Cider, Cyder, Cidre

It's been over 3 weeks since my last post, the reason being things have been a bit hectic around Chateau Webster. We've sold our flat and moved house, something that was long, long overdue. We have 3 children (3 1/2, 2 and 6 months) and we were living in a 2 bedroom, garden-less flat, which was completely insane. Now we are renting an entire 4 bedroom house (temporarily) and things just seem so much more, well, proper.

The build up to the move was extremely busy and stressful and wine drinking and blogging was not a top priority. Most of the wines I did drink were ones that I've already blogged about anyway. Also, the other reason for not drinking much wine is that I've kind of got into cider in a big way. I've always liked it, but I never really experimented with it much. As far as I got was getting hosed on Thatcher's scrumpy at The Old Mitre with my friend Tom (not the Tom who writes on this blog - this one's from Bristol so he's a cider freak).

This summer I discovered Aspall cider, which is on tap in a few pubs that I visit in London. It's really, really refreshing and I'd take it over the tepid lager served up in most pubs any day. I started buying their Dry Premier Cru bottling which is available in most supermarkets and before I knew it I had a cider habit.

I haven't really geeked out on it, but here's a short list of the ones I have been drinking:

1. Aspall Dry Premier Cru. Dry, crisp, ever so slightly tart. Strong at 7%. My favourite. Widely available.

2. Thatcher's Katy Rosé Cider. Pink and marketed at women, but it's nicely dry and immensely gluggable. 5.4%. Sainsbury's.

3. Cidre Breton. Full flavoured cider from Brittany, France. £3.99/L at Oddbins.

4. Waitrose Traditional Farmhouse Dry Cider. Comes in a big 3L plastic bottle and only costs £4.39, but it tastes anything but cheap. Also comes in 2L bottles. 6%.

5. Sainsbury's Strong Dry Cider. Also comes in 3L bottles but only costs £3.12. Not massively flavourful, but will do in a pinch. 5.3%.

The last two, the 3L bottles, may bring to mind drunken teenagers, etc. but to me they are cheap and cheerful refreshing summer drinks. White Lightning they are not.