After a hard day's jungle whacking, aka gardening, I thought I'd treat myself to a bottle of my favourite rehydration beverage, #cider, and so settled on this allegedly prize winning #Irish brew from County Carlow. When I read the ingredients, I already had my doubts, as the third ingredient was #malic acid which, despite the claim on the bottle to the contrary that there were no added flavours, is a well known flavour enhancer for fermented apple juice, as the industrial cider making process tends to remove most of the the apple "bite" if you don't have enough acidity in your sourced apples, and also because of its anti-spoil properties (like many of the food grade diacids). Anyhow, cue the taste test and what a disappointment bland, tasteless even, and a hint of apple so subtle you'd swear they got the labelling wrong. Horses for courses obviously, but clearly the "finest Irish apples" means something entirely different to this manufacturer than some of the other Irish ciders I've tried so far. Call me a snob (I grew up in Gloucestershire surrounded by cider orchards), but I want my cider to taste like apples, be dry, crisp, and have some natural acidity.
#cw
#alcohol
#irishcider
#localproduce
#tastetesting
#tasteless