Coming to the end of my current row of ciders on the shelf, I find that there is one other supermarket chain that I have not paid much attention too.
It is important to cover the best offerings from supermarkets - after all, it is the foremost place people will have access to cider unless they are keen enough to seek out specialist shops. I know, it is sad - we really get what we ask for sometimes (isn't the usual supermarket excuse for stuff that "it is what the public demand"). I am not going to get in to a supermarket bashing rant here... though there are a number of things that I have to say about them - not least of all the way they comodify alcohol.
Now, the first thing to say about this bottle of cider is that I like it. The label has a slightly old fashioned feel to it. It also looks quite familiar. Weston's clearly are singularly the largest producers of supermarket own brands in the UK... well, alongside Thatchers. I would have preferred to see this on the bottle though... surely a bit of provenance is in vogue these days eh!
This cider, as expected, pours out golden, brightly clear and moderately sparkling – a standard, recipe based cider or very well judged natural cider… well, I will leave that to your own judgement but would offer that this has been made by Westons…
It smells clean and appley. There is some small amount of bittersweet going up my nose too. I have to say that this fits with a standard, recipe based tailored cider and I would be very surprised to find it is anything other than a ubiquitous taste too.
OK – for once I don’t regret pre-judging something. This is quite watery and back sweetened with (what must be) apple juice. Given these things, the apple juice feels a bit on the heavy side. However, it is also well balanced (did you expect any different?) There is a little acid and a little, non drying tannin. This is put together in a balanced way to give me a juicy, slightly washed out shadow of a cider.
The aftertaste is pretty short – again not very surprising!
Now, I realise I have been a bit glib about this cider. In fact, it is not terrible… just not great at all. Supermarkets seem to specialise in these – if this is a recipe that they took to Westons then surely they should have been advised that it wasn’t that great! However, it has no rough edges – it is safe. It has no challenging or intense flavours to upset the mass of cider drinkers out there. Shame really.
A score of 64/100 is better than I expected but no apple I am afraid.
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