Scott and I have this crazy idea to open a cidery — producing and selling the hard stuff initially, expanding to the sweet eventually. As part of our, um, market research, we’ve been buying whatever ciders we can get our hands on. That’s kind of hard to do in the cider wasteland that is New Mexico, but thanks to our recent trip to the Bay Area and the wonders of NYC’s Astor Wine online market, we've managed to collect a fairly decent sampling, from the standard supermarket six-packs to New England artisanal brands to Old World offerings. Sure, we could have drunk them all on our own (and don’t think we won’t in the future), but we need to get a sense of the taste preferences of our potential customers ... you know, people like you.
A cider tasting was in order. So last month, we brought together what we considered a cross-section of our target audience: confirmed cider enthusiasts, home cidermakers, amateur brewers, professional winemakers, foodies, and one honest-to-goodness restaurant reviewer! Fourteen hardy souls braved the muddy driveway and our cozy (read: cramped) living room to evaluate 16 different ciders.
We learned two important lessons from our little event. Lesson 1: Cider has serious quality-assurance issues. We don’t know whether the problems arose during production, bottling, or transit, but wow, some of the ciders were horrible. All three French ciders were oxidized and gaggable. Even the big names in the resurgent craft movement got mixed reviews. The six-pack draft options fared the best. Cider doesn’t hide its faults; one off-flavor and the whole thing is funk. So we know we have to do a lot of quality control.
Lesson 2: Not only did our evaluators rock at the tasting, they wrote some pretty funny notes. If only we could get William Shatner to rap to them (or Clark and Jeff to lay down a "Police Blotter" type of track!). Note to self: Do not use these as descriptions on our labels. Thanks, tastemasters!
“Sort of funky aroma — elephant house at zoo?”
“Tastes like bark, but I’ll drink it”
“Smells like floral soap (in a good way); also tastes like it (in a bad way)”
“Cat pee on a new pine floor”
“Tastes, smells, lingers like socks”
“Tastes like an old ladies house”
“Smells like burning electronics”
“Long (unfortunate) finish”
“Essence of baby rice cereal”
“It was trying too hard”
“Light, flirty start. Teases with Jolly-Rancher promise & delivers”
A few of the ciders we've collected and sampled