Morning Cider

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the CAMRA’s Scottish Real Ale Festival, of course there was a cider section. I had to try the newly released all Scottish, Morning Cider by Scottish Ciders.

So you have an apple tree in your garden. Once a year the branches hang heavy, laden with ripe apples. You eat as many as you can, make a few pies for the freezer but you have barely picked a single branch of the tree. What do you do with the rest of the bounty? Well cider, obviously

Scottish Ciders is an urban cidery with a twist. Instead of buying in juice and making cider in a town, they are sourcing their apples from the town itself. Their first cider – Clyde Cider sourced apples from around the Clyde valley, which means Glasgow’s back yards.

The Morning Cider takes the concept over to Edinburgh to the suburb of Morningside. Edinburgh has a few more sunnier days than Glasgow. So there is the potential for for a higher yield.

The Nose

Sweet and sharp nose. Morning cider is a great name for this one as it smells just like the summer gardens of Edinburgh. There is the damp moss undertone with highlights of white flowers.

The Taste

There is a flash of sweet goodness and then it’s gone. Everything happens in an instant begging for a second sip just to work out what just happened. The Morning Cider is pretty light with somewhat of a strawberry bubblegum feel about it. A very smooth mouthfeel thanks to it being a still cider with low acidity this makes it easy to drink. There is a Diet Coke sweetness after taste which is exaggerated after a few more sips. Has it been artificially sweetened? I put this to John of Clyde Cider

“No – but I was wondering about this. Ciders are complex blends – and there is some bitterness that may outlive the sweetness” John Hancox

Final Thoughts on the Morning Cider

I love the concept here. I really wish it could work in Sydney or Melbourne but in this day and age I don’t think there are enough backyards with apple trees. As for the cider, it has some very appealing aspects perhaps bottled with a light sparkle, it would do very well in the Aussie market. I don’t know the Scottish market that well so maybe as a still pub pint is where it will thrive.  Compared to most of the other ciders on show it was certainly the easiest to drink.

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