Along Came A Cider Goes to England Pt. 3: The Cider Tap

Here comes the last post about my glorious trip to England and the ciders consumed there. By the time we rode the train out of Cornwall, we'd walked more than one hundred miles. My husband and I had about a day to enjoy London before flying home, and I hoped we could manage one more cider adventure. Luckily we were able to find The Cider Tap.

You can read about the place at their website: http://www.eustontap.com/pages.php?navid=9

On my way in.

 The building is a victorian gatehouse, making it very small but tall, which gives the place a snug and intimate feel. The cider list was too big to fit easily into one photo, so I took two to capture the whole range of cider chalked up on the board.

I started with a half pint of Severn's Kingston Black. (To read about Severn, check out their website: http://www.severncider.com) I chose this one because the Kingston Black is one of rare apples with all of the necessary characteristics to be wonderful single-varietal cider. In the glass, this cider looks hazy and dark. It smells horsey and tannic with hints of bruised grapes. Once I actually started drinking the cider, I was struck with its amazing mouthcoat. My amazing cider helper/husband and I noticed hints of cucumber, pea shoots, and honeydew melon through an intense dryness and tannin blast. It is a challenging and exciting cider that shows its characteristics best in big draughts rather than delicate sips.

Next, we really wanted something sparkling after the severity of the Kingston Black. I chose Orchard Pig's Reveller. (http://www.orchardpig.co.uk/index.php) I noticed lots of fruit and vanilla in the aromas. It reminds one of citrus and fruit salad. This makes for some extremely easy drinking. Tasty! On the finish there is a subtle edge of bitter strawberry that makes the whole thing more complex and interesting. Medium tannins and medium body and relatively low acid.

In my other hand, you can see the Hawke's Urban Orchard Medium. This cider has a fairly low abv of 4.5%. (Their very attractive website is here: http://wearehawkes.com/hawkes) I can tell from the number of exclamation marks on my notes and my own memories, that this was our favorite of the evening. It smells yeasty and almost yogurty but also bakey and bready. It does not smell like fruit. The taste develops really interestingly. At first it is funky and salty, but after those flavors start to intensify it goes into its medium sweetness. I get notes of banana and caramel in this phase; it just reminds me of Bananas Foster! But that's not all; it also shows off some leafy tannins, notes of blackberries, and medium sparkle.

We finished our cider exploration for the evening with one last half pint: this time of the Sheppy's Oakwood. (http://www.sheppyscider.com) It smells tannic and oaked immediately and mouthwateringly. It also smells like overripe apples. I get some leatheryness and fresh bread as well. Tastes were dominated by tannins; it's sweet at first and then there is a quick tannic burst. The bigger the drink the dryer it tastes. I get some nectarine, pineapple and a subtle sugarcane finish. It is tart and zingy with some spice on the palate. Very very interesting and good.

This was a great evening and a simply fantastic way to end our trip!

Oh, British ciders, how I do love you!

Along Came A Cider Goes to England: Scrumpstock!

At last the time has come, and I get to write about my trip to England! I knew when we planned a hiking trip on the South Coast Path in Cornwall, I wanted to find a way to include at least a bit of cider adventuring. My first discovery was a cider festival going during our trip called Scrumpstock. 

 
For my readers unfamiliar with the term scrumpy, the festival is likely called Scrumpstock as a way to combine the cider term scrumpy with a hint of a reference to Woodstock, hence Scrumpstock. Scrumpy references a particularly English style of cider, but one without a clear and agreed upon definition. Wanna start a fight? Get a bunch of folks together and ask them to define scrumpy. It might mean unfiltered cider. Or cider made from apples allowed to fall on the ground before being harvested. Or cider made from juice pressed with layers of hay. Or cider only from a particular region of England. Or craft cider made in small batches with no big industrial shortcuts. And I'm afraid all of these characteristics only scratch the surface. I'm happy to hear other scrumpy characteristics in the comments; I dare you to find one I've never heard before. I'm sure they exist.

Here's a link to the festival's homepage, where one can read more about Scrumpstock: http://www.scrumpstock.co.uk

This is how the organizers succinctly explain the festival.

The Scrumpstock festival at the Exmouth Rugby Club in South Devon took place from the 15th to the 17th of May, with a wide range of quality Cider from carefully selected producers, excellent live music and much, much more.

Festivities run from 6pm Friday, until 6pm on the Sunday.

This was our weather for Saturday at Scrumpstock. I could barely believe it! Gorgeous brilliant blue skies, warm sun, and crisp breezes. We couldn't have asked for better. Enough about atmosphere and context, bring on the ciders. But how was I to choose amongst this bounty? I decided to stick to only dry and medium and only apple, no other fruits added. Mind you, this was still going to give me far more ciders than I could easily try in a day, especially when the smallest serving size was a half pint.

This is the view from behind the bar; the cider choices stretched from wall to wall, all guarded by stuffed scarecrows. My first for the day was Tricky Cider Dry. (http://www.trickycider.com/about-tricky-cider/)

The cider smells yeasty, appley and a bit bruised. I also get a ton of farmhouse and fermentation aromas. Wow, they aren't kidding to call this dry! This cider is still, dry, and astringent! I wanted to enjoy what's different about English ciders while I'm here and this is a great plunge into that territory. It looks hazy and rich in the glass and tastes leathery, citrusy, woody, grassy and farmy. Awesome.

Next, we tried Red Hen, a medium still cider from Worley's (http://www.worleyscider.co.uk). This is what they say about it:

A blend of early-season bittersweets and sharps at ABV 6.5%. Offered as a Medium, the two main characteristics of this cider are fruity apple and spice. This is a very similar blend to what we use for our popular bottled Premium Vintage cider.
A powerful fruity character is ensured by using only 100% apple juice in every batch. As always at Worley's, the freshly pressed golden cider apple juice is run into vessels and allowed to slowly ferment under the action of natural yeasts in a cool, dark barn before racking off and maturing for several months.

 This was one of my favorite ciders of the day. I got some familiar homemade apple sauce aromas along with some intriguing tart/sour notes. This cider had great balance and awesomely rich mouthfeel. It was a true medium, which is a good bit drier than many ciders labelled medium in the United States (and England too, as I was to learn later). This had a lot more acidity than the Tricky cider and some fun floral components while being cleaner than average. Simple but pleasing.

At this point, it was time for food and my husband and I shared our first Cornish Pasty: a cheddar, potato, and onion pasty. The angels sang. The earth stood still. Perfection had been reached. The combination of cider and pasty make everything wonderful. Read about them for inspiration; eat them and change your life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty

After that, and some fantastic trampoline bouncing, we were ready for another round of half pints. We chose  Devon Mist (by Sandford Orchards) and Venton's Skippy's Scrumpy (dry).

You can read about Venton's Devon Cider here: http://www.ventons.co.uk  and Sandford Orchards here: http://www.sandfordorchards.co.uk

The cider on the left is the Devon Mist, and I chose it because I was ready for a sparkling cider. Most of the ciders on offer at Scrumpstock were still (non-sparkling). It smells grassy, fresh, cold, with notes of both apple and tropical fruits. This tastes more like a sweet than a medium to me with relatively low acid and surprisingly low levels of tannins. Sweet and lightly and lightly sparkling it has notes of fresh apple and pear and asian pear aplenty.

On the right, we have Skippy's Scrumpy by Venton's. this cider smells a bit salty, earthy, sweaty with some apple skin notes. I love the creamy mouthfeel caused by the combination of high tannins and high acid. It is a bit leathery and not completely dry. This didn't have barnyard in the flavor, though the smell led me to expect it. I like the orange peel bitterness and subtle sparkle.

After these, we had some delicious cupcakes and walked around town a bit before returning in time to see The Go Go Cult (http://www.thegogocult.com/GoGoCultSite/Welcome.html). While it was a bit surreal to enjoy gothabilly music at a daytime outdoor festival; I enjoyed them tremendously, and I know I wasn't the only one.

 
Our last cider of the day of was Hunt's Farm Cider Medium (http://www.huntscider.co.uk) . It smelled barny, nutty, and mild, and like freshly washed apples. Another still cider, but this one more clear than many. I noticed huge levels of tannins and flavors like maple, oak, burnt matches, with some tartness and good body. Really interesting thing about this cider is that it is a completely wild ferment that gets aged two years before release. This couldn't be more different than a lot of the ciders here, and both styles have their distinct advantages.

There were so many great ciders and vendors, I truly wish I could have tried them all. Scrumpstock was a fantastic day filled with good tastes and glorious sunshine.