J.K.'s Scrumpy Hard Cider Farmhouse Organic

This is not my first hard cider. I didn't really understand the niche that these occupied when I first started, but I like to think that I've gotten a bit of experience with these, and I understand what to expect going in. This one goes out of it's way to say it's organic, and I flashed back to my high school science class where it was explained that "organic" just means anything that is carbon based. So, I guess this is technically food (I know that the term has been repurposed to mean something else, but I never really understood why).

The beverage is a surprisingly cloudy gold. No cider I've had so far has reminded me more of the unfiltered deliciousness of Simply Apple apple juice based entirely on looks, but this doesn't just look - it has a smell, and that smell also reminds me of the very same Simply Apple juice. This is certainly not unusual in my experience, and you can really only judge these based on taste.

First sip is very sweet - like a sweet wine. I'm reminded not of a good table wine or something like a box wine, but more like a low-alcohol altar wine (if it was made from apples instead of grapes). It tastes like it was intentionally developed to be sweet to appeal to people who might shun the wine overtones in another setting. It's actually not bad, but I'm not sure it's a standout for ciders.

A full swig will separate the apples from the grapes. Tip-in is sweet apples and little else. The middle is where these ciders tend to get separated, and this middle is a strange sweet and sour apple taste with a bit of carbonation poking at the back of the throat. It's conflicted, and it's not smooth nor crisp, which is what I really expect from ciders. The serious twang of sour hits at the finish right before the kind of cheap, fake wine bite hits at the trail-off.

Bottom Line: Simply not the best cider for the money out there.

1.75/5