COMPARATIVE LIT ESSAY:
One of my favorite comparative reviews so far was the original Cherry Royale featuring a German cider, two from the Pacific Northwest, and one from Colorado which was the last cider standing—Colorado Cider Company’s Cherry Glider. In the last couple of years I have collected a couple more cherry ciders from some of CCC’s Colorado neighbors and decided to put them up against the reigning champ. The contenders are Colorado+49s Black Cherry, C Squared’s Dark Tart Cherry and Western Colorado’s Snow Capped Sour Cherry which has picked up a couple of awards at competitions. So, let’s breakdown the cherry options from the Centennial State.
The Black Cherry and Sour Cherry look almost identical with an opaque salmon color; the Glider is a translucent copper and the Dark Tart Cherry is the prettiest and lives up to its name with a dark and still red wine-looking appearance. I think the Dark Tart Cherry also has the most interesting and inviting nose of bitter cocoa powder; the Sour Cherry actually has a sour cherry nose and the Glider has a deep rich cherry aroma with some apple peeking through. The Black Cherry is the most curious, as it smells of cucumber and that aroma carries through to the flavor of the drink. In this sense, it doesn’t feel like it delivered on what was promised. While I was hoping for something dark and rich, I got a light, garden-like, cider. The Glider was the brightest cider that was refreshing and well balanced and it tasted like a cherry flavored cider and not a cherry drink. So the cherries just enhanced the tartness of a nice crisp apple cider. When it comes to tart though, the Sour Cherry takes the cake as it was the tartest and clearly in the sour range. It was, however, crisper on the tongue than the Dark Tart Cherry which has the most interesting flavor of the four. It was dark, super still, and mysterious. The weight was a bit heavy and the mouthfeel more dull than the others.
Let’s start with the two salmon-colored ciders. Colorado+49 can’t be the winner. Though it is not a bad cider, the light garden-like cherry with cucumber as the main flavor just can’t win a cherry competition. Especially as black cherry was promised and a rich, dark, tart cherry flavor was expected. Snow Capped is a contender. It is well balanced, fairly smooth and with the tiniest amount of farmhouse funk that many cider fans like myself enjoy, but it is pretty sour and without a clear cherry flavor. I don’t think it’s the winner either, but if you like a really tart drink or sour beers, give this a try, I think you’ll like it. That brings us to the Dark Tart Cherry and the champ. Dark looks more inviting and mysterious and that nose had me pledging allegiance and wanting to explore its richness further. The bitter chocolate cocoa vibe could be what I am after. Maybe this would work on Valentine’s Day. If I had cranked up the bass on a Barry White album and was sitting on a plush velvet Ottoman, this would win. And if I were a red wine drinker exploring cider for the first time, this is where I’d go. But at the end of the day the champion still stands. It is the best all-around drink that has just the right amount of crispness, tartness, sweetness, and cherryness to make everyone happy. It’s good. A refreshing apple cider with just enough cherry flavor to elevate the apple flavor without being gimmicky. If cherry is your thing, just try some.