Willie Smith’s Cool as Ice

Cool As Ice, one of 3 new releases created by Willie Smiths new head cider maker Thomas New. Over the next few weeks, I’ll look at the trio. But, like an American at the breakfast table I’m going to start with the dessert cider, Cool As Ice. 

Just looking at the bottle it marks a step-change it what you probably think about when you’re ordering a Willie Smiths. One of the first ciders I ever reviewed was Willie’s Organic Apple Cider and back then it was packed with lanolin and the smell of rain on a dusty road. It had the bottle memories of the sheep shearing shed I was playing in as a 5-year-old. This is the other end of the spectrum. Just look at the bottle, you have to look pretty closely to tell its even a cider infact the only time Cider is mentioned I in the small Willie Smith Logo. It looks like a punkish new world wine. 

Then we get to what’s inside the bottle. It is made from 100% Yates apples, an apple with high levels of sugar and kicking acidity hailing from Georgia, USA. The juice is frozen and left to thaw. The first half of melted liquid is all-natural sugar and flavour which is captured leaving behind the flavourless water. As they say like Taylor Swift’s 1989 “it’s all killer and no filler”.  

This cryo-concentrated liquid is fermented in big 500-litre oak barrels. The ferment is arrested just at the right moment when the sugar drops and the alcohol rises just so.

The Nose

There really isn’t much of a smell coming off my glass of Cool As Ice. It’s trying to have some leather, caramel and baked apple, but you really have to wait for the glass to warm and stick your nose deep into the glass to experience it.

The Taste

Bam! That is a surprise. Willie Smiths Cool As Ice is THICC. I don’t know whether to sip this or spoon it out and spread it on my toast with it’s Paddington Bear levels of marmalade. It is an interesting play on ice cider or dessert wines, the lower alcohol and light fizz makes it more easy-drinking than most dessert wines. It is so juicy as if its fresh juice running out of the press suppressed with a dash of dark rum or burnt sugar warmth. The Cool As Ice cider is typically sweet as the style dictates, but a tart tangy tail clears up the finish leaving being the smallest trace of orange flavoured jelly snakes.

Final Thoughts on Willie’s Smith Cool As Ice.

I don’t know what to compare this to. It’s not as dense and syrupy as other dessert wines and ice cider I’ve tried, and it’s cut with the fizz. This makes it much easier to drink a glass of the cider rather than just a tipple

What does this mean for Willies Smiths? A New direction or an evolution? While it’s great to look back on 1989, Folklore is something completely different and bloody good just like what’s going on with Cool As Cider.

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