A few weeks ago I was in our local supermarket when a bottle of cider caught my eye:
I checked myself. Now I am not usually one to drink really sweet drinks, and truth be told, I tend to steer away from sweet fruity ciders; my favourite cider being a South African cider called Hunters Dry, produced by the Distell Group Ltd. But I was curious, so I pulled the bottle off the shelf and read through the blurb on the label.
It didn't take me long to decide that I needed to taste this magical elixir, so I decided to grab three different bottles of cider... ones I had never tried before, plus my favoured Hunter's Dry, and one tequila-flavoured beer... and to do a tasting session... cos well that was how I chose to roll that day! 🤣🤣🤣
Ordinarily, if I buy a six-pack of ciders, they will last me a few weeks because I don't drink often or much... and usually for every cider I drink, one finds its way into my spag bol. So I was not intending to drink all of these myself, rather I decided to have a little taster evening with the hubby... The hubby and I ended up having a tot or two of each.
Now you may be wondering how I am getting away with posting about cider in a beer community. Simple really... I just am! I mean, last time I posted about Ginger Beer 😂 - so go figure... some rules can clearly be interpreted with a light touch, right? hehe.
In all seriousness, I discovered that in Old English the word beer is derived from a drink made of honey, and fruit juice. So the English origin of beer lay more in mead or cider than what we would traditionally now view as hopped ales. source The latter view is one that developed across Germany and was much later adopted in England.
Do you want to know something funny?... The first mentions of Cider in history come from the notes of Julius Caesar's first invasions of England in 55BCE when he recorded having come across the cider being fermented in Kent by the Celts. source
*In case you missed it... that ☝️ was the Roman comedy. Not funny? Oh well... 😂 *
The mix of bottled ciders and one beer that made the tasting included:
- Brothers Toffee Apple English Cider
- Thatchers Blood Orange Somerset Cider
- Thatchers Zero - Alcohol-Free Cider
- Hunter's Dry Crisp Cider
- Amigos Tequila Flavoured Beer
9/10 - Brothers Toffee Apple English Somerset Cider is actually an English toffee-flavoured cream soda with a hint of Vanilla, It is delicious! Definitely reminded me of strawberries and cream. This scored a high 9/10 and was our favourite new flavour of the day, albeit it was too sweet to consider drinking more than one bottle in an evening.
8.5/10 - Thatchers Blood Orange Cider. This was very smooth and easy to drink. In all honesty, I would describe it as an alcoholic Orangina - so yum... and probably the easiest to overindulge in. This scored 8.5/10.
8/10 - Hunter's Dry is a dry crisp cider, exceptionally refreshing. Best drunk ice cold. We scored this cider an 8/10 and although it wasn't our favourite one to taste on the night, based on a double shot glass, we did agree that if we could only ever have one cider for the rest of our lives... it would be Hunter's Dry! Hands down! (The others were just too sweet!!!)
5/10 - Thatchers 0% Alcohol. This tasted like cloudy apple juice concentrate with soda water added to it. Not a fan. Personally, I'd rather buy a bottle of apple juice and a bottle of soda water and mix them together!
3/10 - Amigo's Beer with Tequila and Lime. I really thought this might be the beer that I may finally enjoy.... but this had a scent of beer and cigarettes if I'm honest. And after just a couple of sips, I remain convinced: I still don't like beer! On the other hand, if the hubby was writing this post, the beer would have finished in the top 3 😂
This was a fun tasting session and the second time I have posted in the community. I'll be back when I find another angle... 🤣🤣🤣
This post has been submitted to the Beer community in response to #beersaturday run by @detlev.
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