Henry Hotspur's Hard Pressed For Cider

I'm possibly the worst person on the planet to review this trio of drinks. I almost never drink alcohol--it's literally about once a year. That's because I really hate the taste of ethanol. For me, whether an alcoholic drink is successful basically boils down to whether it can adequately mask the taste of the alcohol, which is admittedly a pretty bizarre criterion.

Nina bought and served the plain one (left in the photo). I quite liked it--good flavors of apple, cinnamon, and clove. On another occasion, she went for the Spiced version, and I liked that even better.

This prompted me to pick up a bottle of all three on my next TJ's trip, which is what resulted in the picture above. Nina and I tried the third variety, Ginger, together. I didn't like it much at all. It felt like the apple and ginger clashed.

I was then left to drink my other two bottles (plain and Spiced) on my own. For reasons that I can't clearly articulate, I did not like either one as much as I had when I first tried them, though the Spiced remained much favored over the plain. Maybe things just taste better at Nina's house, or when I'm with her. (I'm serious about that being a real possibility. Of course it would be a purely psychological phenomenon, but when we're talking about something as subjective and contingent on context as how a thing tastes, the psychology cannot be dismissed lightly.)


Will I buy it again? 

No. For a brief time, I thought somebody had finally produced an alcoholic beverage that I could actually enjoy, rather than just tolerate. But on a revisit, this impression didn't hold up.

Nina's View

I like all three of these, but the Spiced one is my least favorite. It's just got too much going on. 

I have, so far, found some variation in the flavor of the regular one—I think it's possible that there is a bit of difference from batch to batch. It's less noticeable in the flavored versions.

I think these beverages are best enjoyed quite cold either a) in front of a roaring fire or in a cozy room full of friends or b) on a nice hot, sunny day. I think the non-Spiced varieties go very well with boldly flavored food.