James Speights - deCIDERly good

Summer's coming, not that you can tell by looking out the window here in the murk capital of New Zealand. Its Labour Weekend and all over the country barbeques are being dusted of after a long winter of being ignored, sausages are quaking in fear of the incineration that lies ahead and bottles of booze are being opened in celebration of the summer to come.

The Supermarket beer chiller was pretty much empty last night when BombGuy and I rocked in with a friday night cider in mind. Long Weekend, Greymouth Street Races and the imminant Rugby World Cup Final had all taken their toll on Countdowns meagre stocks, so scoping around we spotted a small pile of Speights Cider lanquishing quietly in a bottom shelf, so the decision was made that we would break from our ususal and give it a try.

Verdict:  Well if the small pile of empty bottles lurking by the rubbish bin was anything to go by, which its not, It was really quite good. This was a pleasant surprise as we've tried quite a lot of cider and usually we've been disapointed and always fall back on our favourite when the need arises.

Crisp, clean and refreshing sum it up. Light and very drinkable, not too sweet and went well with the chinese I whipped up for tea.  Ours wasnt chilled and the flavour was really good, and well balanced, and if anything is going to give away a poor drink its not being chilled when its supposed to be will do it every time.

So 4.5/5 - Give it a go at your next Barbeque! Good work J. Speights :-)

Cheers,
The Brunette.