Addlestones Cloudy Premium Cider

Recently, I had the good fortune to travel to England with my family and while I did not go on a cider bender while there, I did get to enjoy quite a lot of local apple hooch, and a broad range of it too. It was mostly good if not frequently outstanding. They do seem to have a pretty solid handle on what they're doing, perhaps because they have around 1,000 years of experience to draw on and a great deal more cider apple orchards to collect from than we do Stateside. However, of the little more than half a dozen different ciders I tried, none was so good that it demanded I keister a bottle to smuggle home. I did manage to finish every bottle I opened though, so that's something.

Anyway, on my first day, fresh off of a nine hour flight during which my two-year-old son slept a grand total of ten minutes, I first went to Sainsbury's and bought a bottle of Thatcher's and a bottle of Frome Valley, then I went to a pub in the Soho neighborhood of London and ordered a pint of Addlestones Cloudy Premium Cider. I didn't purchase any of these with any prior knowledge but rather worked off of appearances. Judging ciders by their labels, surely not much different than buying a dog off the internet or trying a new dentist, is not scientific but rather more like taking the advice of a palmist.

As you can see in the picture, the Addlestones cider, made from bittersweet cider apples grown in Somerset, was cloudy indeed. A bit like a foggy night sky in the city when the light from the streetlamps gets all caught in the moisture in the air and turns it warmly and densely golden. The turbid coloring results from the fermentation process during which the cider is double-fermented and never filtered, leaving behind yeast and apple particulates that make it cloudy and genuinely "live" meaning that the cider is constantly evolving, developing and shifting. My pint was long, limply effervescent, sweet and slightly tart, and left a residual flavor in the bottom corners of my mouth, though I might have been a bit dehydrated and that could account for the lingering taste, the sugars making my already dry mouth sticky in addition. The cloudiness surely added to the thickness of the flavor though it did not increase the dryness. I think I would've enjoyed it more had it been cold out. Fuller, richer, longer flavors seem to go better with the fall rather than summer.

Addlestones, on draught since 1986, is a Magners GB label which is itself a C & C Group label, a company that also owns Bulmers and the American brands, Woodchuck and Hornsby's. Which is to say, it is not small batch, local craft cidery though ciders have been pressed at the Shepton Mallet cider mill in England's West Country, the mill where Addlestones is pressed, since 1770. Rumor has it that King George III would get blisteringly drunk on cider there while visiting the West Country on holiday and may have retreated there to soothe his wounds after losing what the British call, the American War of Independence. He may even have hatched the schemes that brought down Napoleon whilst sozzled on some Shepton Mallet pressed cider. This is of course simply rumor without even a shred of evidence to support it so take it or leave it. Regardless, Addlestones Cloudy was worth the cost of the pint (3 pounds 50 for mine) though not the cost of the flight over the Atlantic.

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Learn more about Addlestones Cloudy Premium Cider at http://www.addlestones.co.uk/