If I was in charge and Tasmania.

If I was in charge of a big multinational beverage firm, the first thing I would be doing, would be pouring money into research on fruit flavoured ciders. Bacardi Beezers and other such alcopop drinks seem to have fallen out of fashion. Cider is on the up and it seems like a perfect combination, cider and say blueberries or raspberries or even say Strawberries and Lime in the same bottle. That is exactly what those clever Swedish cider producers Rekorderlig have done. Rekorderlig Premium Strawberry-Lime cider is on the shelves here in Sydney. What a great idea!

Yes, yes I know a boy from Somerset should be horrified by flavoured cider. Well, yes and no. OK, it certainly was not to my taste, too sweet with definate red cordial characters and the lime was in there somewhere, however it runs a distant second to the strong strawberry characters. However, put this in a trendy bar for young folk and I can see it selling really well. At only 4% alcohol it will not knock you around. Watch the shelves as flavoured cider is a thing for the future. Not for cider lovers, but people who just want a sweet unsophisticated drink. I can just see it now Bens Pink Grapefruit Cider.

My taste - 3 apples out of 10

Young folks taste - 9.5 out of 10

I am going to cover off another cider here. I have got behind on my cider drinking and blogging. Summer is nearly here in Sydney and soon the weather will be perfect for a cheeky cider or two.

Mercury Cider is an Australian institution; established in 1911 in beautiful Tasmania. If you enjoy fresh, fresh air, beautiful scenery, fabulous food and drink, Tasmania is for you. We were down there in January of last year and went to the unforgetable Taste of Tassie Festival in Hobart. THE best food and wine show around. We certainly waddled out of there. Get yourself down there next January.

Anyhoo, this slightly blurry photo was taken in the kitchen by my good self. I sort of like the blurry effect. Mercury Dry Cider, all 750mls of it.

Unfortunately, this cider does not live up to the rest of Tasmania. It lacked colour and taste. It is a cheap cider designed for the mass market and it tastes that way. Yes it was dry but still could not excite me. I suggest you pay a little more for a better cider.

3.5 apples out of 10.

Wet tea towel and home alone dancing.

I came home from a few wins (wines) in the corporate market and needed a drink. But what? Wine, cider or a cheeky beer. It was a good day, the sun was shining and life good. I needed cider. But, alas, nothing cold in the fridge............so I used my "I need a cold bottle quick" technique. I spotted a bottle of Longueville Cidre de Recoltant in the cupboard, yes I was looking forward to this. I got a tea towel soaked it in water, squeezed out the excess water, wrapped the bottle in it and popped it in the freezer. Hey presto, in the time it takes to find a great CD, pop it into the player and dance around the lounge, you have a cold bottle. This, of course also works for wine and beer. Cheeky tip, eh!

So to the cider, I typed Cidre de Recoltant into Google Translator and came out with "Cider reaping" I am none the wiser. It is made from a variety of apples called "Large Carnation" and to be honest with you it is a cracker.

I pulled in out of the freezer and unwrapped the tea towel, popped the top and poured it straight into a beautiful large wine glass. It is darker than most of the recent ciders I have tasted, this is a good sign. It denotes the possibility of flavour, as you can see it is a dark golden colour. It smells of apples, yum. Rich, ripe apples almost like an apple pie that has a pinch of clove in it. It is lightly, naturally sparkling and in the mouth..............badda bing, badda boom. It is a winner. Not too sweet, with a healthy dose of bitter and a touch of rustic about it. Gulp, gulp, no sipping here. Yes! I can tell you great glassware makes a difference even when you are home alone. So this cider fills the mouth, is full of flavour and leaves a lovely clean acidic finish. Cider and Sushi, I swear it this cider would have been a perfect match. So over sized wine glass in hand the "home alone" dancing continued....................................

9.5 apples out of 10.

E by gum

I got sent a great email this morning. It is a warning from Yorkshire police. Apparently there have been reports of drug users in Yorkshire using dental syringes to inject Ecstasy. It is know as "E by gum" ........................taxi.



This nicely (OK a little tenuously) brings me to Yorkshires oldest brewery Samuel Smiths who have now branched out into what traditionally is a west country product, cider. The Samuel Smiths Brewery is not to be confused with the John Smiths Brewery that is now owned by Heineken, the Dutch part of Yorkshire! John Smiths do have a tradition of great adverts here are a couple of favourites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2keX3felmQ , come on Mum! classic. Anyway I digress, Samuel and John Smith were cousins who fell out and started separate breweries. Families eh.



Anyway to the cider. It is 5% alcohol and a dark golden colour. It smells of apples, funny that! It is 100% organic. That means that no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides were used in the orchard. That is a good thing. Another fact for you, did you know that most of the chemicals used in farming nowhere days are oil based. This is done so that when it rains the chemicals do not get washed off. Tricky eh!



Anyway back to the cider, where was I, as yes, dark golden in colour. It has a medium carbonation. However, in the mouth something is not quite right. Yes, it has apples and is lets say medium sweet. It just lacks.................flavour. I drank all the 500mls in the bottle and was still no enthused. I sound like the customer who eats the whole meal in a restaurant and then complains.



So, after grabbing this cider from the local bottleshop and looking forward to it, it was a let down.



5.5 apples out of 10.

I was made an offer I could not refuse.

Last night, was a boys night in. In an attempt to hang out with my fifteen year old son I suggested I go down to the video store (I suppose it is now the DVD store) and get The Godfather. The two girls behind the counter had no idea what film I was talking about. I felt like saying, this is a DVD store and I am talking about one of the most famous films ever made and you have never heard of it. Just picture that television programme grumpy old men.......that was me. I asked them where G was in the shop as Lady Gaga blasted out "oh la, sha sha sha, Gaga oh la la" Enough said. I could not find it, eventually blondie behind the counter found a disk. I quizzed her about it being part one, "Yes it is" she said. Silly me got home to find it was a dvd of the bonus material. Trip two to the dvd store. No apology and when I suggested to the manager/owner (I am the manager and the owner, thank you Basil) that his staff should at least know some of the most famous films ever made. He said "Well they can't know everything" I nearly responded with "Something, might help" Instead, I left needing a drink.

Now at home, organic lamb sausage sandwiches, The Godfather, my fifteen year old son, two big couches and a bottle of St Hellier Pear Cider. I normally take a photo of the bottle and the drink in a glass, I drank this one before I could get the camera out.

This is a very pale coloured cider with a very light bead, in fact it is more spritzig than bubbly. It smells of pears, pear drops (those gorgeous boiled sweets I used to have as a kid) and esters. There is no mistaking this is made from pears. In the mouth it is light with a touch of sweetness. It tastes of pears, hurray. It finishes with a lovely acidity and the pear flavours hang around. A very good cider indeed.

It comes all the way from St Hellier, Jersey which is one of the Channel Islands in between England and France. Check out their videos at http://www.stheliercider.com/Page/Movies.aspx#

9 pears out of 10.

Rekorderlig - Apples

It is seriously about to happen, the summer of cider is just around the corner. Just as the temperature warms up so will the number of the cider adverts of television. Yes, I know it is still winter, I am dreaming of the sun. The problem is that most of the adverts will be for mass produced ciders that really don't taste of much. Or, they are jam packed full of sugar. Sugar in any food or beverage will dominate any other flavours.

Rekorderlig is a range of three ciders, see the previous blog. I finally had to run a taste test on the apple cider. So I nipped down to Sam the Butcher on Bondi Road, Bondi and came back with some wonderful pork chops. Pork and cider is such a good combination. I still rate cider and sushi as the best.

Rekorderlig is a Swedish cider and comes in some very smart packaging. 500ml bottles with some funky looking fruit on the front. The cider is a pale golden colour and full of bubbles! It is semi sweet in character and will be very big in the groovy (hah, OK, cool) bars this summer.

Check out Camperdown Cellars, Darlinghurst if you would like to try some.

From Huddersfield to Sweden to Australia

I had the pleasure of having a coffee, not a cider with Christian from Rekorderlig cider a couple of weeks ago. I told you I was behind on my cider drinking!!! It has been vino and mostly rosso with this winter weather. I spotted to Rekorderlig cider in Camperdown Cellars Darlinghurst and asked Romy the manager where he had got them from. Romy told me that the brand was new in the country and that Camperdown was the first to stock them. Camperdown Cellars Darlinghurst really is a top wine store check it outhttp://www.camperdowncellars.com.au/

There are three in the range being apple, pear and believe it or not Strawberry and Lime. I called up Christian the brand manager and we caught up.

Christian told me the story of how his brother, himself and a friend started a company in the UK to import Peruvian beer. Lets face it the drink industry is often run by fads and what is in fashion at that moment. Smart move boys as South American beers are always popular, you just need a story. After they made a success of the beer the boys started to import a Swedish cider, what cider..............not from Somerset? Christian was at pains to make sure that a Somerset boy like me understood that his range of ciders are aimed at the commercial market.

So far I have taken the top off the pear cider , Swedish pear cider, it still seems weird, and I had it out of a champagne flute. It is pale in colour and with plenty of bubbles. On the nose it is hints of sweetness and crisp green pear. I the mouth it is on the sweeter side of ciders, but importantly it is not overly sweet.

This cider is set to be a hit in all the infashion bars within the next couple of months. It will really start to take off when the weather heats up. It has great packaging and will look good on any wine bar table.

http://www.rekorderlig.com.au/

The sweet taste of defeat!

I was up at 3.30 this morning; I am part of my sons school's football supporters club committee. We put on a bbq and the game (Australia Vs Germany, for those of you that live under a rock) at the school. Oh dear, the cheap sausages were the best thing of the night! Pim, Pim what were you thinking, bad tactics...............anyway........I digress.

Lets talk about the night before and my date with a truely commercial style cider. I really did not hold high hopes, I thought Australia might have a better chance of impressing. 5 Seeds cider is made by Tooheys under the Extra Dry label. If you have ever tried Tooheys Extra Dry you will know it is far from being dry. It is tailored at the unsophisticated beer drinker who wants a step up from VB or Tooheys New. A brand driven by smart advertising and positioning. It is not a cheap beer, but also not a boutique. It's middle market price point sets it apart from most other beers. Anyway that is enough dumping on a beer. We are here to talk zyyyyder!

5 Seeds Cider has great packaging, they have managed to save money by using the same bottle used for Tooheys Extra Dry, the bottle is embossed with the name. The back label states "Serving suggestion: Bloody cold" and that "The clean crisp flavour has reinvented cider" LOL. Ok, you do need a little hyperbole, however "..reinvented cider"

I thought I would give this cider 2 apples out of 10, but I had not tried it. Surprisingly I awarded this cider, more than two apples. It is pale in colour, and heavily carbonated. It is totally uncomplicated and a good commercial drink. OK, we are not talking top shelf here, however, it really serves it purpose. It is sweet and lacks length of flavour, but it is refreshing and lacks the horrible chemical flavours of cheap beer. I expect this cider will do very well over the next few years. Join their Facebook group at http://tinyurl.com/26bx3a4 living proof that you need to constantly feed your groups.

6.5 apples out of 10.

Oh, no am I behind on my cider drinking

Well, here is the latest release from everybodys favourite cider band, The Wurzels.

It is about somebody called Ruby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PLE3IjTRb8

cheers

Ben

LARS - and the history of cider and Frankenstein food.

When we drove the back way from our village, Backwell in Somerset, to Bristol, we would drive through a village called Barrow Gurney. At the end of the village was the turning for LARS, Long Ashton Research Station. This world famous research station was set up by the government in 1903 to improve the quality of cider, originally being called The National Fruit and Cider Institute . Local cider producers were struggling to produce consistantly good cider, the institute was set up to help.

They not only researched apples but also a lot of other fruits. During World War 2 they were asked to research an alternative to oranges. There was a shortage of oranges in Britain and a replacement vitamin c source was required. Ribena was born.

LARS made some big breakthroughs for cider, especially working out which apple varieties worked best and introducing shorter trees, easier to harvest!

LARS was closed in 2003, one hundred years after it opened. The nature of LARS changed after the second world war and in the 1960's and 1970's it was reponsible for pioneering GM foods, oops not a popular move. It originally came from the trials that were run on apple trees. They were bombared with radiation in order to stop disease. When the research moved to wheat, the same techiques were used. The whole issue of GM came to a head in the late 1990's, Prince Charles called these foods "Frankenstein Foods"

As I young kid I was not so interested in the cider station, as my Dad called it. I was interested in the ghost story that was told about the junction where you turned off for Bristol. In the late 1950's a young woman was hit by a car early one evening. At the time the road was a lot higher, a resevoir was built and the road was lowered. A ghost of the young woman is said to appear about 6 feet above the road (the height of the original road).

There you have it LARS , GM and ghosts.

Now that is better!

It was chilly here in Bondi last night. Well it is all relative I suppose! After a long day at the computer I needed some cider!! But what to go with it. I looked in the fridge and Pitango spring lamb soup with red wine, roasted garlic and rosemary was there waiting for me. It said "serves two" on the packet, two what, children? The soup was delicious, thank you Mr Pitango and my wonderful partner for doing the shopping. Thanks, Jules!

So to the cider, I had been a little disappointed with the Westons Pear Cider. It just didn't quite do it for me. So to the real cider, apple cider. As you can see from the photo, it is a lovely almost burnt golden colour. At 6.5% alcohol it looks to be a serious cider. It certainly smells of fermented apples. In the mouth it is very good. It combines touches of sweetness with a lovely bitter sweet character. There are four catagories of cider apple sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp. I will go into that in more detail soon.

This cider is very good. Sweet and bitter with a lovely lingering finish. I really enjoyed this medium bodied beauty. The soup was great also.

8.5 apples out of 10.

Westons Premium Organic Pear Cider.

On the quest to find the most ciderlious of all ciders the, well, the quest continued tonight. Tonight I took the cider and sushi mission a little further. We went to Ten Japanese which is our local restaurant. I love that place, the best sushi and sashimi in town.

I took a bottle of Westons Premium Organic Pear Cider. Westons started producing ciders in 1880 in the Herefordshire village of Much Marcle, what a great name. Hereforshire is on the board of England and Wales, on the English side. Westons have some pretty amazing figures "Westons Cider employs more than 130 people, produces over 30 different ciders and perries, sells approximately 28 million pints a year and has a turnover of over £24 million." That is a serious business!

So to the pear cider. Firstly the words "Premium" and "Reserve" are words that are very over used in the liquor industry. This "Premium" Pear cider is not premium. I am sure Westons must keep their best ciders back in the UK. I did not manage to get a photo of a glass of the cider, I did not take my camera to Ten Japanese. The colour is a deep dark golden, surprisingly dark for a pear cider. This lead me to think that the cider was going to have a touch of sweetness. I was right. This 6% alcohol cider has a fairly big wack of residual sugar. There are also touches of savoury characters and a little bitterness right in the background. Overall I was fairly disappointed with this organic pear cider.

7 pears out of 10.

I was Crushed.

After a long day of meetings and planning, I looked forward to a nice bottle of cider with my Blue eyed cod. So off to Kemenys I went and picked a bottle of Monteith's Crushed Apple Cider from New Zealand. Monteith's are new into the Australian market and launched with their beers a couple of years ago.

My first impressions of Monteith's were of a cheap beer. The cartons would regularly fall apart due to cheap cardboard and lack of glue. The packaging was and still is pretty average. The cider label looks like it was designed in the 1970's.

The cider itself is 4.5% in alcohol and is really no better that the packaging. It is pale in colour and pale it taste. It has a touch of sweetness, but there is no crisp finish. No length of flavour.

Apples! 5 out of 10.

Blue eyed cod with carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin mash and steamed brocoli and green beans 10 out of 10.

Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder

The Chevalier family, owners of Aspall Cyders are now on there 8th generation of cider makers or, as they call it cyder.

Aspall is a very small village (population of 30) in Suffolk, England just north of Ipswich .................. south of Norwich! Still none the wiser? OK if you look at a map of the England it is in the middle of that lump of land that hangs of the edge of east England just above London. It was first recorded as a village in 1078 by William the Conqueror.

Aspall Hall, the family home was first purchased in 1702 and has a moat! Nice eh!

Their website promises to tell us why they still use the olde worlde spelling of Cyder, however, I could not find their explanation. Nor, their connection to the FA Cup or craters on the moon. Hmmm, not sure what that is all about!

So, to the cider, or cyder. I bought it in Kemenys on Bondi Road, yes I am here in sunny, well actually wet Bondi, Sydney. It is a grey, wet Saturday morning. It is imported by Little World Beverages, who are part of the growing Little Creatures empire.

I am convinced that cider is a great match to sushi and sushimi. The best Japanesse in Sydney has to be Ten Japanesse on Bondi Road. I always feel my order has been "Lost in translation", however, every time it turns up it is fantastic. Beautiful vibrant coloured salmon and tuna that just melt in the mouth.

Aspall Draught Cyder, does tick all the boxes. It is crisp and clean. It has a bigger mouthfeel than the Punt Road and this can be expected as it is slightly darker in colour. The thing that I was not so keen on was the sweetness of the cyder. Now it is certainly not a sweet cider, compared to those sickly sweet commercial styles, however, it is there. Am i getting my y's and i's mixed up? Overall, a good cider in beautiful packaging.

Aspall ciders are, as the label says multi award winners. Their Dry Premier Cru Cider picked up "Best Cider in the World" by Beers of the World Magazine in 2008. No mean feat. I am not sure if it is available over here in Australia.

However, I have to say I prefered the Punt Road cider I had last week, especially the Pear Cider.

So how does it score out of 10?

Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder - 8 apples.

Cider, my earliest memories and Punt Road Ciders

Every Sunday lunchtime my Dad would go over to the local village club, Backwell Village Club in what is now North Somerset. When I was a small kid it was plain old Somerset. Anyway, he would always come back with two big bottles of Williams cider. They were big brown bottles that looked like the old Corona Lemonade bottles that the milkman used to deliver. Corona was lemonade that was made in Wales, well before the stuff that calls itself beer came along. As a young teenager we were always allowed a glass of this golden brown fizzy drink with our Sunday dinner, traditionally we always ate at 6pm on a Sunday. The sweeter version was the favourite. This was my introduction to cider, thanks Dad.

We lived on the side of a valley and across the valley we could see Coates Cider Factory, which at it's height was the second largest cider producer in the world. It closed in 1975, oh, am I showing my age.

Here is a great old Pathe News film clip from the 1960's click here introducing the Wurzels who are West Country cider legends. You will be hearing more from The Wurzels.

I will tell you more of my life with cider in future blogs.

And so to my first review on Landlord, cider I up, and it goes to an Australian winery!

Punt Road Winery from the Yarra Valley in Victoria. Check them out Punt Road Wines.

Cider is about to take off in Australia. I spent many, many years as a liquor retailer in Sydney, Australia and all we ever sold was Bulmers Sweet, Dry or Draught. Now there are plenty of domestic and imported ciders to choose from. Many wineries have jumped on the micro brewery craze and others are about to ride the cider wave that is about to happen.

Punt Road make two ciders, both new products on the market in 2010

Punt Road Apple Cider.

At 5.5% alcohol this is a medium strength cider made from apples sourced from the Napoleone family orchards in the Yarra Valley. Three varieties of apples are used to make this well balanced crisp dry cider. It is very pale in colour and has a wonderful sparkle. It looks dry and crisp, and it is. It was been made by the award winning wine making team at Punt Road using Champagne yeasts. It is the perfect cider for a hot summers day. I found it very refreshing.

Pear Cider

A real revelation, I grew up with Pear cider being called Perry. Traditionally, perry was always at least semi-sweet, usually sweet. This is again, very pale in colour and and a low 4.5% alcohol. Pears are full of malic acid, that is the crisp acid found in Granny Smiths apples, this leads to a crisp acidic wine with hints of citrus flavours. This cider is delicious, unfortuately, only 800 cases have been made. Be quick!

Now, a great food match, sushi and sashimi. The light delicate flavours of these Japanesse dishes was the absolutely perfect match for the crisp light flavours of these ciders.

Sushi and cider, it works.

Both ciders come in 4-packs and rrp is $18.00.

To find out where to by these beauties click on the winery link above. Be quick!

How do they score out of 10.

Punt Road Apple Cider - 8.5 apples.

Punt Road Pear Cider - 9 pears.

Check out my wine blog at: http://freerunwineevents.blogspot.com/