Mays Cider Number One

A bottle of 'Herefordshires Finest' from the Amazing Cider Company... well, that is what it states on the bottle anyway. Has some big boots to fill if its going to claim that title!

I am trying to remember where I bought this from. It has been sat on my shelf for a while now (as has most things that I am trying at the moment). I am fairly certain that I bought this from Truffles Deli in Ross on Wye. Not that it has much to do with it - I found May's Cider in Asda locally to me!

What do you think is my first comment about this cider? Yup, its another cider that sits at 4.5%! To quote the full monika on the bottle, this is 'Herefordshires Finest Original'... would that be Bulmers Original then? OK, a bit flippant but its becoming a bit of a thing for me now. If this started life naturally - say at 6%, then they will have had to add 25% water to get to that level.

I am not going to bang on about it. It is what it is. The bottle opens wit quite a big fizz and the cider pours out golden and very bright into my glass. There is lots of tannin to the smell and, to be honest, its a bit chemically too. Sounding more like a commodity cider as I go.

I go back to the bottle to double check this cider and, sure enough, find the final piece of the jigsaw. "Made from 100% freshly pressed Bramley". Eh?? So where does the tannic smell come from then?
It also says "best enjoyed chilled or over ice". So, very much pitching to the mainstream commodity cider market then.

So to the taste. This is summed up with two questions. Where has the tannin come from and where has all the acid gone? This cider could well be an objective lesson or testament to what you can achieve with a science kit and chemicals... albeit that this is a harsh thing to say about any cider (if I weren't so puzzled about how they produced a cider like this from Bramley apples!) In all, this is a very good example of a cider which is neither all it seems or a sum of all its parts.

As a cider, it is pretty much as you would expect - fairly safe with a balance of tannin and acid. It feels a bit watery in the mouth and the tastes are fairly limited with nothing dominating. Moderate is probably the best descriptor for the elements of this drink. Not that fruity, neither particularly tannic or acidic.

I guess I realise where this cider is pitched at, and is probably not pitched at someone like me. It didn't do too well in the scores either, achieving 53 out of 100. Mind you, I would say that it is better than many commodity ciders... just not as good as a lot of real, crafted ciders.