Drink Up Thy Zider

Something amazing happened to me the other day. Something you may not think was all that interesting or stunning, but when one discovers an entirely new flavour one is compelled to say that it is somewhat of a revelation. Such was the case on Saturday when I came home to find that Laura (who had been with my sis to the Smallhythe Apple Day) had purchased a present for me in the form of a carton of Blushing Old Wife. This is a cider made in the village of Old Wives Lees near Canterbury, A brilliantly named beverage from an interestingly named village. So what's so great about it? Well, two things.

1. It's made with raspberries as well as apples. Not just raspberry juice blended with cider (as some products may be) but made with apples and raspberries together.
2. The resulting cider is then left to mature in oaken barrels which had previously been used at the Bruichladdich whisky distillery on the island of Islay in Bonnie Scotland. 

So what you get is a fruity, sweet, whiskyish tasting cider. And here I must pause to explain another one of those lovely cultural differences for which the Brits and Yanks are so noted.

See, in most parts of the USA, 'cider' is just a synonym for apple juice. So if you are in Oregon, say, and someone offers you some apple cider, it will NOT, repeat NOT get you rat-arsed. It's just juice. Why this is, I cannot say. It is a most perplexing conundrum.

Anyway, back to the cider. The Blushing Old Wife is the fruitier version of (wait for it) Rough Old Wife cider, made at Cork Farm and you can see the website at http://www.rougholdwife.com/. Fantastic stuff and the fact that it comes in a quart milk jug, just right for popping in the door of the fridge, is even more reason to love it.