Heartwood – Wassail
Cider Profile:
Name: Heartwood – Wassail
Updated: January 2025
First Sampled January 2019
| Brand: Heartwood Farm & Cidery Type: Apple – Mulled Location of Production: Ospringe, Ontario ABV: 6.8% Website Link: heartwoodfarm.ca Ingredients: N/A Gluten Free: Yes Sugar Content: N/A Size(s) available: 750ml (bottle) |
Cider Crate Tasting Notes:
Smell: Strong aroma. Mulled spices with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and all spice hues. Some minerality/woodsy elements.
Initial Taste: Medium bite from spices and a mild kick from the carbonation. Bright fleshy apples. Quick and strong presence of spices – especially cinnamon and clove. Slight heat and burning from spices and from an unknown pepper. Oak/wood and maple syrup hints.
After Taste: Spices linger a while. A sour, wild apple comes through – including a mild crab apple flavour. Becomes sweeter with the cinnamon becoming more baked tasting in nature. Semi-dry finish with a deep, wild maple/woodsy flavour.
On ice: Carbonation slightly weakened. Flavour is overall dimmed and it becomes more focused on the spices. Slightly more thin.
Additional Notes: Heartwood’s Wassail Cider is a rich, flavourful dry cider that might be best enjoyed outdoors as Heartwood many times serves it. With a strong spice presence, it is warming and tastes like a baked apple pie in the finish. With a hint of wild flavours (including the apple notes), it has remnants of the forest it was fermented in, but done brightly so. When heated as per the instructions on the label (with a cinnamon stick and maple syrup) it becomes smoother and creamier – with the spices loosing some edge but a much stronger maple and woodsy flavour. A very authentic mulled apple cider – cold or hot -perfect for cool evenings and winters in general!
Rated on a scale of 1-5
Sweet – 1.5
Sour – 3
Crisp – 3.5
Dry – 4.5
Fruity – 4
Next recommendations:
More Sweet – 401 Cider – Apple Pie
More Sour – Heartwood – Eve Goes Badass
More Dry – Farmgate – Sugar Shack
More Crisp – Thornbury – Spiced Apple
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