Tag: cider review

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Cider Review – 10th Anniversary from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

I received the GABF winning ciders pack from 2 Towns Ciderhouse and it is time to open up the 10th Anniversary Cider to review.

Six different apples make up this 10th Anniversary cider and except for McIntosh the rest are all deeper apple cuts like Newtown Pippin, Orleans Reinette, Ashmead’s Kernel, Golden Russet and Cox’s Orange Pippin.

It pours a light yellow in the glass with lovely little bubbles climbing upward. It is a bit of a green apple aroma to it. Quite sparkly mouthfeel to it. There is a bit of tartness to this which I like. It has a bit of candy apple tart.

I like it over the Cellar Series one because of the that green apple swirl.

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Cider Review – Cidre Bouché from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

I received the GABF winning ciders pack from 2 Towns Ciderhouse and the first one to catch my eye was the Cidre Bouché because I learned a new word, keeving. You can read what 2 Towns says about the process HERE but in summary it is grinding the bittersweet apples and letting them sit in contact with the skins for enough time to fully extract of the juice and proper tannins.

With process out of the way, let’s talk taste of this very orange hued cider. Oak and apple swirl in the aroma. After that initial hit, the first sip is a bit one dimensional. But then a real big apple taste takes over. There is also a slight touch of vanilla to close out the flavor before your next sip.

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Featured Cider Review – Crimson Bliss from 2 Towns Ciderhouse

Got some C’s for you today. Cranberries and currants from 2 Towns Ciderhouse.

Bliss pours the requisite red, would have been weird otherwise. I like that the aroma is still primarily apple. It needs to be cider with flavors, not just flavors. There is a really nice tartness here. I get the currants more than cranberry but I have a feeling that each drinker will perceive the two in different amounts. Very zippy with a nice hit of carbonation. I can see this paired with a salad with blue cheese very easily.

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Featured Cider Review – 2 Towns – 2 N/A

I have had limited success with Non-Alcoholic beers but maybe my luck will turn with 2 Towns Ciderhouse and their N/A Cosmic Crisp and Pacific Pineapple ciders, sorry, Sidekicks…

sidekick cc – pours a super light yellow color. tiny vinegar tang upon opening the can.  apples being pressed aroma.  some sweetness.  nice carbonation.  has that Martinelli’s sparkle to it.

sidekick pp – big pineapple aroma on this one.  much like the cc.  a teeny vinegar note tucked into the folds of what is essentially pineapple juice.  pp does not have the carbonation balance though.  Could be amped up to create the illusion of a pineapple cider.

If blind tasting, I would not have pegged either as de-alcoholed cider. I would have said both were juice. With the Cosmic Crisp being the closer to hard cider to me.

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Featured Portland Cider Review – Prickly Punch

The next cider up from Portland Cider is their Prickly Punch that uses the desert prickly pear.

And not just prickly pear but orange, guava and strawberry. Which flavor will lord over the others? Or will it be a democracy of fruit?

The orange and guava have ceded ground to at first strawberry and then the prickly pear before the cider itself steps in. Thankfully it is not as sweet as I feared it would be. Has a nice bracing mouthfeel to it.

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Featured Portland Cider Review – Lemon Drop

The next cider up from Portland Cider is Lemon Drop made with not just regular lemons but the extra fancy Meyer variety.

I was really hoping to get a big ol’ punch of Meyer lemon in this one. I really like lemon flavor but I just did not find it in this cider named after a cocktail. That is not to say that this wasn’t a good tasting cider, just that the name led me to a destination that it just could not arrive at.

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Featured Portland Cider Review – Community Cider

I really like the whole community aspect of craft beverages. Maybe because the U.S. seems so easily divided these days so I was very pleased to see that Portland Cider had a Community Cider, using apples and pears from around Portland. To make it even more positive, it’s charity cider too.

CC pours a super light yellow. Nearly shades of seltzer. It has the typical cider aroma of apple and apple skin. Initial taste is bright and sweet. The pear really shines through to add an extra dimension. There is a tiny bit of a spice note but overall, a down the middle cider.