Simon's Cider

Slight haze, golden and flat.

Slight pear nose as you would expect as this is a blend of pear and cider

Dry pear hit initially but mellows out to a decent medium pear flavour with a light green skins tartness with a hint of vanilla. Medium tannin. Quite well balanced flavour wise because of that little sharpness. Decent long fruity aftertaste.

Not bad at all.

Golden, ever so slightly hazy and flat

Decent fresh apple juice nose, very fresh and clean

For 8% that is dangerously nice. Big russet flavour obviously, very bittersweet so expect that thump and wateryness in the back of the throat. It's fairly well balanced though and mellows quickly to a nice long mouth watering aftertaste. Leaves a nice mouth filling flavour. We were told that when they make this they add in extra apple leaves in the mix (I assume during the pressing, not to the barrel). Interesting concept if that's true, but I don't believe everything I'm told by random bar flies :-)

Big flavour to this one and you are reminded it is 8% by the sharpness at the back of the throat that stops you throwing it down your throat. That is no bad thing.

Lovely drop, shame it isn’t a tad weaker.

Clear, very light straw colour and flat

Lots of fruit in the nose with a bit of straw

Very different flavour wise. Initial hit is sweet and appley, that mellows to a green apple skin aftertaste. No tannin to note

Had it a different night. Slightly older and slightly more tart but very refreshing and nice. Touch of apricot in the taste.

Very easy to drink but beware at 6.5%

Roseberry is a strawberry I had to look it up. So this is a blend of the Simon's Pyder and fresh strawberries

Light golden yellow slight haze flat. Not pink as I expected.

Pear & apple nose mainly with just a hint of strawberry.

Well balanced flavour. You get the smooth tart dryness of their pyder but you also get a very mild strawberry sweetness. The strawberry is very subdued which is no bad thing as most fruit ciders are a bit over the top and I like my fruit ciders to still mainly taste of apples. The strawberry is there mainly in the nice fruity aftertaste.

That is a well thought out fruit cider. Well worth giving a go. You can certainly drink more than one pint as we'd had 2 on empty stomachs before we realised it was 7% ahem.

As I write this I sadly discovered that Simon passed away at the end of March so this won't be available for much longer. Very sad as he was very well respected in the local cider making community.

Had this at the Drayman's in Ely which has a very fine range of Cambridgeshire ciders.

Dark copper, clearish with bit of a head.

Not much of a nose, gentle straw and apples.

Very dry and yes bittersweet. Very astringent and a fair amount of tannin. Little bit of tart apple in there. Long aftertaste that does mellow out to butterscotch eventually but the astringency does stick in there.

Decent pint but you have to like the really dry ciders to go for this one I think. Another of Simon's cider: Short Sterling is an absolute corker.

Dark straw colour and clear

Very sharp phenol nose a bit like modelling glue. Hmm

Oh that’s very sharp. Not sour, just sharp and quite acidic with lots of phenol. It really grabs the back of the throat and leaves a sharp little after burn there. Meanwhile the front of the mouth has a tart desert apple flavour that fills the cheeks.

Quite hard to drink on anything else or even before anything else really. It’s very very unusual. That quite harsh sharpness will not be for most, but it is an interesting texture. I doubt if anyone could do a session on this one. So I’d recommend a half to see if you like it - no point in a mouthful as it’s too sharp, you need a 1/3 to even get used to it.

Golden, ever so slightly hazy and flat

Straight fermented apple nose but not huge

Oh that is lovely. Just how a cider should taste. Smooth, full of apple. Touch of vanilla and slight clove so has a hint of the apple pie about it. Such a lovely cider. Medium Long lingering fruity aftertaste again with hints of Vanilla.

Quite dry for a medium sweet. Such a shame no more to be produced.

Orange, hazy and flat

Fruity farmyard and slightly sharp nose

Lots of honey on top of a fruity cooking apple flavour. Little bit of sharpness in the background but the honey overwhelms a bit.

Not bad but a tad on the sweet side for me. Possibly didn't need the extra sweetening