Cider Review: Stem Cider's A Salted Cucumber and Blake’s Hard Cider Rosé

It’s not the best day, cider fans. Stress, illness, uncertainty, and economic hardship are real, and they are here. It would feel disingenuous to pretend otherwise. What I can say is that they aren’t the only things going. I’m seeing Spring, creativity, resourcefulness, generosity, love and lots of pet pictures too. They can’t necessarily fix everything, but I’ll take them and appreciate them. 

I’m excited to start this week with Stem Cider’s A Salted Cucumber! 

Eric Foster and Phil Kao founded Stem Ciders in 2013. This cidery is based in Lafayette, Colorado. To find more background on the company, I recommend checking out the about section on the Stem Cider website: https://stemciders.com/our-cider-journey/.

Here are my previous reviews of Stem Ciders.

Colorado Heritage Blend: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/08/cider-review-eves-cidery-kingston-black.html

Banjo: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/03/cider-review-stem-ciders-banjo-and.html

Pear Apple: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/06/pickcider-review-stem-ciders-pear-apple.html

Perry: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/05/very-perry-may-tieton-cider-works.html

You can find out more about the company online: https://stemciders.com

Today’s review is of A Salted Cucumber. To my knowledge this is the first cider I’ve seen whose name starts with the word, “A!”

Here’s how Stem Ciders introduces this one, “Dry hopped with cascade and citra hops, finished with fresh cucumber juice and sea salt. Crafted with 100% fresh pressed apples from the Pacific Northwest.” 6.7% ABV.

My can was a souvenir brought home from a large cider event last year. 

Appearance: hazy, crocus yellow, few visible bubbles

I could see one or two trails of bubbles floating through this hazy cider, but it’s appearance isn’t very bubbly. What I see instead is a classic hop haze and a pleasingly warm crocus yellow color.

Aromas: cucumber, salt, spice, hops, apple

A Salted Cucumber smells tantalizingly of cucumber, hops and a sprinkle of salt. I’m wondering if I’m also getting just a hint of spice. The cider is very clean smelling. There’s not a strong apple presence in the aromas, but some clean freshly washed apple notes breeze through.

Sweetness/dryness: Off dry

A Salted Cucumber tastes off dry to me. The can calls it dry, but I’m often not in perfect alignment with what packages suggests for a cider’s relative dryness or sweetness.

Flavors and drinking experience: cucumber, peppery, high acid, bubbly

I want to start by saying how very tasty this is! This cider tastes like salted cucumber and apple. It’s like a fresh salad! My cotaster and I both found A Salted Cucumber so enjoyably drinkable!
The cider offers up peppery and vegetal notes as well as green wood.

This hoppy cider tastes clean and not sweaty or soapy! It brings high acidity and intense sparkle to a very fun and approachable set of flavors.  The balance is really cemented by one hint of bitterness.

We paired this with a bean and corn salad and roasted Arizona Dreaming and Sofritos potatoes and faux-beef crumbles. It was a marvelous pairing. The cool and savory notes of A Salted Cucumber were just amazing with roasty spicy foods! This was followed up by a game of Trivial Pursuit, and I won!

And we’re closing out the week’s reviews with Blake’s Hard Cider Company’s Rosé.

Blake’s Hard Cider calls Armada, Michigan home. This popular company is always crafting new ciders; the range of styles Blake’s produces is large. The cidery prioritizes its local connections. The cidery grew out of a family farm. The ciders are now produced with only Michigan apples. There’s a lot of emphasis on the local and regional community. Someday, I’d love to see the cidery myself!

Here are my previous reviews of Blake’s Ciders.

Rainbow Seeker: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/01/cider-review-stormalong-ciders-boston.html

Fido: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/11/cider-review-blakes-fido-and.html

Santa Rosa: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/02/cider-review-blakes-hard-ciders-santa.html

Beard Bender: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/11/thanksgiving-ciders-eves-ciderys.html

Apple Lantern: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/10/cider-reviews-blakes-hard-ciders-apple.html

Black Philip: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/04/cider-review-blakes-hard-cider-black.html

The Tonic: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/03/cider-review-blakes-hard-cider-companys.html

El Chavo: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/11/cider-review-blakes-hard-cider-companys.html

Wakefire:
http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/09/cider-review-blakes-hard-cider-companys.html

Snapdragon: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/11/cider-review-blakes-hard-ciders.html

I recommend looking around Blake’s Hard Cider’s website. There’s a lot to see: https://www.blakeshardcider.com/


Here the official description for this cider, “Rosé Strawberry and rose hips. Semi-sweet with a citrus like acidity, this native fermented Rosé was infused with strawberries and rose hips, resulting in a vibrant finish.” 6.9% ABV.

Appearance: brilliant, watermelon, some tiny bubbles,  

This cider looks so pink and fruity. The color reminds me of watermelon. It’s brilliantly clear. I can see a few bubbles in glass, but they are small and few. The big show here is color, and it’s much too pretty to drink out of a can!

Aroma: Graham crackers, cherries, strawberries, 

When I poured this cider, I got my first aroma notes immediately. My impression is one of dessert with Graham crackers, cherries, and strawberries. These notes blend into raspberry, syrup, nectarine, and red fruit more generally. It’s very pie like. Other than my dessert impressions, the cider has aromas of minerals, wine, and walnut.

 Sweetness/dryness: sweet

This is a sweet cider! For some folks this would make a very satisfying dessert. The sweetness is intense, even with some fresh acid in the mix. It’s a bit sticky.

Flavors and and drinking experience: medium high acid, very fruity, bit sticky, full body and bubbly

I love that the Rosé begins with a little bitter bite at the start. That quickly gives way to a sweet and jammy drinking experience. The cider has medium-high acidity and a full body with floral and fruity qualities. It doesn’t really bring any tannins. The fruity notes are not powdery but are instead more than a little tropical. I also get bright banners of peach and raspberry flavor. I enjoyed this cider while relaxing with cats and my co-taster Alex after work. If you were to pair it, I think It would taste really lovely with a simple and creamy New York style cheesecake. 

Cider Reviews: Ninepin Light Cider Cucumber Lime and Stormalong Kingston Black

In thinking about cider in Summer, I feel like I’ve neglected a fairly obvious topic this year. I was reminded when I got to pick out cider for a company picnic. It was such a fun experiment to go to the local bottle (or in this case can) shop and look out for things I’ve not tried before. Cans were easy to portion out, easy to keep cold and I was able to bring more different ciders to the party than I would have been able to with 750ml bottles. I love treating cider like wine most of the time, but for a casual cookout in Summer can work amazingly well! I did get one of my sets of notes from this party, so thanks everybody! 

Ninepin Light Cider Cucumber Lime

Ninepin Ciderworks is based out of Albany, New York. This company has been making some really adventurous ciders, developing a great tasting room, growing the brand’s reach, and maintaining a super active calenar of events. I only wish I could make the trip up to Albany more regularly.  

Here are some of my previous reviews for Ninepin Ciderworks.

Gathering of the Farm Cideries (including the Cascara cider): https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/gathering-of-new-york-farm-cideries.html

Peach Tea: https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/06/pickcider-review-nine-pin-ciderworks.html

Blueberry: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/08/cider-review-nine-pin-cider-blueberry.html

Ginger: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2014/10/cider-review-nine-pin-cider-works-ginger.html

And the Signature cider: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2014/04/cider-review-nine-pin-cider-works-nine.html

Visit Nine Pin Ciderworks online to learn more about the ciders, the tasting room and the events: http://www.ninepincider.com

Here’s the official description of the Light Cider Cucumber Lime. 

Light cider, historically referred to as ciderkin, was produced in great quantities in New York during the colonial period. Unlike cider, its boozy counter-part, light cider was made by taking the leftover pommace from the apple press and soaking it in water. Nine Pin’s Cucumber Lime Light Cider is a modern take on this historical New York beverage. Crafted with fresh pressed NY apples, this light cider is refreshing and flavorful, yet surprisingly low in calories. 4.3% ABV.

Appearance: deep saffron yellow, brilliant, few visible bubbles 

This cider started with a surprise! It's a much deeper color than I expected! When I hear light, I don’t think of that saffron hue. The cider is brilliant with few visible bubbles.

Aromas: Appley, aquatic, cucumber

This cider smells appley and aquatic. I am reminded of lazy lakeside evenings. There’s a vegetable that includes cucumber but also with hints of sugar snap pea. I don’t really smell much lime but there’s a clean freshness that could go with either lime or cucumber really.

Sweetness/dryness: Semi-dry

This is a semi-dry cider that puts up a small but Immediate hit of sweetness, but then dries out over the course of each sip. What’s in the sweetness is clean and fruity.

Flavors and drinking experience: cucumber, apple, easy drinking, medium acidity

The Cucumber Lime has a nice medium level of bubble. The cider goes from tasting very much like apple to cucumber. The finish includes only the lightest hints of lime. Unlike so many ciders from New York this one has medium acidity. There’s no real tannins to speak of. The whole experience is totally pleasant with clean fermentation.  The cider is very easy drinking!

I had mine with a veggie dog, potato chips, and Peach Melba cake. It was pure summer enjoyment.

Stormalong Cider’s Kingston Black

I received this review sample of the Kingston Black cider from Stormalong Cider’s Rare Apples line. Stormalong Ciders is based in Sherburn, Massachusetts, and they now have a second production facility in Leominster. The company has been around since 2014. 

Here are my previous reviews of Stormalong’s ciders. 

Legendary Dry: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/12/cider-review-stormalongs-legendary-dry.html

Light of the Sun: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/08/cider-review-descendant-cider-company.html

Mass Appeal: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/12/cider-review-prospect-ciderworks.html

Here’s the cider’s official description 

KINGSTON BLACKRARE APPLE SERIES 

THE KINGSTON BLACK apple has garnered much praise and admiration from cider makers on these shores and beyond.  Originating in the UK, and very sparsely grown here in the United States, these apples possess the 3 ingredients known to make a well balanced cider: tannins, acidity, & sugar.  The skin of these apples glow a deep red color, thus the “black” in their name.  Our experience with these apples have been happy ones.  The freshly pressed juice has a distinct ruby color tasting sharp with a dense fruitiness.  Musky tannins abound.  This balance leads to a remarkable fermented cider.  These apples are notoriously fussy to grow, but from our perspective the results are worth the effort. 7.9% ABV 

SILVER MEDAL – GLINTCAP 2016 – English Cider Category

Appearance: brilliant, harvest moon, no visible bubbles

This cider’s color reminds me of the harvest moon that’s coming. I didn’t see much in the way of bubbles from this ciders, but that doesn’t mean it’s still. It is perfectly brilliant.

Aromas: applesauce, caramel, hazelnuts, cinnamon

Oh golly! What a set of aromas. The Kingston Black cider smells so much like applesauce, caramel, hazelnuts. There are notes or  snickerdoodles and cinnamon. The aromas remind me of Fall.

Dryness/sweetness: off dry

This is an off dry cider. It maintains plenty of fruit notes, but it has almost no sweetness.

Flavors and drinking experience: Tannic, high acid, medium body, fruity

I love that the Kingston Black has tannins, but that isn’t the surprise of this cider. What surprises me is that this is a single-varietal that tastes well balanced. I usually prefer blends. This cider has medium high acidity and just a little bit of astringence. The fruit flavors are not green fresh fruit notes, but instead it tastes more mellow and fermented. 

The Kingston Black stays off dry from the first taste across the palate; and it ends with a lingering and gently aromatic finish. It combines overripe apple, sweet orange, and baking spice notes.  I find every note of it’s mature fruitiness tantalizing. The cider has good strong sparkle and medium body.

I had this cider with a simple popcorn snack and good company. This cider doesn’t need anything more. I love it. 

Cider Review: Farmhaus Crushable and Savanna Dry

After a few fluctuations, I think Fall has well and truly arrived here in the Finger Lakes. The Autumnal Equinox ushered in the season meteorologically on Saturday, and conditions outside match the official season. I’m ready. It’s time for all things crisp, bright, and autumnal. And this is a time when cider shines.

I’m also ready for Finger Lakes Cider Week which is coming up soon. Read all about the many exciting event happening from Sept 28th through October 8th here: https://ciderweekflx.com/flx/

I know I’m particularly excited about all of the orchard tours being offered this year! From the schedule it looks like we’ll get the chance to see Black Diamond’s orchard, Cornell Orchards, Kite and String Orchards (Good Life Orchards), Redbyrd Orchards and Eve’s Cidery Orchards. There’s also a cheese based pairing dinner with South Hill Ciders that I’m pretty thrilled to be attending.

Before all of that wonderful stuff begins though I have two more summery reviews I want to share before the season gets too thoroughly behind us.

Farmhaus Crushable 

Farmhaus cider comes from Michigan where the fifth generation of an orcharding family make cider and run a Cidergaarten. You can find the ciders all over western Michigan. 

Find out all about the company on the website: http://farmhauscider.com/

I have one previous review of a Farmhaus Cider. I reviewed their Classic in June of this year: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/06/cider-cans-crush-it-aeppeltreow.html

This can was shared with me for review, but my opinions remain my own. 

The Crushable is a limited release. Here’s the official description.

Refreshing. Cucumber. Great Mixer.You know that amazing feeling when you jump in the water on a hot, sunny day? Well, we canned it for you to enjoy – whenever! Cool, crisp and refreshing, it’s like a poolside afternoon for your taste buds. Freshly picked cucumbers straight from our garden combined with all local apples create an easy-drinking cider that will quench your thirst and leave you craving that next sip. Enjoy it straight or use it as a mixer. Try and savor it if you can, but be warned: this cider is completely crushable.

Appearance: hazy, butter yellow, few visible bubbles
The cider poured with a bit of fizz, but that settled down quickly. I’d call Crushable’s color an easy butter yellow and it’s on the opaque or hazy side.

Aromas: cucumber, floral, bubble gum, fresh apple

I am astonished by how many smell make up the aroma for this cider. The Crushable smells like flowers, cucumber, wet raw apple, bubblegum, spearmint, hay, smoke, hops, and maybe a bit of volatile acidity. It’s fresh and spiky and exciting!

Sweetness/dryness: Semi-dry

This cider perceives as semi-dry. There’s a lot more going on though than just the level of sweetness. Keep reading.

Flavors and drinking experience: herbal, medium acidity, cool and hot, peppery

As exciting as the aromas were, it tastes even better than it smells. I wouldn't have noticed rosemary as an ingredient if I'd not read it. The cider’s cucumber comes out even more tasting than smell; it’s all very vegetal and herbal. 

The Crushable displays a much more intense sparkle than what I anticipated from how it poured. The cider has middling acidity, low tannins, and a reasonably full mouthfeel.  semi dry.  cleaner from the can than a glass.  I found it a curious blend of cool and hot—6.4%ABV, but a slightly peppery note. It’s very summery indeed, so I’m glad I tried it before Fall arrived.

This is a throwback to one of the ciders I found in Scotland on vacation this summer. I’d been seeing social media about Savanna Dry for years, but I’d not ever seen it for sale until I was in a Mexican restaurant in Scotland. The international connections continued when I found out that this South African cider brand produced my cider in Belgium.

You can see loads of pictures and learn about Savanna Dry online here: https://savannacider.com/welcome

I found some information about the cider, but not a tremendous amount. Here's the page about this cider on the Savanna website.

Savanna Dry Premium Cider Bottle
INCIDER'S EDGE

         1996 – The year we corrupted the apple!

We started making cider all those years ago from the juice of the tastiest apples around. 

But not that kind of cider that smacks of sweetness, we knew that
you were looking for something unique… something crisp, refreshing, balanced and most importantly something with a bit of edge. 

That's why we created Savanna Dry which is still crafted in the same way it was all the way back then. 

The cider equation: Apples + fermentation + micro-filtering + chill-filtering = Savanna Dry

Other sources online from a few years ago indicate that this cider is made with Granny Smith apples, but I don't want to count on secondary sources from a while back. Other parts of the Savanna website recommend serving the cider with a wedge of lemon in the bottle neck.

Appearance: Brilliant, deep straw, no bubble

I love the brilliance and deep straw color of this cider. The Savanna website mentioned two types of filtering, so clarity seems to be a priority for the cider brand. I couldn't see any bubbles in the bottle or glass. 

Aromas:  yogurt, raspberries, cheeries

These smells are fascinating! It's very fruity. The cider smells like yogurt, raspberries and cherries. 

Sweetness/dryness: sweet

This is a cider called dry that tastes sweet. 

Flavors and drinking experience: vanilla, raisins, green apple candy

This cider tastes very much of vanilla and raisins. I get some green apple candy as well. The flavors are more intense than the aromas were, but there's perhaps something a bit artificial in the mix. I do taste tremendous direct flavors of unfermented green apple, and waves of green apple candy. 

Secondarily I get notes of Watermelon, Pixie Stix, and malic acid. I had this cider with spicier than expected Mexican food. The spice did a lot to help cut the sweetness, but it was still notably  green apple candy flavors. The cider had medium high acidity and no tannins. The level of sparkle was moderate. The cider has an overall profile that would be familiar to many United States cider drinkers. It resembles many other sweet to semi-sweet relatively low ABV ciders sold in 12ounce bottles. For many people, this is their preferred style. 

 Enjoy the start of Fall, cider lovers!

Cider Review: Blake's Hard Cider Company's The Tonic, Plus Data!

I'm not a gifted chef, but from time to time I get together with a good friend and we make a nice dinner together specifically to try out a fun cider pairing. I did this with my friend Phil (He's a great cook and the talented individual who runs Eruditorum Press: http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/author/phil/) a few weeks ago. We chose a loose concept of Asian barbecue to pair with a cider by Blake's Hard Cider Company.

You can find out all about Blake's on their website: http://www.blakeshardcider.com/

If you visit the site, you'll see that they do a tremendous number of interesting seasonal and limited release ciders. Trouble is, I cannot buy Blake's ciders within a hundred miles of where I live. Grrr! They're out of Michigan, which has a quite strong cider scene.

I've gotten a few from the company, and this was part of a trade with Darlene Hayes (who quite literally wrote the book on cider cocktails: https://www.amazon.com/Cider-Cocktails-Another-Bite-Apple/dp/0996321500/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1490665129&sr=8-1 

My first review of anything by Blake's Hard Cider Company is their El Chavo from late 2015. 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/11/cider-review-blakes-hard-cider-companys.html

That cider is a fruit and spice blend that uses peppers and mango to create taste fireworks. I know it sounds weird and, to some cider purists, blasphemous, but it tastes fantastic. And that's always going to be the arbiter for me. Does this cider taste good? Do I enjoy drinking it?

But for this dinner, we were excited to try  The Tonic by Blake's Hard Cider Company

The official description reads, "As the first flushes of green awaken the new year, invigorate your senses with freshly picked ginger root and cool cucumber combined together to create our crisp, light elixir; Blake's Tonic." 6.5% ABV. 

Appearance: frothy, brilliant, flax yellow

The first thing that we noticed was how verrrry bubbly it was. This photo is crazy and uncomposed because the bottle was going a bit crazy after we opened it and I wanted a quite photo that actually shows a cider with a half inch of foam. It poured with even more at first. Cider is brilliant and the color is that gentle shade of yellow that seedlings have before they turn green. You could also call it flax.

Aromas: powdered sugar, cakes, apples, cucumbers

The Tonic smells sweeter than it tastes. The most striking aroma is actually like sugared cakes. I can also smell cucumber and apple.

Sweetness/dryness: Semi-dry

This is a semi-dry cider, but that's hardly the most interesting element about it. The flavors on the other hand...

Flavors and drinking experience: balanced, cocktail-like, cooling

This cider comes across as completely cool and summery. I get some ginger in flavor but not in aroma. The comparisons to a gin and tonic are obvious but apt. It's not super gingery, but just enough. The more sips I took, the more I could taste the ginger. Its far more cucumber and cool balanced cider than anything else. Lots of ciders call themselves crisp, but this one actually is.  

The mouthfeel is fizzy but perhaps not quite so much as the crazy mousse had prepared me for. I found it light and lively, its decidedly sessionable, at least for those lucky enough to have more than one bottle on hand. It sounds very daring, but this combination really worked for me. Rather like the El Chavo, it sounds crazier than it tastes.

We paired this with a really fun Asian inspired BBQ menu to do a little mental trip to summer. I made a Napa cabbage slaw with spicy peanut sauce and soy-miso-glazed Mu turnips (pictured). For the meat eaters present there were 5 Spice Barbeque Chicken Legs. And the veg folk had the same sauce on oven baked tofu. Delicious and so sticky! Blake's tonic worked perfectly though because the cucumber was so cooling and the ginger connected the flavor to our sauces, all of which incorporated elements of Asian cuisines.

Usually my pairs are simpler than that because most of my cooking is more based on ingredients than sauces, but this was a total blast. I had so much fun thinking about a flavored cider and flavored vegetables in new ways. You don't have to go as elaborate to pair this though. I still think the picnic or BBQ route is perfect, or really anything spicy. Enjoy how cooling these flavors taste.

Now, I'd like to close with a brief moment of geekery and share some really exciting cider education opportunities for current USACM members (apologies for those who aren't members). At CiderCon, there were two presentations making great use of cider sales data as gathered by Nielsen (yes, that Nielsen). I attended and got a lot out of them, particularly as I feel like my perspective is doubly skewed by living in cider country that is also wine country.

All USACM members are invited to two upcoming Webinars about Nielsen data. I know some few stats have trickled out to the news, which has unfortunately pounced on a couple of misleading numbers that make it sound like the cider market is shrinking. These webinars go so much deeper to show a rich picture of what's happening with cider sales in a variety of locations and market segments. 

The first is: "Cider Trends in the U.S.: How to Increase Your Odds of Success by Evaluating Marketplace Dynamics" on Wed, Apr 5, 2017 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT.  You can register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9035991447428036610

The second is: "The Apple of my Eye. How to Develop Cider Packaging that Wins with Consumers" on Thursday, Apr 13, 2017 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT Here's the registration link for this one: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6796135628555308546

Enjoy!