COMPARATIVE LIT ESSAY:
I once was in an Irish pub in County Tipperary shooting some pool with my mate, and as the red and yellow balls were cracking around the table this old local culchie starts chatting me up. Seeing that I had a cider, he told me that beer was an imperialist drink. Did I know that they had been drinking cider in Ireland for over 1000 years and that hops aren’t even native to the island? In fact, he argued that cider was the drink of true republicans and freedom fighters because the Irish homelands could produce all their cider locally without relying on British supply chains needed for making beer. Clearly this Irish nationalist took a lot of pride in the Irish cider tradition. Now, I can not back up the veracity of the above story with any historical evidence—so take it for what it is—but it got me thinking: I should do a comparative review to see which I like better, English or Irish cider, and to find out if all that Irish cider nationalistic bravado could stand up in a taste test. So, I got my hands on an expensive Irish import, O’Callahan’s Irish Cider, and a bottle from one of the most influential English cidermakers, Tom Oliver’s Traditional Cider. For kicks and giggles I threw in a Magners because that is the most readily available cider here in America, and an American wannabe cider claiming to be an “English-Style Dry Apple Cider,” (Reveille’s King’s Cross). Time to see how they compare:
It was interesting that all but the American cider had a copper hue to them which was unusual. Both the O’Callaghan’s and the Oliver’s were dead still and the Oliver’s had a subtle, deep nose that I found the most appealing of the four. The Magner’s was the bubbliest, most acidic, and had far more life and flavor than either O’Callaghan’s or Oliver’s. In fact, both of the two top shelf ciders lacked life. The Irish one was flat with just the tiniest amount of farmhouse funk and spiciness, slightly medicinal and with a small amount of sweetness in the finish, and Oliver’s mouthfeel was so watery that I couldn’t get any of the promised spiciness and oakiness, just some interesting bitter tannins. The King’s Cross was dry and crisp with just enough flavor to make it pop a little in the finish.
In choosing a winner, I have to be honest and say that both the expensive imports were disappointing. Both lacked life and maybe something was lost crossing the Atlantic (bad crown cap?) and so I’ll have to try and give them another shot in the future. Thus, I find myself choosing between the Magner’s and the American, King’s Cross. I swear I am not taking a piss, but of the four I like the American best—if I’d known this would be the winner, I’d have left it out of the comparison! While I do enjoy Magners, more than the average cider critic, King’s Cross just has that hearty dry bitterness that reminds me of English drinking sessions in a pub. And as I write a rugby match is coming on in two minutes and this is what I want by my side regardless of whatever yarn some old Irish yokel has spun, or the price tag of my two top shelf imports. So, I don’t yet have a definitive answer as to who makes better cider—the English or the Irish—but I’m gonna keep drinking and doing more research.