Inspiration

End of Summer Scrumpy

Nathan N on 04th Sep, 2015

Cider’s going through an amazing revival and has been supped summer long in the sunshine (or rain) at festivals, camping trips, picnics & barbeques. Here’s a guide to the best scrumpy we've seen this summer.

Craft cider’s a real heritage industry in this country and deserves our support. Sure, just like beer, it went through a dodgy patch (mass produced, fizzy yellow-ish and dull)… but luckily the good times are back. Really tasty great quality cider and perry (pear cider) are being hand-made again all over the UK.

Here’s my whistlestop tour of my top 3 to sink your taste buds into:

1. Up in Scotland there’s the award winning Thistly Cross who in addition to their Traditional and Original also does as you might expect a Whiskey Cask, but also Real Ginger and Real Strawberry. No nasty fake syrups like you find in many of the popular flavoured ciders on the market today.

2. Wales produce some wonderful stuff as well with Gwynt Y Ddraig - flying the dragon with their traditional Farmhouse Cloudy Scrumpy.

3. England’s where you’lll find the champagne of ciders – Pilton, from cider’s heartland. Sanford Orchards in Devon is a must as well. New Forest is worthy of a mention for top scrumpy but produce superbly refreshing Perry as well.

If you have a tough time getting a hold of any of these, the supermarkets tend to do their own specialty ranges which are pretty decent. Failing that, you can never go wrong with a Thatchers, Orchard Pig or Sheppy’s.

Summer may be on its last legs so there's no time like the present to sink into your favourite end-of-summer scrumpy.