Gaymers Devon Medium Cider

Gaymers, today one of the largest cider producers globally, is different in all but name from the original Gaymers of Norfolk. Through many acquisitions (as is commonplace amongst brands) it is now based in Shepton Mallet in the South West and is a very large business indeed.

As a company, Gaymers have been responsible for some good, some bad and some ugly brands of cider including ‘K’, Blackthorn and even Diamond White! Do I really need to try these out??? We shall see (though there is no category for ciders in a can, so maybe not!). However, some parts of the group (acquired over the years) have included some fine names such as Addlestones.

Their County Range of ciders is at the higher end of Gaymers offerings, although these are still readily available through supermarkets – Waitrose seems to have a more complete range than others.

Its has a fairly golden colour to it – although a bit more amber than golden. On opening it is very fizzy. As this is not really to my taste it was left to settle down a bit. However, once the bubbles have calmed a little it is a rather nice drink. There is little aroma to it though, and you really need to take two mouthfuls before the flavour kicks in – but it is a nice, smooth, western style cider with a reasonably distinctive aftertaste.

Gaymers Devon Medium is a fairly smooth and well rounded cider. There is tannin in it too, which offsets the sweetness and leaves it more a medium dry than the medium stated on the bottle. My notes state that it has 'a fairly long aftertaste’ – which means that the tannin and taste last beyond the initial taste. In all, not a bad effort.

However, on the down side, this is another example of a cider that has been manufactured. It has been 'engineered’ to consistently taste this way through the use of sugar, water, filtering, pasteurisation and carbonation. Cider can (and arguably ought) to be as good as this without the need for any or some of this. On the other side, this is a commodity – there is no room for margins in flavour profiles or a 'bad batch’. It can also be produced to taste like this in huge amounts. So whilst as a drinker I like this cider and would gladly drink it if I couldn’t get hold of anything better, having made a little cider I feel a little more cautious about it.

But hey, there are no cider snobs here. Not all ciders are the same... that is fine by me. Its definitely worth trying if you are out to discover cider for yourself.

It scored 66/100; so whilst not quite reaching a medal is very respectable I think.