This week, CONOR POPErates cider
DOUBLE LL BONE DRY CIDER €6 for 750ml €8 per litre
THIS ARTISAN cider from Lusk, Co Dublin, is excellent and worth seeking out – we found a solitary bottle in the Drink Store in Stoneybatter. It’s made with 100 per cent apple juice with no sugar or water added and has a very dry, crisp and fresh taste. It has been naturally carbonated so you can expect very gentle bubbles. It is unfiltered and unpasteurised and has a pleasing sweetness. It finished well ahead of the pack in our blind taste test and is just the kind of cider to be enjoyed with food rather than necked while watching football. Don’t let all the wholesomeness fool you, however, as at six per cent proof it packs a hefty punch.
VERDICT: Home-brewed wonderfulness *****
BULMERS €2.24 for 500ml €4.48 per litre
IDEALLY WE WOULD have been reviewing pint bottles of this quintessentially Irish and seasonal drink but they are hard to come by in off-licences, so we settled for the can. It is not a patch on the artisan products but is a whole lot better than Linden Village and still hard to beat on a hot summer’s day – if we ever get a hot summer’s day. It has a nice fizz to it and a decent apple flavour. It also has the lowest alcohol content of the ciders reviewed so should, technically at any rate, make us feel less rough in the morning.
VERDICT: Part of the Irish summer ****
LINDEN VILLAGE €5.79 for 2 litres €2.90 per litre:
IT HAS BEEN A long, long time since we bought a flagon of this cider, which is so beloved of students, underage drinkers and people who are partial to the occasional tipple in fields and by canals (or at least it was before alcopops came along and stole its bush-drinking crown). It is filled with fizz and tastes rather like a soft drink, which may go some way to explaining its enduring popularity among the aforementioned groups – that and its price – it’s the cheapest we reviewed. Say what you like about them, there is little (okay, nothing) that is classy about a plastic two-litre bottle of cider. Preconceptions aside, it finished last, and a long way off the pace, in our blind taste test.
VERDICT: No, just no **
WESTON'S SCRUMPY CLOUDY €14.99 for 2 litres €7.50 per litre
THIS CLOUDY cider is probably the most traditional of the products tried, right down to the cool jug-handled bottle it comes in. It has been slowly fermented and matured in oak and is full of appley goodness. It has a very sharp flavour and lacks anything by way of fizz. At 7.5 per cent it is the strongest cider and will leave you feeling decidedly ropey if you drink too much of it.
While the big jug looks nice, we’ve no idea what to do with the thing now that the cider has gone. The sediment is a bit unsettling and the price is somewhat off-putting too.
VERDICT: Old school ***
