A Cidery Christmas

On the pre-christmas booze run, the bottle shop of choice had a special – but 6 or more single bottles of cider and get 20% discount. As my holiday plans included a lot of staying at home relaxing, this seemed a perfect opportunity to get in some cider testing. So I bought myself 6 ciders, a box of 4 with a promotional glass and then Allan got me another 4 pack. In total, 11 different types to to choose from. Here they are:

And this is what I thought of them:

Rekorderlig apple and blackcurrant – Rekorderlig make delicious ciders and their boutique fruit variants are very popular. I thought this tasted too much like fun blackcurrant juice and not enough like cider.

Dirty Granny – tart, rich, tasty.

Cheeky Rascal – this is more alcoholic than I thought it would be, holding 2 standard drinks in one little bottle. Very good though. Didn't like the first taste but it grows on you.

Napoleone & Co. apple with pear – I'm drinking this as I write. It's light and slightly tart. Delicious.

John Kepplers – a rich colour and flavour, very alcoholic with the can holding 3 standard drinks.

Three Oaks – original apple, original pear, dry and sweet. I had the original apple on the first day of holidays in the shower – my first ever shower cider! It went down very easily but I suspect that was the situation rather than the drink. The sweet I enjoyed the first half of but didn't finish, same with the dry on NYE. The original Pear I left in the sand bag esky at the NYE party I went to.

Pipsqueak – I can only judge on half a bottle of Pipsqueak because I lost the rest to foam. Annoying to pour and doesn't taste as good as it does on tap at Archive at a Sunday session.

Bulmers apple cider – this actually went into the chorizo in cider dish I made for christmas brunch, but I love Bulmers. In the UK pub Magners vs. Bulmers argument, I'm Bulmers every time.