The Cider Diaries-9/2/09
The plan for the evening: Go to The Ernest Willows, a Weatherspoons pub on City Road for a cider and a meal. Then, head on to town for a gig by a band we saw once before and really enjoyed.
The first part of that fairly simple plan went swimmingly. Fog and a curry, I had nachos and we both enjoyed a pint of...
55. Weston's Old Rosie Cloudy Scrumpy Premium Cider
When these had been poured for us Fog remarked that it looked like orange cordial and I responded with a predictable comment about it looking more like urine. In truth I wasn't looking forward to this one. I have tried Old Rosie once, a couple of years ago and not enjoyed it at all. Neither Fog or I are fans of still ciders at the best of times and I gave Fog a few words of warning about what to expect...
So I was pleasantly suprised when I actually tasted Old Rosie to find that it was perfectly drinkable. Fog was also relieved to find it was much nicer than I'd led him to believe.
"This actually isn't nearly as bad as I thought."
"No, it's very palatable." It reminded me of Drunk Dewi, both in appearance and flavour. Elliot and Cath had warned us how horrible it would be but again it was perfectly drinkable. I began to theorise that the last time I'd tried Old Rosie I had been used to drinking Strongbow almost exclusively and that over a month of trying different ciders this year has already refined my palate to allow me to appreciate ciders that would have disgusted me before. "Do you know what I mean?" I asked.
"Yeah, you mean you're becoming more pretentious."
The idea now was to head to town for the gig. The band in question was called The King Blues and they were putting on a show that was free entry if you had a copy of The Big Issue. Despite wind and cold and bucketing rain we suspected it would be busy but didn't think it was worth queing massively early. We would turn up with our Big Issues, if they let us in great, if not, we proceed to the nearest warm pub and try to find a new cider. "Either way we win" as Fog put it.
We got there about five minutes before the doors opened to find a massive queue outside and reluctantly we joined the end of it. An hour later we were still queing in the unrelenting rain.
"Are your feet wet?" Fog asked me.
"I don't know, they might be wet or they might just be really cold, it's hard to tell at this point."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." My big toes in particular were so cold they were going numb. We didn't know if we'd get into the gig or have to go to the pub but it was beginning to feel like either way we've lost.
It wasn't long before the rest of the queue was turned away and it was time to find a nice, warm pub to sit in. Cold and wet, we were in no mood to be messing around popping our heads round the door and checking out ciders. We wanted to sit down and have a drink but without a new cider the evening really would be a damp squib. So we headed to the one bar that we thought would guarentee us a new cider. Bar Copa.
Last time we were here we tried Aspall's Suffolk Cyder but didn't try Strongbow Syrrus which was also behind the bar. Instead we made note of it for future reference, for just such an occasion as this. So we headed to bar Copa (Copa bar?) confident that we'd get at least one more cider under our belts as well as getting out of the bad weather. However, we were gutted to discover that the Syrrus had gone. As for the prospects of them getting more in? Not great. "It's the slowest selling cider we've ever had," the Barman told us, "We only got in a couple of cases months and months ago and it's only just gone."
Now we were here we decided to enjoy a bottle of Aspell's each and allow ourselves to ruminate on how much we both liked it. Which was all very well but it didn't do much to distract me from the fact that the evening was going quite badly. Since dinner we'd endured the elements and failed to get into a gig or enjoy a new cider for our troubles. We decided to head towards home and hope we could find somewhere on the way that had a new cider.
We didn't have much luck. We looked in on a posh looking place called Henry's but with no joy. They only had Strongbow and Magners. On occassion this year we have wandered into pubs and, finding nothing new, headed straight back out again. Usually we briefly explain to whoever is behind the bar what we're doing and why their selection of ciders isn't up to scratch right now but no offence it's just that we've already tried them all. The selection at Henry's was so feeble that neither of us could summon the energy to explain ourselves, instead we turned on our heels and headed for the door.
Fog remembered seeing a different cider in a bar called Bar Enroute not too far from where we live so we headed there next. Only to find that it was closed at about 9.45. Luck was clearly not on our side. As a last resort I invited Fog back to my house where I had two bottles of cider waiting. I warned Fog not to get too excited but he was still suprised and slightly disgusted by what I handed him back at mine.
56. Sainsbury's Low Alcohol English Cider
"I know, I know," I told Fog, "but it's still a new cider and it won't get us wrecked for tomorrow at least!" At less than 1% alcohol this cider could practically be used to sober you up after a long evening's drinking. I can see that there might be some practical uses for really low alcohol cider, designated drivers and that sort of thing. But this cider didn't have the weight and feel you expect from drinking a pint and it tasted of apple juice so if it comes down to it you may as well just drink apple juice, which is cheaper. Not a favourite for me and Fog, this ended an unsuccessful evening with a whimper, rather than a bang but I wasn't too crestfallen. I had a feeling that there was some good solid progress and fun ahead. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.
The first part of that fairly simple plan went swimmingly. Fog and a curry, I had nachos and we both enjoyed a pint of...
55. Weston's Old Rosie Cloudy Scrumpy Premium Cider
When these had been poured for us Fog remarked that it looked like orange cordial and I responded with a predictable comment about it looking more like urine. In truth I wasn't looking forward to this one. I have tried Old Rosie once, a couple of years ago and not enjoyed it at all. Neither Fog or I are fans of still ciders at the best of times and I gave Fog a few words of warning about what to expect...
So I was pleasantly suprised when I actually tasted Old Rosie to find that it was perfectly drinkable. Fog was also relieved to find it was much nicer than I'd led him to believe.
"This actually isn't nearly as bad as I thought."
"No, it's very palatable." It reminded me of Drunk Dewi, both in appearance and flavour. Elliot and Cath had warned us how horrible it would be but again it was perfectly drinkable. I began to theorise that the last time I'd tried Old Rosie I had been used to drinking Strongbow almost exclusively and that over a month of trying different ciders this year has already refined my palate to allow me to appreciate ciders that would have disgusted me before. "Do you know what I mean?" I asked.
"Yeah, you mean you're becoming more pretentious."
The idea now was to head to town for the gig. The band in question was called The King Blues and they were putting on a show that was free entry if you had a copy of The Big Issue. Despite wind and cold and bucketing rain we suspected it would be busy but didn't think it was worth queing massively early. We would turn up with our Big Issues, if they let us in great, if not, we proceed to the nearest warm pub and try to find a new cider. "Either way we win" as Fog put it.
We got there about five minutes before the doors opened to find a massive queue outside and reluctantly we joined the end of it. An hour later we were still queing in the unrelenting rain.
"Are your feet wet?" Fog asked me.
"I don't know, they might be wet or they might just be really cold, it's hard to tell at this point."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." My big toes in particular were so cold they were going numb. We didn't know if we'd get into the gig or have to go to the pub but it was beginning to feel like either way we've lost.
It wasn't long before the rest of the queue was turned away and it was time to find a nice, warm pub to sit in. Cold and wet, we were in no mood to be messing around popping our heads round the door and checking out ciders. We wanted to sit down and have a drink but without a new cider the evening really would be a damp squib. So we headed to the one bar that we thought would guarentee us a new cider. Bar Copa.
Last time we were here we tried Aspall's Suffolk Cyder but didn't try Strongbow Syrrus which was also behind the bar. Instead we made note of it for future reference, for just such an occasion as this. So we headed to bar Copa (Copa bar?) confident that we'd get at least one more cider under our belts as well as getting out of the bad weather. However, we were gutted to discover that the Syrrus had gone. As for the prospects of them getting more in? Not great. "It's the slowest selling cider we've ever had," the Barman told us, "We only got in a couple of cases months and months ago and it's only just gone."
Now we were here we decided to enjoy a bottle of Aspell's each and allow ourselves to ruminate on how much we both liked it. Which was all very well but it didn't do much to distract me from the fact that the evening was going quite badly. Since dinner we'd endured the elements and failed to get into a gig or enjoy a new cider for our troubles. We decided to head towards home and hope we could find somewhere on the way that had a new cider.
We didn't have much luck. We looked in on a posh looking place called Henry's but with no joy. They only had Strongbow and Magners. On occassion this year we have wandered into pubs and, finding nothing new, headed straight back out again. Usually we briefly explain to whoever is behind the bar what we're doing and why their selection of ciders isn't up to scratch right now but no offence it's just that we've already tried them all. The selection at Henry's was so feeble that neither of us could summon the energy to explain ourselves, instead we turned on our heels and headed for the door.
Fog remembered seeing a different cider in a bar called Bar Enroute not too far from where we live so we headed there next. Only to find that it was closed at about 9.45. Luck was clearly not on our side. As a last resort I invited Fog back to my house where I had two bottles of cider waiting. I warned Fog not to get too excited but he was still suprised and slightly disgusted by what I handed him back at mine.
56. Sainsbury's Low Alcohol English Cider
"I know, I know," I told Fog, "but it's still a new cider and it won't get us wrecked for tomorrow at least!" At less than 1% alcohol this cider could practically be used to sober you up after a long evening's drinking. I can see that there might be some practical uses for really low alcohol cider, designated drivers and that sort of thing. But this cider didn't have the weight and feel you expect from drinking a pint and it tasted of apple juice so if it comes down to it you may as well just drink apple juice, which is cheaper. Not a favourite for me and Fog, this ended an unsuccessful evening with a whimper, rather than a bang but I wasn't too crestfallen. I had a feeling that there was some good solid progress and fun ahead. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.
posted by Chris Chopping @ 2:19 AM
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