Cider Nine (Scrumpy Alert!)

Weston's Old Rosie Cloudy Scrumpy.

English; 7.3% Alcohol Content.

$7.50 (AUD); CellarBrations (East Fremantle, WA)

The day when I came face to face with a scrumpy cider was bound to come. In my opinion, scrumpy ciders taste as if they are regular ciders that have either been infused with vinegar or just left out in the sun for a few days. The official line (on the back of the bottle) is as follows: "A light, crisp, and dry lightly carbonated scrumpy cider. Allowed to settle out naturally after fermentation to retain its cloudy appearance." As you know by now, I really enjoy ciders that have that bit of sharpness added by carbonation and one of the most distinctive features of a scrumpy cider is the lack of fizz, so this union was doomed to fail. I do not think that I can accurately portray the taste of a scrumpy cider with my words, but it's not my cup of tea.

The one redeeming feature of scrumpy ciders might be the memory that they indirectly bring to mind. Back in college, a friend of mine, Zak, bought us some lemonade, but this was no ordinary lemonade; it was scrumpy lemonade. We had never heard of such a variation, but thought it was worth a shot. It was awful; in fact it was so bad and defamed the good name of lemonade so terribly that "scrumpy" became a word we used to generally describe things that were bad. Like, "Hey man, I've been coughing all night, I feel so scrumpy." Or maybe, "Ugh, look at this blister, it's full of pus and blood; it's so scrumpy!" You get the picture. At that time in my life I never thought that I would meet another scrumpy beverage, yet here I sit.

Rating 6.5 (Only this high because I can appreciate that if you were the kind of person who likes scrumpy ciders that you might like this one very much)