Cider Class: Finalizing Cider and Sensory Evaluation

All the talk about apple selection, proper levels of acid, pH, and sulfites, and a healthy fermentation was leading up to making a good base cider and the final steps of blending to make a good final product that consumers will buy. Since the cider is fermented dry, many will add some sugar in some form, especially apple juice, to bring some balance to the sharp acids. Some companies, because they added sugar at the beginning to achieve a higher alcohol, will add water at this point to dilute it back down.

My class was broken into teams and handed some base cider and told to reduce the alcohol content slightly and blend it as we saw fit. We had access to a few apple juices, and cut the cider down with that to reduce the alcohol, but felt it wasn’t quite sweet enough, so we added some glucose. At the blind taste test, our cider took second. I felt it was a pretty balanced cider that was slightly sweet, but I felt it was a little watery, but that could not be helped due to the assignment.

What makes a good cider? There is no answer really to that as everybody has different tastes, so a good cider is made by tasting. The process to do a sensory evaluation (tasting) is pretty similar to tasting wine with a few exceptions. This is what our instructor Peter Mitchell had us do:

1. Appearance: observe color, thick or thin, ability to create “legs” on the glass, sparkling or still, if there is some foam or “mousse” on top, clear or cloudy, and how “bright” it is.
2. Odor: smell the cider much like you would wine and think of words to describe it.
3. Taste: When tasting the cider, think of it only in these four words: sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. Technically, this is all we can detect, and taste is a combination of those four. If no one word or group of words jumps out at you, then the cider is “balanced.” Swallow the cider when you are through.
4. Aroma: with the cider in your mouth, do you smell anything you didn’t before?
5. Mouth feel: how does the cider feel in your mouth? Is it silky, thick or thin, like velvet, course, tingly, etc? After you swallow, do you have the feeling of dry mouth?
6. After-taste: After you swallow, how long can you continue to taste the cider, and which of the four descriptions do you detect?

How to Taste Cider

How do you evaluate the cider you are drinking?

While reading Ben Watson’s Cider: Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions & Making Your Own, 2^nd Edition and Annie Proulx and Lew Nichol’s Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider on how to host a cider tasting, the books gave excellent advice on how to evaluate the ciders.

A cider evaluation can be broken down into three parts – appearance, aroma, and taste. Ben Watson remarked, “Each of these individual components contributes to the overall quality and drinkability of the cider, and each should be taken into account when you evaluate it.”

When looking at a cider in a glass, you want to take the following notes:

• Is it a still cider or is it carbonated?
• If it is carbonated, is it a natural carbonation or a forced carbonation? Ben Watson describes the difference between the two as, “Naturally sparkling cider will foam up as it hits the bottom of the glass, and the bubbles that swirl up to the surface are smaller and longer-lasting than those in an artificially carbonated cider.”
• What color is it? Example of color descriptions include pale straw, golden yellow, salmon, apricot, or amber. Ciders that have a green, gray, or orange-red tint may not be drinkable, as the color would be evidence to oxidation or cider sickness.
• Is it hazy or clear? Words to use include brilliant, clear, slightly hazy, hazy or cloudy.

For the evaluating the aroma, Ben Watson explained, “A hard cider’s aroma or bouquet usually comes from the percentage of fragrant apple varieties that were used in the original cider blend… Yeasts, both natural and cultured, plus other fruits, spices or adjuncts… can also contribute to the complex aroma of a good cider. To evaluate the aroma, put your nose near the top of the glass and take a good whiff; the cider’s bouquet should be a preview of the flavor. If it smells bad or is excessively sharp or vinegary, don’t even bother tasting the cider” (page 103).

Last comes tasting the cider, in which the evaluation can be broken into feel in the mouth and how it tastes on the tongue. Take some of the cider in your mouth and do or note the following:

• “Chew” on the cider a bit or roll it around in your mouth to get a feeling for the body. Full bodied ciders will feel heaver and richer, and thinner, watery ciders will have little sensation. There is no right or wrong to this, just an observation. However, watery ciders will not be as flavorful.
• Is it a sweet or dry cider?
• Is there a nice balance between sugar, acid, tannins, and alcohol? That is to say, are all the elements balanced in the tasting, or is there an element that over powers the other elements? For example, if you pucker, it may have too much tannin.
• Is the alcohol content strong or weak?
• After you swallow, does the aroma linger on?
• Please do not fault a cider because it does not taste like apples, as grape wines do not taste like grapes.
• Other descriptors?

Most importantly about tasting ciders is, “Do you like it?”Remember, it doesn’t matter how you scored a cider in relationship to others, but that you liked the cider, as your tastes will be different from the next person’s.

Cider Tasting Party

I have been reading up on having a cider tasting party with my friends this last weekend, but I unfortunately had to postpone it because it ended up being a busy weekend for people. However, we did have one couple come over and sample some of the easier to find ciders, including:

• Blue Mountain Farmstead Cider
• Crispin Honey Crisp Artisanal Reserve™
• JK’s Scrumpy Organic Hard Cider
• Wandering Aengus Heirloom Blend Cider

Mostly, I had been reading Ben Watson’s Cider: Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions & Making Your Own, 2nd Edition and Annie Proulx and Lew Nichol’s Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider. From it, I took away these lessons for hosting:

• The more guests you have, the more lively it will be.
• Limit cider tastings to 12 to 15 at the most, but try to mix up the varieties. Do some sweet, some dry, some sparkling, some still, some made from only one kind of apple, and some made from a blend of apples.Admittedly, I did one cider per person, with more available if people wanted some.
• Use clean transparent glasses or cups when tasting to allow people to evaluate the appearance of the cider. Glass is preferred since it will not affect the flavor of the cider. Wine glasses make for excellent cider tasting glasses, allowing the drinker to smell the cider better.
• Have food available, such as bread, vegetables, pâté, some other spread, and cheese. Spreads should not have garlic that will make everything you taste taste like garlic. The cheese should not be overly strong as to overpower the cider. Cheeses that will go well with cider would also go well with apples, such as a mild cheddar, Camembert, Brie, Gouda, or Gruyère.
• Blind tastings are the best and fairest way to taste cider so that one does not throw the tasting towards a cider they like, or chose one they like based on a label.
• While you can serve the ciders in any order, it is suggested that the lower alcohol ciders are served before the higher alcohol ciders, and the dry cider before sweet cider.
• The sweeter the cider, the colder it should be.
• Have the tasters rate the cider on a scale of 1 to 10. At the end of the tasting, add up the scores and reveal the winner before guests leave. Watson commented in his book, “In my experience, the ciders that tend to score the highest are well-balanced ones that appeal broadly to the entire group of tasters, but that do not necessarily have the most character or ‘personality’” (p 103).