| The good the bad and the cider |
 The good the bad and the cider
|
Apr. 8th, 2009 @ 11:35 pm 
|
|---|
I feel compelled to write about cider today. I've recently depleted two-thirds of my home-brew stash of cider. Mostly only because I've yet failed to bottle the last carboy, and refuse to open it due to fear of infecting it with nasty bugs until I do find the time and energy to clean, disinfect, fill and cap the bottles (a time consuming pass-time to be sure.)
And so I'm caught. I've developed a taste for cider, possibly stronger than my love for it's barley brethren, and yet I live in freaking America where good cider is impossible to find.
Shame of all shames, I've started testing various commercial ciders. Now commercial ciders are not necessarily evil, but American ones are almost universally immorally indecent. The problem is that Americans, particularly US Americans, prefer consistency over occasional brilliance. Hence any brand that I come across in the states is filtered, immature, or the mortal sin: kool-aid.
A couple weeks ago I purchased WoodChuck. Those in the know, understand that there is little to enjoy in this thinly-veiled alco-pop. To put it succinctly, it tastes of apple-juice pack, throw in a Jolly Rancher, let it sit a few days, filter any complex tastes out (just in case) and carbonate the shit out of it. It's bubbly alcoholic cider, heavy on the bubbly. Sickly sweet with an aftertaste of malic acid that will turn your stomach, this is not cider. It tastes like apple juice with grain alcohol and extra sugar. The only good thing to say about it is that it is consistent. But consistent in a McDonald's hamburger way. Bad every single time. More than two will turn your insides out. The expletives on how bad this one is never end, unfortunately. It's the cider for people that don't like beer, but want to appear macho. Verdict: If there's nothing else to drink but this; I'll drink water.
So next, I ran across StrongBow. Admittedly, this is an English cider, but I'm almost certain that any self-respecting English cider-enthusiast gives it wide berth. While not sickly-sweet, it has a certain aspartame quality that while dry asserts itself prominently on the tongue. If that weren't bad enough it appears that they send this one directly from the fermenting vat, through a series of filters (god forbid that cider be freaking cloudy) and then bottle and sell it directly. It frankly tastes of a cider only a month or two old and since they filter all the wee yeasty beasties out before bottling, it's never going to get better. Sure it's shelf life is measured in years, but a good bottle of real cider only improves. Hence, it's major flaw (other than the strange sweet aftertaste, particularly strange considering it's marketed as a "dry" cider) is that it exhibits a full-on malic body slam. Apple candy central is where this one will always be. The verdict: Drinkable in that I can have more than two in a night and not become nauseous, and it's the only one out of the three, despite it's filtering exhibits REAL cider-like flavors (think wet dirty socks, I know cider drinkers are strange.) If nothing else is offered I could drink this.
Finally, I found a beverage called Hornsby's Hard Cider. I wasn't in the mood for beer and this looked good. First the alcohol content is above 5%. Real apple juice will produce a drink with more than 5% alcohol. This was a good sign, and not because I want to get a drunk on. This one upon pouring produce a real head. That stuck around for a while. To me this indicates the presence of proteins and the lack of filtering within an inch of it's life. The taste? Well it's not bad. It's not great. It doesn't taste of artificial apple flavouring, so it may have been aged (or at least innoculated with lactobacteria, not a bad thing) It's very clean tasting which is to say I have no complaints other than it lacks that essential funkiness that makes cider, cider, but good. Not too sweet and I like my ciders bone dry, but it did have hint of sweetness that didn't distract. The verdict: Boring but the most drinkable of the lot. |
An article on Culinate includes a list of recommended brands. So far, I haven't found a single one locally. *sigh*
|
|
| Top of Page |
Powered by LiveJournal.com |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
zifferent's journal