Two nice ciders, and comments on the cider market

cider

Two nice ciders, and comments on the cider market

Enjoying these two ciders tonight, both from Herefordshire producer Westons. They’re quite widely available.

Westons Old Rosie Cloudy Scrumpy
7.3% alcohol. Cloudy pale yellow in colour, this is dry but has some fruit sweetness. Nice tangy, textured appley fruit with a hint of cheesy savouriness. Very tasty. 8/10

Westons Wyld Wood Organic Classic Cider
6.5% alcohol. Aged in wooden vats, this is an off-dry cider with sweet appley fruit. Very fruity with nice complex flavours. Nicely balanced and full. 8/10

So how is cider doing in the UK? It’s continuing its growth, and fast, both in terms of sales and also new product development. The growth in the category started off with orange ciders (e.g. Magners), then was driven by green ciders (e.g. pear cider) and now is continuing with red cider (with berry flavours). The red ciders are currently growing faster than the orange and green did during their growth phases.

What seems to be happening is that the innovation is driven by the smaller, younger, faster-moving brands, but it’s then picked up by the big brands who begin to do the same things.

In terms of growth, the only sector of the cider market in decline is the bigger format PET-bottled stuff, and the very basic cheap ciders. Above this, the middle 80% of the market, has shown over 20% growth in the supermarkets over the last year.

The top end, represented by craft ciders (main players here Aspalls, Westons, Thatchers and Henneys) showed 11% growth in supermarkets last year.

2 Comments on Two nice ciders, and comments on the cider marketTagged
wine journalist and flavour obsessive

2 thoughts on “Two nice ciders, and comments on the cider market

  1. Why are ciders awarded marks out of ten, wines out of a hundred? Is that because they’re a simpler, less complex form of drink in your opinion? Just curious.

  2. Hi

    read your blog on ciders with interest. Would you like to try some of ours? We’ve been producing cider for nearly 20 years now and like to think ours is pretty good stuff!!

    Lucy.

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