Cherry Daze is a semi-sweet hard cider from Big B’s Hard Cider of Hotchkiss, CO. Made from organic apple juice produced onsite at their own orchards, the crisp apple character of this cider is also accompanied by ample amounts of tart Montmorency cherries.

If you’re in Colorado, you may have noticed Big B’s Organic Apple Juice in grocery stores. These are the same folks–they’ve recently branched out into hard cider. It is a natural progression, really, considering the uptick in demand for hard ciders and also the fact that home cidermakers like myself have been using their juice as a base for making hard cider for years…

Cherry Daze is my favorite of Big B’s hard ciders so far. It pours pink with a fresh apple aroma. The cherry is prominent enough to be a main feature, but it’s not overdone–the underlying fresh, green apple flavor comes through as well.

To be fair, I’m a bit of a sucker for tart cherries–I typically love them in a stout, in a cider, or in a mead–so I have a bit of a bias, but I really think it’s a flavor that works well. The same is not necessarily the case for sweet or dark cherries, which I feel can easily overwhelm the apple character when added to a cider.

This cider is very tart–both the apples and the cherries contribute significant acid–but just sweet enough to balance that out. I could use a bit more complexity, but I suspect that will come in time as the cidermakers grow more tannic cider fruit to blend into their hard ciders.

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