[Review] Bulmers Berry Cider

[admin]

Bulmers/Magners is a great Irish success story. From humble beginnings in 1935 in Clonmel, William Magner could probably not have guessed that his business would grow to be one of the biggest cider producers, commanding 80% of the Irish cider market, and even sparking somewhat of a cider renaissance in the UK with its introduction there in 2005, and where it is now the biggest single cider player in the UK market. But C&C, the owners of the brand, haven't stood still, with expansion into the US & Canada where cider is seen as part of the craft beer revolution. Indeed they exported over 6,000,000 litres to North America and a further 3,000,000 to Australia in 2012, as well as exporting significant amounts to markets such a Finland and Japan.

With all the vital figures on the up, there seems to be little that C&C can do wrong.

On a recent visit to the supermarket to do the weekly shop I spotted some Bulmers Berry on the shelf. I'm a big fan of cider, particularly Irish cider, and particularly those put out by Tempted? but I haven't really tried too many what I would call cider derivatives. Having been at a BBQ hosted by NHC multi award winning medallist Dodge, where we were given some fabulous Berry Cider made from a Munton's kit that that Roger had hacked by adding home made concentrated apples juice, I decided I'd buy two cans of Bulmers Berry, in the faint hope that they would be remotely as good.

Unfortunately all the positives stop there. My seventeen year old daughter commented "Why are you buying that? That's what teenagers drink" as I lifted the cans off the shelf. Bad start. When I got home I chilled it in my kegerator to 6 degrees celcius before cracking it open. It pours with a Ribena coloured exuberant fizz that dies down quite quickly to leave no head, as one would expect. At a guess I would say this is carbonated to 3 volumes. Nothing really wrong with that per se, particularly if you like a thirst quencher on a hot day. But it got worse. After taking a mouthful I could tell my daughter was on to something. This is sickly sweet, far too sweet for most adults, and indeed my eight year old son may find it too sweet. According to Wikipedia the Berry version is also made with 17 varieties (or is it 22?) of apple. Unfortunately I cannot detect any real apple character. The predominant flavour is probably strawberry, which does not taste particularly real. In fact it reminds me of ethyl methylphenylglycidate, the ester that gives the artificial strawberry flavour to so many confectioneries.

I really wonder who this product is aimed at or why it exists. Is it a reaction to foreign imports of faddy ciders, from the likes of Koppaberg? I suspect it is, rather being being a cynical ploy to get very young drinkers won over from Club Orange and Cidona once they pass the legal age to consume alcohol. It's a pity, but from my daughter's first comments I was set up to be disappointed, and disappointed I was. I've since placed an order for Munton's Berry Cider from Homebrew West as I definitely will not be buying any more of this.

(If anyone from C&C is reading: drop us a line if you want advice on creating something that would appeal to grown ups!)

[Ciderhead]

This sounds like a blog, cough ;-)
It's aimed at youf that dont like cider taste and its piss what were you thinking, can you do a review of WKD next?


TT

[johnrm]

I've heard that it is great with Vodka, i.e. a replacement for RedBull.
I was at a promotion night for the stuff and one of the promoters told me this!

[irish_goat]

I really wonder who this product is aimed at or why it exists. Is it a reaction to foreign imports of faddy ciders, from the likes of Koppaberg? I suspect it is, rather being being a cynical ploy to get very young drinkers won over from Club Orange and Cidona once they pass the legal age to consume alcohol.

A bit of both I'd say. A lot of teenagers(and adults for that matter) don't like the taste of alcohol so will go for the easiest thing to drink. Cider and blackcurrant cordial or cheap white wine with blackcurrant are popular choices, also why vodka is popular but other spirits are not. 

From C&C's point of view though they're also looking at getting Bulmers in the pub fridges and not the likes of Koppaberg. Unlike craft drinkers, a lot of people will drink whatever is available so if there's no Koppaberg berry they'll be happy with Rekorderlig or Bulmers Berry.

Someone in the competition entered a raspberry cider that was delicious. I remember keeping the remains of that one for myself.