I started with Angry Orchard’s Crisp Apple. Then I tried Strongbow Honey. Both good, but I think I like the Angry Orchard better. The Strongbow Honey is really sweet but that’s not a big problem for me.
Transitioning from the cider to beer is pretty smooth too.
I love ciders, but I love pear cider more than apple cider.
Be warned that sweet and even medium ciders have huge amounts of sugar in them.
I love hard cider, even more so than hard lemonade. I find Angry Orchard to be a little bitter but I’ll drink it anyway.
Angry Orchard Hop’n Mad is my favorite, it’s like the best of cider + the best of beer, not too sweet and not too bitter. AO’s Original Dry is a close second.
I find most commercial hard ciders to be way too sweet, finding a good dry one that still had good cider taste is hard.
And which don’t cost $18 per (750 ml) bottle :smack:
The fizzy, alcoholic apple juice in sixpacks variety? No thanks.
There’s a bar, Wassail, in NYC that specializes in cider. That’s on my list for my next visit there.
Woodchuck is my favorite.
Do you mean “pear cider” (apple cider flavoured with pear concentrate) or proper perry (fermented pear juice)?
My favourite branded apple cider is K when I can get it, but there’s also some local (South African) brands I like - Savannah and Eversons. Eversons also makes a nice pear cider, but for that, I prefer some Normandy one I tried in France, but I can’t remember the name. Made a nice cidre too.
If I lived in Australia I’d like to try the Dicken’s brand of hard cider.
Pirate’s Plank Bone Dry is the best extra-dry hard cider I’ve found, but it’s expensive compared to the mass market stuff and I don’t think it’s distributed very much outside the northwest. Crispin Brut is a good dry one that’s not too expensive ($8-10 for a 4-pack).
On the flip side of the coin, I absolutely love cherry hard cider, which is usually very sweet; it’s almost like drinking a cherry pie.
East end of Long Island, available only at their stand AFAIK — Woodside Orchards. I like the traditional, they also have Sweet (still hard but with a hint of sweetness that the traditional totally does not have), and some flavored ciders such as Cranberry Cider.
Better than any commercial cider I’ve tasted. (Not surprising, since they make it from their own apples on site)
Where on the East End? I could drop by.
East end of Long Island, available only at their stand AFAIK — Woodside Orchards. I like the traditional, they also have Sweet (still hard but with a hint of sweetness that the traditional totally does not have), and some flavored ciders such as Cranberry Cider.
Better than any commercial cider I’ve tasted. (Not surprising, since they make it from their own apples on site)
I like Bold Rock apple cider and Crispin pear cider.
I prefer pear cider or perry, as it has a drier taste.
I love “Velvet Gloves” (Cider and dark beer). The beer offsets the cider’s sweetness.
Cider seems to have caught on… I remember when I ordered cider in a bar in West Texas about 15 years ago: I might as well have said “I am a godless, asexual freak.” I still have a hard time getting it in rural Texas, or having to explain what it is (“is it apple beer?”).
I had tried hard cider of Normandy years before, in a Norman-style crêperie in Paris, but it just did not appeal to me. Recently, when I discovered Angry Orchard Crisp Apple, it was a revelation. That stuff is out of this world! I’ve sampled various other Angry Orchard varieties, but that Crisp Apple is da bomb. It’s really dry but without any harsh undertones, which is perfect. It may be the most refreshing thing ever invented. How do they do it so well? I also sampled some hard cider from the Virginia Blue Ridge, out of principled buy-local zeal, but it was just blah. Sorry, Virginia homie cider makers, but I headed right back to A.O.
I had just been reading Wolves of the Calla and wishing I could taste some graf, which is defined as “apple beer.” Now ever since I found Angry Orchard, I have my *graf *and it makes me want to practice flinging plates at robot wolves.
Strongbow in a can is surprisingly good.
Woodchuck has some interesting varieties. They have one that has a blueberry taste to it that could drink many of.
I ordered one once thinking it was just a local micro-brew beer.
Holy cow, was that a surprise. Couldn’t finish it. Neither could my Wife. Not sure if that surprise is what has turned me off of them, but to this day, I can’t stand 'em. Blech.
Was it sweet? The dry ones can taste like a dry sparkling white wine with apple notes, if that sounds like something you might like better. YMMV.