Henney's Dry Cider

Henney's Dry is one of the finest commercially made ciders I've had. Generally, I compare ciders to my father-in-law's cider. He is the one who first really introduced me to cider and he is the inspiration for this blog. This one is darn close to his best. He makes a standard drinking cider from Trader Joe's apple juice that's pretty good but the one I compare other ciders to is the one he makes from apples he presses himself. Off the top of my head, I don't know what apples he uses, if it's a mix or a single variety, if it's a cider apple or a desert apple, but I do know that it has a perfect balance between dry and sweet, it's bubbles are quick and electric, the flavor is light on your tongue and it's a fine high golden-yellow. Henney's dry damn near matches all of these qualities.

In color, it has a beautifully light amber hew that holds the light like a candlewick aflame. In taste, it is enjoyably tart and ever so slightly sweet with a clean aftertaste that leaves a subtle and enjoyable whisper of a remnant of flavor in the recesses of the mouth. In mouth feel, it is spritely and effervescent, like a cascade of bottlerockets. It's clean. Even the bottle design has a simple elegance to it. Indeed, the simplicity of the label was one of the very first things that drew me to it.


In 1996, the hangover of the Iron Lady swaddled Britain's head while the country was in the midst of the utterly forgettable seven-year John Major era. While Major's vagabond leadership verged on ineptitude, his moderate tendencies enfeebling his policies, it was under his soft guiding hand that Mike Henney made his first batch of cider and decided it was good and necessary to the times at hand. There's no direct connection between the two of course, but in a butterfly flaps its wings sort of way, you might be able to argue that one doesn't happen without the other. So here's to more PM incompetence in England. May their leaders be rudderless and wracked with ambivalence, and their ciders be dry, lambent and refreshing.

Anyway, Mike Henney still runs the business in collaboration with Wyre Croft Farm at Bishops Frome who supply, mill and press the apples, and store the juice. Champagne yeast is added to the juice before being pumped into fermentation tanks where it is left until all of the sugar has fermented to alcohol, at which point, "the juice is separated from the spent yeast residue and held in tanks for at least four months to mature." Henney's doesn't back add juice to sweeten its cider which accounts for some of it's dryness and for the 6% alcohol.

I have yet to see Henney's this side of England though I don't doubt it is available at a few informed bottle shops, perhaps Bushwhacker Cider in Portland or someplace like that. Good luck hunting.

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Learn more about Henney's Dry Cider at http://www.henneys.co.uk/index.html