Cider Review: Eden Cider's Oliver's Twist Foxwhelp Cider

Happy snowy morning to everyone who’s celebrating! And good luck to those who don’t feel ready for it yet. We’ve been a little bit snowy here since just a few days before Thanksgiving, so it’s feeling tremendously appropriate. Tis the season to get cosy.  I’m starting to think about creating my yearly Favorite 10 ciders of the year list. If you want to see what that’s all about, here’s last year’s:

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2020.html

It's too soon to know what will make the cut this year, but I do like to guarantee that it will be a difficult decision by pulling out some extra special things in November and December. That was my thinking  when I reached for Eden Cider’s Oliver’s Twist. 

Eden Cider comes to us from northern Vermont. I’ve reviewed many things by Eden Ciders and much more background on this apple-centric cidery appears in earlier reviews. Here’s the full list. 

Brut Rose: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2021/07/cider-review-eden-ciders-brut-rose.html

Benjamin: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2021/06/cider-review-eden-ciders-benjamin-and.html

Deep Cut: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/08/cider-review-eden-specialty-ciders-deep.html

Peak Bloom: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/09/cider-review-eden-ciders-peak-bloom-and.html

Ezekiel: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/01/cider-review-eden-specialty-ciders.html

Extra Sec: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/03/cider-review-angry-orchard-super.html

Eden Heritage Cider: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/06/cider-cans-crush-it-eden-heritage-and.html

Siren Song: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/12/cider-review-eden-ciders-siren-song-and.html

Brut Nature: https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cider-con-2018-pt-1-eden-specialty.html

Imperial 11 Degree Rose: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-january-2017-cidrbox-and-edens.html

Sparkling Dry: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/06/cider-review-eden-sparkling-dry-cider.html

The Sparkling Dry supported my Thanksgiving & Birthday celebrations in 2016: 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/11/pick-cider-for-thanksgiving-and-my.html

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/11/happy-to-pickcider-for-thanksgiving.html

You can also visit Eden Cidery online to learn about the current lineup for harvest ciders, aperitifs, and ice ciders: https://www.edenciders.com/

I chose Oliver’s Twist as part of my Thanksgiving holiday. I have a lot of hope that the tannins and acidity that I anticipate will work wonders for a rich and salty feast.

Here’s how the cider is described on the bottle.

On a visit to Herefordshire, Tom Oliver treated us to a mind-blowing taste from a five year-old barrel of cider made from Foxwhelp apples. A classic bittersharp variety, the power of its acidity after years of adversity testified to its strength of character and sunny personality. Our single variety cider is made from 100% Foxwhelp apples grown at Poverty Lane Orchards. Bright and drinkable now, we suggest putting a few bottles in your cellar. Over time it may become as mellow and friendly as Tom himself. 7.5% ABV Batch: 2018 

Appearance: warm apricot, hazy, only slightly bubbly

Consider me intrigued. Oliver’s Twist looks hazy and warm. The color reminds me of dried apricots. I can see just a handful of bubbles when I look closely. 

Aromas: minerals, citrus, ripe apple

This cider smells like lemons, ripe apples, and crushed rocks. I’m definitely anticipating both acidity and tannins based on these aromas.

Dryness/sweetness: Dry

This is a dry cider that delivers in every facet. If you expect sweetness, you won’t find it. You will find everything else.

Flavors and drinking experience: sharply tart, tannic, funky, and tropical

I love a tart cider that’s practically bouncing with sharp yet not abrasive acid. Oliver’s Twist fits that description perfectly. This cider is awesomely acidic and terrifically tannic. I love that the cider can work both of those angles with intensity.

Oliver’s Twist helps keep that balance by bringing lots of bubbles and citrus zing. I love how very lemony the cider tastes. It is mildly funky but not dirty. The wildness reminds me of savory herbs. The most surprising element in the whole experience is how Oliver’s Twist leaves my palate with a tropical fruit finish. It was citrus, tannins, and bubbles up until the very end and then the pineapple and star fruit arrived! 

I saved this bottle for a special meal: cranberry and hazelnut veggie roast, balsamic Brussels sprouts, cider dressing, mashed potatoes, spicy Delicata squash, cranberry relish, rolls and gravy. I needed a cider exactly like this: exciting, zesty, dry, bubbly and super flavorful. My meal was rich, salty, spicy, sweet, with just a little bit of tart. I needed to bring sour but not solely sour to the table. Oliver’s Twist managed to have body, bubbles, complexity and plenty of sour tartness to enliven each aspect of the meal. It was a treat, and I’m glad I opened it when I did. 

What delightful ciders have you been saving in your cellar? Now would be a great time to re-acquaint yourself with them! 

Cider Review: Farnum Hill Extra Dry and my experience thus far with Protocol Wine Studio

As summer has turned from balmy to doggedly hot, I've been grateful to have a cool evening activity to look forward to once a week. I've been participating in the Protocol Wine Studio (http://protocolwinestudio.com)August conversation on cider. Every Tuesday evening, several folks from the curious to the extremely knowledgeable chat about cider using the hashtag #winestudio.

The neatest part for me is that this whole month of August is not only cider themed but further focused on Farnum Hill Cider. When I agreed to participate, I was sent a box of four of Farnum Hill's Ciders, two of which we cracked open last week. The remaining two will likely have to wait until the last night, August 25th. The actual name of the event series is:

 Drop that Axe! Cider Then, Now and Future –
A Cider Comprehensive with Farnum Hill Ciders

You can read more about the ongoing event here: http://protocolwinestudio.com/event/winestudio-online-session-xxvii-farnum-hill-ciders-new-hampshire/

We talked so far about terroir, cider apples, minimal use of sugar , bold embrace of high tannin, high acid, super dry, slightly funky ciders and many many larger questions about the current world of cider. I'm really enjoying it. Please join in the conversation and check out what's going on with the hashtag #winestudio this Tuesday and next Tuesday at 9pm EDT.

Beyond wanting to share the cider conversation on Twitter, I wanted to share my more in-depth review of the 2013 Crop Extra Dry Cider.

As always you can go visit Farnum Hill's website and learn about their farm, their history and their ciders here:

http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/

As far as my own history with Farnum Hill, I've enjoyed their ciders since 2002 and reviewed a few of them.

Here's the Farmhouse:
http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2014/08/cider-review-farnum-hill-farmhouse-cider.html

And the Summer Cider:
http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/09/cider-review-farnum-hill-summer-cider.html

And they frequently make my 10 Favorite Ciders list for any given year:
http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2013.html

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2014.html

 
 Here's the description that I received along with my sample bottle (it's different from what appears on the website):

Unlike wine language, our "extra dry" means this cider contains zero sugar,  residual or returned. But it sports mad fruit from citrus to mango, a real example of the different between 'fruit' and 'sweetness.' Many apple varieties combine in this blend, principally Dabinett, Yarlington Mill, Chisel Jersey, Harry Masters' Jersey, Wickson, and Golden Russet.

I love this description. It gives me apple names, sweetness/dryness level, and some expectation of what to look out for in terms of flavor. And it isn't over inflated. Perfect. 

There were some great aroma and flavor notes noticed by different folks. I'm definitely going to benefit from tasting in a group of several folks rather than my usual experience of tasting mostly by myself.

Appearance: deep butterscotch gold

Everyone noticed how rich a color this cider has. Most ciders look much paler in the glass. When asked, Farnum Hill's cider blender Nicole Leibon, attributed the color to oxidation of the fruit. Interesting! 

Aromas: Spice, orange peel, summer flowers

Different folks noticed a huge range of aromas everything from sweet floral aromas, to baking spice, other variations on spiciness, lemon, citrus, other fruits including both stone and tropical fruit.


Sweetness/dryness: Dry

We agreed on the dryness of the cider but it came across differently to different drinkers.

Flavors and drinking experience: bottle conditioned, slightly funky, high acid, high tannin

Aside from those broader descriptions all manner of more specific notes stuck out to diffent people. Lot of fruits were noticed, mostly citrus. I tastes lots of orange and orange peel. For me, what stood out the most (and in a very positive way) was the balance of both high acid and high tannins.  For folks perhaps more surprised by cider's funky side, people noted cheese, leather, butter, mushrooms, yoghurt and earthy flavors. I can taste them, but they don't stand out to me. I find the Extra Dry beautifully balanced.

We also talked about mouthfeel. You have to when a cider does mouthfeel this perfectly. Seriously. The cider is taut, sharp, but also velvety and rich. I'd call all of that relevant to the high acid plus high tannin factor. We also discussed the bubbles and bottle conditioning of this cider. What was interesing to me were the more abstract words that came up like intense or focused.

I had my ciders with an heirloom tomato pie with a cheese crust followed up by a dark chocolate bar. Both pairings worked with not only this cider but also Farnum Hill's Farmhouse cider. 

Needless to say, I love this cider. I also really enjoyed talking about it with a wide variety of other interested folks. Please join us next week and learn more about cider and Farnum Hill!

Cider Review: Farnum Hill Summer Cider

I cannot believe I've been keeping a cider blog for nine whole months without talking about any Farnum Hill Ciders. This is a grievous error on my part not only because they have played such a pivotal role in America's cider renaissance (which they undoubtedly have), but also because they were one of my early cider life-lines when I came back to the United States after trying and enjoying ciders during my study abroad at the University of East Anglia. (Here's my mostly unrelated shout out with affection to my nefarious guides to the wonderful world of pubs and cider, the UEA Games Soc.) Anyhow, I've been enjoying their ciders for almost ten years, so this review should have come earlier.

Farnum Hill Ciders come from Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, New Hampshire. They make many ciders and sell apples, including unusual varieties of apples that are otherwise hard to come by. You can visit their fabulously informative website at: http://www.povertylaneorchards.com. Stephen M. Wood and Louisa D. Spencer have run and owned Poverty Lane Orchards since its start in 2000. These folks are serious about apples, science, and cider. I highly recommend checking out their Cider Facts page to learn some interesting things about apples and climate and also to get a good feel for the brand's unique personality. http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/farnum-hill-cider-basics/  Fascinating stuff; I certainly didn't know anything about "Dosage" before reading about it there.

Before summer ends, I want to review Farnum Hill Summer Cider.  This cider has an ABV of 7.8% and like all Farnum Hill Ciders prides itself on using carefully chosen blended and cider apples. Rather than list their entire three paragraph orientation to the cider, I'll point my readers to it here: http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/the-ciders/summercider/
and quote a bit about the cider itself. The folks at Farnum Hill say this, "Farnum Hill Summer Cider is golden and gently sparkling, blended to remind people in the States that good ciders make ideal summer “wines,” something the wider world never forgot. So in this one we go for prominent fruit and keen acid, soft-pedaling the tannic, earthy notes common to the other FHC blends. In Summer Cider the fruits are rich, the citrusy notes are strong, with gentle sweetness in the background. It’s a bit like whiskey sours, without the alcoholic whack."I'm not quite sure the digs at both United States drinkers and whiskey sours need to be there, but I'll be on the lookout for the acidity and lightness specifically.

Appearance: brilliant, cool blonde

Please forgive me for thinking of this cider's color as one of Alfred Hitchcock's leading ladies (specifically Tippi Hedron in The Birds), but that's always what cool blonde says to me. This Summer Cider has visible bubbles, most dissipate fast, but small fine streams continue through the liquid. Beautiful brilliance as well.

Aromas: fresh apples, banana, cake

Apple smells definitely come through first and foremost. The secondary fruits I sense most are banana and blueberry.  I could also detect bits of cake and walnut. This smells like a complex and lovely buffet of sweet flavors, but we'll see if the cider is as fruity and sweet as it smells.

Sweetness: Semi-dry to Off-dry

Actually separating the sweetness from other elements of enjoying this cider is fairly difficult. I can smell sweet fruits, but the taste is far more bright and acidic. It is definitely not bone dry, but it isn't a semi-sweet either. I'll say a gentle off dry or a more hardcore semi-dry. Hopefully that's not too confusing.

Flavors and Drinking Experience: high acidity, low to medium tannins, off-dry 

The Summer Cider tastes good to sip, but it tastes even better in big drinks. The flavors come in two distinct waves: first sweet, bright, second is dark, bitter, plummy flavor at the mid-back of the tongue.  Clean finish. The acidity is what makes it summery, and it contributes to the sense of  near dryness while also offering some enjoyable fruitiness. This is one of the lightest bodied ciders they make, perhaps the Summer Cider is giving a nod to the Spanish cider tradition.

I can definitely recommend this cider with all sorts of light summery foods and activities. Try the Summer Cider with bruschetta and fresh corn or lobster rolls. Bring a glass to a hammock, sneak a bottle into your canoe, eat a few more dinners outside with this cider before the weather gets too cold. Fall is coming soon, and I think Farnum Hill is more than right to think of this cider as uniquely suited to summertime. Whatever version they make each year, they attempt to make it available May through September where their other ciders are sold.  If you see this one, give it a try.