Henney's Dry Cider

Mike Henney started his cider making life as a hobby cider maker some 15 years or so ago. However, the fact that his cider can now be found in many supermarkets is surely a testament to hard work (and a lot of cider making!)

Henney's make a fair bit of the fact that they don't chaptalise or add sugar to their cider. And in nice clear writing on the label it says "Made from 100% fresh pressed apples". This is something that is impressive indeed - it does away with the idea that, to be a large producer, you need to adopt certain methods. However, a small word of caution... not long ago there was a case of an entirely different beverage which advertised 'made with 100% pears' which actually meant that the juice portion of the beverage was 100% pears, NOT that the drink itself was 100% pears. Doh! However, that is a digression. I have heard nothing to counter Henney's claim and I am very happy to accept it as a full juice product.

First things first though... and it is a bit sad - I like the bottle and label. Not being one especially taken with pictures of 'Olde England', this is a nice clean bottle with a clean and professional label. Not that appearance makes a difference of course?!

Its a golden coloured cider, with a light carbonation that could almost be in bottle fermentation rather than force carbonation. It also smells of apples - very lightly too.

Lightly is a word that could be used to describe this one. It a dry cider but this isn't through the tannin, which is in the background. Tannin in cider can really give it a puckering dryness; this isn't like that. Its a gentle cider with a gentle taste. It does feel a little watery, and I am sure that it must have been cut in order to get it to the 6%, which is slightly low for a full juice cider. Don't let this detract from it though, it has an almost home made sense to it which is very pleasing (it may be that I have been drinking mass produced cider for the last week and this is different?!).

Henney's Dry almost suffers with being such a slight and gentle cider. The acid almost gets the better of the tannin. But it doesn't. This cider certainly is testament to Mike Henney's aim of not using industrial methods in making his cider.

A good bronze apple with a score of 76.