1 August 2015

Pips Medium Herefordshire Cider (Cosford @PipsCider) [By @SpectreUK]


I was recently dragged to the Cosford Food Show by Cinabar and her Mom, or was rather named as the designated driver. I hadn’t heard of the show before, although we usually try to get to the air show and missed it this year due to weather risks and limitations of buying tickets online. I really didn’t want to go to the food show, but do rather like wondering around the superb museum of warplanes and tanks before the air show begins every year. Cinabar reminded me of this and so as they wondered off into the food show, I headed towards the museum. After about an hour and a half I received a text from Cinabar next to the Centurion Tank that I was hugging at the time. Cinabar proclaimed that there was quite a few beer and cider stands in the food show and that I could have spending money for blogs. Never one to miss the chance of free booze I snapped up the thirty quid and dived in…

The rather smart Pips cider stand caught my eye and I picked up this 330ml bottle of Pips Medium Herefordshire Cider. At 7.5% volume I could see this deep amber cider was going to be a strong one. Made by the Pips family business from apples grown in the Golden Valley in Herefordshire this lightly sparkling cider surprised me when I arrived home. It has the novel idea of a plastic screw top. I know some wine bottles have the same innovative opening where the need for screwdrivers is dying out. Well, the same goes for bottle openers and cider so it seems, and why not? There was a light crisp apple cider smell on opening the cheerfully fizzy glass bottle and then a really pleasing hearty warming flavour of cider washed over my tongue and around my mouth. This cider certainly doesn’t pull any punches as the crispness just keeps on coming in the almost tart cider apple flavour. This is one of those ciders where one tiny bottle just isn’t enough. I could quite happily drink it all night. The label recommends drinking this cider with pork, chicken or cheese, or all three if you want a big chicken and pork ploughman’s lunch. Take a look at their website for some recipes http://www.pipscider.com. I drank it on it’s own without food as I wanted my last mouthful of cider washed down with another mouthful of cider. I do regret not buying more bottles of this cider, as there was a dry and a sweet cider on the stand also. D’oh… I’ll have to look for them in the shops!
By Spectre

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