Cooler weather means we are in apple cider season! I love me some cider and the stores have half gallons and gallons peppered all around the produce area enticing me and well, it worked. If you’ve learned anything from reading my food and drink reviews on here (and thank you for reading!), it’s that I’m a sucker for basic advertising. My curiosity needs to be satiated! Or in the case of something I already like, such as apple cider, but for which it’s seasonal, I need to jump at it once it’s in front of my eyeballs.
The kind I have here is The Ohio Cider Company’s apple cider, which is under the Fresh Forward Farms company. That company seems to be based in Seville, Ohio, which is about three hours north of me up around the Great Lakes, a bit south of Cleveland.
Looking at the website here, I see they sell a few varieties including original (which seems like the version I’m working with!), Honeycrisp, Gala, salted caramel (what!) and pumpkin spice. One of my favorite tastes in the world is salted caramel, especially if it’s sea salt, but that would be an interesting apple cider flavor. I’m not sure about that as a drink.
So, I have the half gallon here and according to Fresh Forward Farms, it takes 40 apples to make one gallon of cider. I’m not good at math, but that tells me it took 20 lovely apples to make my half gallon of cider.
My first introduction to cider was actually at a college newspaper party sometime around 2015, believe it or not. Yes, I was that late to the apple cider game. My editor at the time, Reis, handed me a cup of hot cider and my brain was blown. It was delicious. I don’t recall what kind it was. But whew. That was good! In other words, I don’t mind it hot or cold. Then, about a year or two later, I was in the same area for an apple festival and had homemade apple cider, which I was fortunate enough to help make and it was also mind-blowingly good.
But in the case here, I drank it cold after it had been sitting in the refrigerator for a number of days. It makes for such a refreshing, tasty beverage. For the most part, I drink water, coffee, hot tea and the once-in-a-while alcohol. To be able to switch up the flavor profile with a deliciously cold apple cider was nice.
I would say Fresh Forwards’ original apple cider is crisp, fresh and smooth. I compare it to chocolate milk: I have a hard time savoring it because it’s so delicious, I tend to gulp it down quite fast. And yes, you’re going to notice that 30 grams of sugar because it’s sweet! Interestingly, though, it’s not too sweet like a Mountain Dew or something where the sugar profile overpowers everything. It still retains that crispness and refreshing quality.
Now that we’re in hoodie and sweatpants weather (spoiler: I’m always in hoodie and sweatpants), twist open a gallon or half gallon of some apple cider and give it a whirl!
Milam's Musings 