An alcohol review by: Lee Sonogan

(1962) Alcohol/cider

“A bruised apple is not all bad. It still has tremendous potential.”
― Seth Adam Smith, Rip Van Winkle and the Pumpkin Lantern

Strongbow is a cider produced by H. P. Bulmer in England since 1962. Strongbow is the world’s leading cider with a 15 per cent volume share of the global cider market and a 29 per cent volume share of the UK cider market. Cider is the next drink to drink other than beer.

In 2011, Strongbow Gold, produced in Belgium, was launched across Europe in response to cider’s growing popularity on the continent. In 2012, Strongbow was the highest selling cider in Australia, and was the second highest selling cider in North America. The majority of Strongbow is produced at Bulmer’s Hereford plant, although regional variations are also produced at Heineken’s cider mill in Belgium, and in Australia.

In the United Kingdom, Strongbow is a blend of bitter-sweet cider and culinary apples, with 50 different varieties of apple used. The apples are grown in England and France. It is fermented with a controlled yeast strain, and at least some varieties are flavoured with artificial sweeteners. The Bulmers Strongbow vat is the largest alcoholic container in the world, with a capacity of 1.5 million gallons.

The cheap choice for me is cider. It is not for everyone as its sweet taste of appleness can put people off. I wish to try variants of the drink such as Dark fruit, Citrus edge, Cloudy Apple, Gold Apple, Red Berry and Elderflower. I recommend this drink to everyone who likes the taste of apples!

7.32/10

“Up until Prohibition, an apple grown in America was far less likely to be eaten than to wind up in a barrel of cider. (“Hard” cider is a twentieth-century term, redundant before then since virtually all cider was hard until modern refrigeration allowed people to keep sweet cider sweet.)”
― Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World