barnaby Fletcher (Patch 5.1.0, Mists of Pandaria). He turns up at Halfhill Market in the Valley of the Four Winds, where he peddles seeds and explains his “downfall” was a potion addiction. He’s joined a rehabilitation program and appears to be doing much better. The quest name Fletcher’s Lost and Found takes on new meaning in retrospect: he’s not just finding lost items, he’s finding himself.