Last autumn, I tasted every cider I could get my get my lips around, which turned out to be an exhaustive 13 ciders from Canada, America, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom. This year, I aimed to try every cider that was either new to the market or just new to my area of Southern Ontario.

The autumn of 2013 produced some of the best ciders I have ever had in Pommies Dry Cider and Tempt No. 9 Cider. I’m also happy to say that unlike last year, no ciders have failed my review, the lowest ranking cider (I’m looking at you Somersby Blackberry Cider) scored an adequate 6/10.

Canadian Cider

Pommies Dry Cider

Made in Ontario, Canada

By Southern Cliff Brands

• $12.95 for 4 355mL bottles
• 5.0% alcohol/volume

This is my all-time favourite cider. Not only does it come in a lovely bottle with minimalist design that shows off it’s nearly clear colour, topped with a cute red cap, it also presents the most beautiful, sophisticated and delicate dry cider flavour. The soft, elegant carbonation bubbles glide over your tongue and leave you with a taste as clean and simple as the design on the bottle. Pommies Dry Cider is the champagne of ciders. I rate it a 10/10.

Foundry Cider

Made in the United Kingdom

By Diageo Canada Inc

• $3.00 for 500mL can
• 4.5% alcohol/volume

I found Foundry to be very interesting. It is a very tart cider with a nice full-bodied finish and a subtle touch of smoke. The LCBO suggests serving this cider with pub fare, and I couldn’t agree more. Foundry Cider encompasses all the scents and flavours of fall, it is what all good cider should taste like. I rate it a 9/10.

Molson Canadian Cider

Made in Ontario, Canada

By Molson’s Brewery of Canada Limited

• $2.90 for 473mL can
• 5.0% alcohol/volume

A yeasty and dry cider, Molson Canadian Cider tastes more like an apple flavoured beer than a cider. Do not get me wrong, I did enjoy the fact that it is decidedly dry and unsweet, I supposed I just feel the same way about their cider as I do about their beer; Molson Canadian Cider is not unpleasant, it just is not anything special either. I rate it a 7/10.

Flavoured Cider

Tempt Cider No. 9

Made in Denmark

By Brewery Group Denmark A/S

• $1.95 for 330mL can

• 4.5% alcohol/volume
• Strawberry & Lime flavour

When I first saw the beautiful packaging of Tempt No. 9 on the shelves of my local liquor store, I was compelled to pick it up, even though I feared the life-sustaining cider inside could not possible live up to the lovely promise made by the gorgeous can – especially with this strawberry-lime nonsense. I was woefully mistaken; this is by far my favourite cider of the year. Although it did not taste much like a traditional cider, it did possess all of the most enjoyable qualities of a truly good cider. Tempt No. 9  has a pleasant touch of dryness, in fact it was much dryer than expected for a flavoured cider. It is neither overpoweringly flavoured nor sickly sweet, a common misstep taken by flashy fad flavoured ciders and beers alike. Tempt Cider No. 9 is the perfect sipping cider; the beautiful can is merely the cherry on top. I rate it a 10/10.

Somersby Blackberry Cider

Made in Denmark

By Carlsberg Canada Inc.

• $2.95 for 500 mL can
• 4.5% alcohol/volume

Last year, I gave Somersby Apple Cider an easy 7/10 rating, despite not being terribly fond of it. Their Blackberry Cider, though less sweet than their candy-coated apple “flavoured” cider, is not any better. I approached this one open-minded, I am a huge fan of blackberries after all, and I even brought in a professional chef (an old friend who happened to be visiting for the weekend). He declared that it was “tart and… um finishes well” before handing it back with a grizzled look in his eye. The blackberry flavouring of this cider seems odd; it adds more tartness and colour than flavour. Even more so than Somersby Apple Cider, Somersby Blackberry Cider seems like a cider for people who do not like cider. I rate it a 6/10.