Christmas Bevs: Cider Time!

Hi again!

Well tis the season for festive merriment and currently in South Yorkshire we're not able to go out to the pub, so we're making our own Christmas magic at home via a selection of tasty bevs. We've already got beers covered - you can read more about our top picks for this December here. But this year we've also developed much more of an appreciation of cider, thanks in no small part to the many outstanding producers we've come to know.

First up, we've picked a couple of crushable little gems from Sussex's Ascension Cider - Pilot (4.8%), which is made of apples only and is described as a "sparkling super fruity session cider". Lightly effervescent, mid-sweet with a gentle acidity and a great bite of apple skin character in the finish. We're also really enjoying "Into the Jetstream" (3.8%), which is a wild fermented cider blended with braeburn and cranberry juices. Ridiculously refreshing with that zip of cranberry astringency in the finish. The perfect turkey buddy.

We've also got a bottle or two of Ross Cider left over from the fantastic cider event which Hop Hideout organised last month as part of Abbeydale Brewery's Funk Fest At Home. The Somerset Redstreak is one of the most quintessentially apple-y beverages we've ever imbibed, and we reckon it'd be an excellent partner to a good cheeseboard. This one's 6.5% but ridiculously easy drinking, which we have found with all of the delicious options we've tried from Ross.

Pilton - Ice Cider (10% ABV). We drank a few bottles of Pilton's excellent keeved ciders over the summer, with many of their releases perfectly suited to sunshine sipping. So we were pretty delighted to find this winter-appropriate variety on Trembling Madness's webshop. It's a dessert style cider, made from slow fermented freeze-concentrated apple juice. We're very on board with dessert wines and the like here and have only tried one ice cider before - it was Icelandic, and it was intense and delicious, so we're very much looking forward to indulging in this one with a mince pie. Sadly we didnt have the foresight to take this out with us in the one flurry of snow we've had this year so far, so you'll have to make do with another cat picture instead.

And while we're here, shout out to Duck Chicken and Little Pomona too, which we only won't be drinking this December because we've already accidentally drunk it all. Just too damn tempting. Both absolutely excellent producers... if you ever see a bottle of Duck Chicken Gigglejuice anywhere, BUY IT and then thank us later. 

Cheers... or should we say Wassail?!

Laura & Jim