Having recently celebrated the Queen’s diamond jubilee and with the Olympics starting in July, there’s plenty of reasons to crack open a bottle of something bubbly at garden parties, picnics and BBQs. My husband is a fan of traditional ale, but I personally prefer a yummy cider or perry. That’s not to say that I’m not picky, there are far more bottles I reject than accept. Having had the opportunity to testdrive Merrydown Medium Cider I’m very pleased to report on my personal findings!

The Merrydown story began in 1946 when three friends turned their garage bound hobby into a business. The first batch of Merrydown was called apple wine and was pressed in a 300 year old oak cider press borrowed from a farmer. The current recipe is free from artificial sweeteners, colours and flavours.

From a visual perspective the cider is a light yellow tone, with sporadic bubbles floating to the surface. It’s not heavy on the fizz which I infinitely prefer, so many other makes seem to relie on fizziness to disguise less than perfect flavour.

Taste wise Merrydown is very refreshing, summery and fruity, so much so than I’ve been forced into that most woeful of situations, creating a fake word to sum the flavour up ‘Applely!’

Having received several bottles I’ve been handing it out to friends and family alike and have yet to find anyone who doesn’t rate it highly. It has a lighter quality than many ciders but with such a satisfying taste that it hardly fails to impress. It would cook beautifully, but while I kept vowing to use it in this way I have to admit that it didn’t hang around long enough. A full selection of complementary recipes is available on the Merrydown website.

The Apple flavour itself is somehow exceedingly British, there’s nothing sharp or pert about it. Just like Brtish Apples themselves it has a roundness that just rolls off the tongue. It would make a fabulous addition to a traditional summer picnic or garden party. At 7.5% it’s average in terms of alcohol content.

Would I recommend this product?

I would and I have been, it really has such a lovely flavour I don’t see how it can fail to win fans.

Could it be improved in anyway?

Not really, it’s perfect as it is. Maybe if it came with free bunting 😛

Details

For more variations, stockists and a selection of scrumptuous summer recipes visit the Merrydown website.