Armada Cider – The Recipe Since 1588

Armada Cider has created a line of craft hard ciders inspired by a prized recipe created in 1588 (according to their marketing)! They’ve blended together apple wine, fresh-pressed apple juice, and natural fruit flavors to create a delicious and wholesome cider that brings you back to a simpler time. Packaged in large, simple 400 ml amber glass bottles with a classic “bottle cap” style lid, you feel like you’re drinking something special and luxurious, but not too frilly or overworked. Their original Craft Apple flavor contains NO added sugar, while their fruity flavors use only 3% added sugar. This presents a more fresh-tasting cider than more sugary cider counterparts. All flavors are also gluten-free, making it an excellent alternative to beer for those who are avoiding gluten! Their innovative blend of apple wine and pressed apple juice imparts a pure apple flavor to all of their blends that sets this cider apart for us.  These ciders also have an excellent balance of bubbles to flavor. The cider is available in three varieties: Craft Apple, Black Currants and Wild Strawberries, and Wild Strawberries.

Craft Apple

The classic Craft Apple variety of Armada Cider most closely resembles the 1588 recipe supposedly coveted by The Duke of Medina Sidonia. They blend together tart and sweet apples to create a balanced and clean apple flavor that is neither too bitter or too sweet. Immediately upon opening the bottle, you’re hit with an amazing apple-wine scent that makes you eager to taste the drink! The sweet apple juice flavor hits your tongue first, and then a lingering flavor of apple-wine takes over. We think those who love hard ciders will be impressed by the natural and pure apple taste of this cider!

Black Currants and Wild Strawberries

This fruity twist on a classic hard cider was our favorite of the bunch. Far from just having “hints” of black currant, you can immediately smell the berries mixing with the apple scent when you open a bottle of this flavor. And the taste is equally enchanting! The sweet/tart flavor of black currant is a perfect complement to their apple blend, and the resulting blend is dynamic, unique, and delicious! We didn’t, however, notice a strong strawberry flavor in this recipe. The wild strawberry imparts some more sweetness to this flavor if anything!

Wild Strawberries

This flavor was the least impressive of the bunch to us, but that’s not to say that it’s unpleasant! The strawberry flavor present in this recipe tasted a little artificial to us, almost like strawberry candy. One of the things we liked most about the other flavors was how natural they tasted, so we weren’t expecting a fairly synthetic strawberry flavor in this one! That being said, the strawberry aroma is strong and incredibly pleasant, and does entice us to take another sip…and another! This flavor would likely be perfect for those who like a sweeter cider, and the refreshing taste of their apple blend is still front and center, so our complaints are minor!

For more information visit Armada Cider 1588 website.

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