County Cider – Blackberry Sage [Elgin Beer Project – Ottawa]

Sampled February 2018

We originally tried the County Cider Co. Blackberry Sage in the summer of 2017 at Elgin Beer Project  – which resulted in it being ranked in our top ciders for 2017. We were thrilled to grab it again in February of 2018.

The cider is a faint, sunshine yellow – with medium, constantly streaming bubbles.  It has a medium, sweet blackberry smell – with some standard apple cider aromas. A light bite to start, it has strong and quick sage and blackberry flavours that peaks and diffuses. The blackberry comes through more in the aftertaste. The sage flavours linger a lot on the tip of the tongue; and the cider becomes more sweet into the after taste. The whole experience is slightly tart, but also is sweet and overall, flavourful.

Its semi-dry cider with an authentic blackberry finish, unlike any other cider we can recall tasting. It starts from more bitter with the sage, ending rather sweet like a dessert. You naturally may not think sage would work well in a beverage, but if apples and sage work well together otherwise (ex. with pork), why not also in cider!

We noticed a slightly different consumption experience from 2017 to 2018’s versions of this Blackberry Sage Cider. The 2018 version appears to have had the sage toned-down – with the blackberry more enhanced.  The cider excellently balanced the sweet and the bitter elements, to create one of the more unique and best-tasting County Cider’s we’ve ever had.