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.