Today’s cider is another Sheppy’s one that Dad brought back from the West Country!
Sheppy’s 200 has a very light taste at first, almost watery, but it builds to a lovely sweetness after a few sips. Very nice cider.
Category: Drinking
2018 Ciders #40: Sheppy’s Classic Draught Cider
On visiting my parents’ house recently, I found that Dad had collected a whole load of different Sheppy’s ciders while on a trip to the West Country. Expect to see lots of them reviewed here over the next few weeks!
Sheppy’s Classic Draught has what I would consider a perfect medium taste. It’s also very refreshing without being too watery-tasting – absolutely perfect for summer.
2018 Ciders #39: Aspall
Still shopping the Sainsbury’s cider aisle!
Aspall is another cider that’s very light and refreshing, so good for this time of year. The taste is a bit generic, but it’s not bad – it’s perfectly serviceable, and I’m always happy to have it if it’s on draught at the pub or on sale in the supermarket.
2018 Ciders #38: Scrumpy Jack
I’ve been drinking quite a few cans of Scrumpy Jack the last few weeks, as Sainsbury’s always have it in and it’s a bit more interesting than Strongbow.
It’s not as sweet as Stella Cidre, but it’s smoother than Strongbow. It’s actually got a very light taste, almost to the extent of being a bit watery. In the summer, this is a good thing – it’s very refreshing. I expect this will continue to be my go-to for the next couple of months.
2018 Ciders #37: Henney’s Dry Cider
This is another cider that I picked up at Sainsbury’s recently.
It’s another cider that is just as dry as the bottle suggests. It’s got a slightly cheesy taste that reminds me of West Country real ciders, but there’s still something very smooth about it. Probably a bit too dry to become a regular in my fridge, though.
Day out at Newcastle Quayside
Like the rest of the UK, we’ve been enjoying glorious weather here in Newcastle for the past fortnight. Last weekend, we were able to make the most of it; as I mentioned previously, we were celebrating Geth’s birthday a couple of weeks late, and so on Saturday we went into town for some shopping and food, interspersed with a visit to our favourite beer garden seeing as how it was so nice.
We were fairly lucky to get a space in the Free Trade Inn beer garden – it was a hot Saturday afternoon, which is a rarity, and so the people of Newcastle were out in force in the centre of town – but we did manage it, and Geth immediately made a start on the bar snacks.
I’m not quite sure what’s going on with the light in these pictures – I blame the sun. Clearly my smartphone camera has become accustomed to British weather and can’t cope with bright light!
We’d got all our shopping done fairly efficiently, so we were able to enjoy a good few hours in the sun before our restaurant booking.
We then headed to Uno’s Trattoria, one of our favourite Italian restaurants in Newcastle, which Geth had selected for his birthday meal.
The reason Geth chose Uno’s Trattoria is that, for the last year or so, they’ve had pork belly on the menu, which is one of his favourite foods. Apparently most Italian restaurants don’t cook meat dishes properly (being a vegetarian I’m generally unaware of these things), but this restaurant must be an exception, as the pork belly went down very well.
I, meanwhile, went for my favourite Italian restaurant treat of pizza:
We also had dessert – we both went for the white chocolate cheesecake – but we were so keen to get stuck into it that I forgot to take a picture.
A lovely day out overall. Happily the weather has continued, and it looks like it’ll be similar this weekend – so we’ll need to take it carefully when running the Great North 10k on Sunday!
2018 Ciders #36: Old Mout Berries and Cherries
I believe this is a new flavour of Old Mout – it’s certainly not one I’ve had before.
This is a lovely fruit cider with that typical perfect Old Mout level of sweetness. It’s also divinely brambly (brambles = blackberries if you’re not Scottish), which gives it one of the best tastes of any new cider I’ve tried this year. It’s not quite up there with Kiwi and Lime, but it’s definitely a strong contender for my second favourite Old Mout flavour, which is impressive after just one bottle.
2018 Ciders #35: Bulmers Crushed Red Berries and Lime
This is another cider that I spotted in Sainsbury’s a couple of weeks ago. I think I’m going to run out of new ones from their selection soon!
This berry cider is very sweet – not quite as cloyingly so as the Kopparberg and Rekorderlig equivalents, which are probably the sweetest ciders I’ve ever tried, but still very sugary-tasting. I think it’s the lime that takes the edge off the sweetness slightly. Either way, it was very refreshing as a midsummer drink last night!
2018 Ciders #34: Savanna Premium Cider
I picked this one up in Sainsbury’s the other week, and had forgotten I’d left it in the fridge until this weekend.
It kind of does exactly what it says on the tin bottle – it is indeed very dry. I don’t normally like ciders to be too dry, but last night, that was what I was in the mood for, and it tasted very nice. I probably wouldn’t have it regularly though.
2018 Ciders #33: Sainsbury’s English Vintage Cider
For post-Blaydon celebration at the weekend, I asked Geth to grab me some interesting cider, and this is what he came back with.
I wouldn’t normally think to grab Sainsbury’s own brand cider, but it wasn’t a bad pint – quite apple-y, and not too dry. The taste is a bit generic, but it would do in a pinch in future if I couldn’t find anything else.