How to do a cider tasting

Know your apples:

• Eating apples/dessert apples - they add more floral, softer, citrus flavours
• Bitter sweet apples - add a lot of structure to cider - they bring astringency/tanin
  

Featured on the Irish cooking course is the Stonewell Medium Dry Irish Craft Cider which is 20% cider apples/bitter sweet and 80% eating apples.

Tasting wheel:

How to use:

Visual

When tasting cider, the first thing to do is look at its appearance. In a clear glass, hold the cider up to the light and look at the colour and the clarity - generally speaking, the darker the colour the more tannins there are in the cider giving the drink a dryer more bitter taste. Also, have a look at the amount of bubbles, using the ‘bubble meter’.

Smell

Give your glass a swirl to help release the aroma, then give it a good sniff a few times and see if you can describe what you smell.

Taste & Mouthfeel

Now time to taste! Take a sip and keep the cider in your mouth for a few seconds to help gather as much information as possible before swallowing. Again, have a think of the words which describe what you’re tasting using the tasting wheel as a guide.