Anybody other than me drink cider/sidre/cidre

[David M. Bueker]

Opened a bottle of Bordelet Sidre this evening. Lovely stuff that's off dry and chock full of apple goodness. I am also a big fan of some of the craft stuff coming out of Vermont. Eden is my favorite of the crop.

Anybody else?

Yup... not me, much... but wine blogger Tom Wark is an expert on cider.
Tom

Le Pays d'Auge in Normandy, where I live, fancies itself as a Mecca for cider but, so far, I have not had one about which I enthuse. Bordelet from outside the area is perhaps the best. On the other hand the local apple brandy, Calvados, ranks IMO right at the summit of the world's spirits alongside Cognac, Armagnac and Islay malt whisky.

[David M. Bueker]

Bordelet Sec Tendre was last night's drink. I frankly found it too sweet. Might as well have been apple juice.

I enjoyed some cider when in BC last July. Great trip eventhough Blue Mountain was closed and my cell died

Everytime I have a good cider I think to myself that I should drink them more often. Refreshing, food friendly, and full of flavor. But when it comes time to purchase, something else always grabs my attention.

For my tastes, they compete more with beer than with wine. And there is a great local cider producer that I love to support. It's just that I have so many beers in the refrigerator waiting. Maybe when they're gone...

I don't like beer, so cider is what I drink on hot summer days, with chicken wings, etc. There are some nice Ontario ciders (Spirit Tree, West Avenue) and some really nice Québecois ciders (e.g. St-Nicolas), but we hardly ever see them in Ontario any more. My favourite import is Stowford Press from England, but again, I haven't seen it in Ontario for years. Unfortunately, while cider is becoming more popular, the market tends to be dominated by breweries making (to my taste) rather indifferent ciders.

A number of Ontario wineries are making cider (Tawse, Fielding are my favourites so far).

Everytime I have a good cider I think to myself that I should drink them more often. Refreshing, food friendly, and full of flavor. But when it comes time to purchase, something else always grabs my attention.

This sums it up for me too. There are some nice craft ciders made in BC (and almost everywhere now), and I'll occasionally try one when in the Okanagan area. I also only like the dry versions, but there seem to be many sweeter styles made by many cideries.

Everytime I have a good cider I think to myself that I should drink them more often. Refreshing, food friendly, and full of flavor. But when it comes time to purchase, something else always grabs my attention.

For my tastes, they compete more with beer than with wine. And there is a great local cider producer that I love to support. It's just that I have so many beers in the refrigerator waiting. Maybe when they're gone...

Ditto!

Most Norman cider has noticeable residual sugar but there is usually good balancing acidity. Most of the large brand cider I drank in the UK in my youth would now be far too sweet and bland for my taste, but I guess that there are some small scale craft cider makers there whose products I would like.

However, if it came to a choice between a crisp bitter beer (like British real ale and some Germans) against the best cider I so far had, I too would go for beer.

[Jenise]

We just drank a Bordelet Tendre last week--one of the best! We love ciders. I fell in love with them years ago in France when we were driving all over on our honeymoon and at the highway rest stop stores I discovered a canned cider called Pom, I believe. I didn't even realize at first that it contained alcohol--it was just this cold, fizzy, dry vaguely apple-flavored thirst quencher perfectly suited to someone who doesn't believe in soda pop.

I find it's a great refreshing low alcohol sipper to cheer me up while cooking dinner, also a nice little happy hour deck sipper that doesn't discourage us from having wine with dinner later.

We have a lot of really good local ciders now, and also a cider-only bar called Thousand Acres where I who doesn't like hoppy beers like IPA (I take casual sips of other people's beers but for medical reasons am unable to drink more than that) discovered a local bone dry hoppy cider that I actually love. To help that bar keep the doors open during the pandemic, I bought a mixed case a few months back we've been working our way through. They carry stuff from all over the planet so I ordered from far and wide. So, anything amazing? Yes, the Basque ciders. More concentrated, denser flavors, deep golden colors, more tannins, and maybe the driest of the dry ciders--you can really taste those old orchards.

[David M. Bueker]

Now I have to go looking for Basque ciders.

[Jenise]

Here's one I bought from them and loved, but it looks like they're mostly out of the Basques now. I bought six different ones a few months ago.

Btw, business traveller that you are, I just noticed a cocktail kit here called 'Hotel Sex'. Might be something to know about.

https://thousandacreciderhouse.square.s ... gory_id=10

If you are ever in the Frankfurt area, try the 'Apfelwein' they make there. It's a sour, dry tasting type of apple cider. It's the state beverage of the Hesse region in Germany; Frankfurt is the biggest city in the region.