Sulkers – Super Dry [Gilt – Kitchener, ON]

 Sampled June 2017

Downtown Kitchener has gone through a major revitalization recently. With new landscaping and the many openings of trendy, high-class establishments, it is increasingly becoming a very distinguished and modern area. One of the restaurants that significantly adds to this new downtown flare is Gilt – which has been open since 2014 on King Street. A very chic and stylish place inside, it could be missed from the outside if you weren’t looking for it. We may have missed it ourselves if we had not seen that Sulkers Cider was available there from an Instagram photo of theirs.

Sulkers started as a cider subscription service that would periodically deliver their drinks to consumers who signed up online, in hopes for feedback and input. However, recently they have made the jump to serving on draught in select bars and restaurants – with Gilt being one of the first in Kitchener to serve up their cider on tap.

Available the day we went there was Sulker’s Super Dry cider – a 6.9% canary yellow coloured drink. With a mixture of large and small bubbles, the drink has a semi-streaming steady flow upwards and a musty, sweet apple smell.

In the initial sip, there is a medium bite from the carbonation and the apple tannins. It is quickly sweet and tangy – with some mustiness and astringency. Along with the strong apple flavour, we detected hints of pineapple flavours. Into the aftertaste, the tanginess remains; with the sweet notes lingering on the pallet for awhile as well. It becomes more acidic in nature, with some minor lemon flavour hints. With a clean, dry finish, it ends with some minor white wine characteristics.

Sulker’s Super Dry is a clean, smooth drink, that has some sensation from the carbonation, but it does not affect the taste or pallet significantly. The flavour journey is largely consistent from start to finish – with it being more crisp in the beginning to ending more dry.

We enjoyed our first Sulkers Cider experience and we look forward to trying more – especially of their experimental flavours that we’ve seen them post on social media. We also look forward to our next visit to Gilt; as its décor was modern and sleek and an extremely friendly and helpful bar staff on hand!