Review of first 5 hard ciders

I've had 5 out of the 10 hard ciders that I picked up earlier this month, so I thought I'd do a quick review of the 5 I've had so far.

Here are all 10 that I bought (seen in this post), but I've only tried 5.

Here are 5 reviewed in order that I had them:

Woodchuck Raspberry Hard Cider ($1.79): Great, crisp, raspberry flavor. It tastes sharp, but it goes down really well. This was sweet and tasty. Score: 8.5 out of 10.

Ciderboys "Strawberry Magic" Apple Strawberry Hard Cider ($1.49): Again, very crisp. More heavy on the apple flavor, but it's a good flavor. Just a bit tart (like a fresh apple), but otherwise pretty sweet. Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Abita Purple Haze ($1.79): This was a flavored beer. It's a lager brewed with raspberries added at the end. It tasted just like "normal" beer with just a little fruitiness. Just a LITTLE. It wasn't bad, but I'm not a fan of beer - I was hoping this was less beer-like. If you like a slightly sweeter beer, then try it. But I wasn't a fan. (I HAD to try this one because Abita makes my favorite root beer ever.)  Score: 3 out of 10.

Samuel Smith's Organic Cider ($2.99): This was really dry and reminded me of a white wine. It needed to be sweeter. No thanks. And it was the most expensive of all the 10 bottles I purchased (there are 2 more that I haven't tried yet that were also $2.99, but all the others were $1.49-$1.99).  Score: 3 out of 10.

Wyder's Dry Pear Hard Cider ($1.99): This was OK. It was dry (as implied in the name), but not as dry as the last one I had. The pear had a nice sharpness/tartness to it, and there was still a little sweetness in there too. It tasted refined (like wine), yet sweet (like a sweet cider). Score: 6 out of 10.


So Woodchuck won this round, and Ciderboys was close behind. But I have 5 more to try - I hope to be posting about the rest of these in about a month. Check back!