Made by: Craft Brands

Made in: Cape Town, South Africa

Style: Medium Sweet

ABV: 4.5%

Carbonation: Sparkling

Bought: Waitrose

Price: £1.75 (300ml bottle)

Producer’s website: Sxollie

South African cider. I know, weird. Turns out, though, that South Africa is the world’s second largest consumer of cider behind the UK. Granted, most of it is the sort of mass-produced stuff that this blog doesn’t concern itself with, but still.

Sxollie – pronounced skollie – was founded in 2014 by a bunch of appleheads in Cape Town who wanted to bring 100% juice cider using 100% locally-sourced apples to the market, with the added twist of producing only single-varietal ciders (and perries). That, sir, is a business plan I can get behind.

Sxollie is firmly part of the craft cider movement, a term I don’t particularly like, mainly because it doesn’t mean anything but also because it’s a word that’s been devalued to worthlessness by global brewers. Sxollie has also gone for the pronounced minimalist, edgy, indie sort of branding that characterises many craft ciders. You can see what it’s trying to do in a market dominated by a single enormous producer (Distell), but for my money the world has enough BrewDog disciples as it is.

Sxollie gets its name at least partly from the English word ‘scallywag’ – a bit more traditional than ‘punk’, I suppose – and reflects the company’s commitment to shaking up the market.

But enough about the branding, what’s the cider like?

TASTING NOTES, AFTER A FASHION:

OK, according to the bottle there’s 3.3 golden delicious apples in every bottle, a curiously precise number, and I’m desperate to know what the fermented juice of 3.3 golden delicious apples tastes like.

In the glass it’s very pale straw with a very slight tinge of green. It’s crystal clear and nice and lively with a good ping of fizz off it.

On the nose it’s sweet, stewed apples all the way, like lifting the crust off an apple pie. There’s also little hints of tropical fruit behind – or is it gooseberry?

In the mouth it’s sweet but not oversweet with a lush creaminess. Not much in the way of astringency to temper the sweetness or build complexity and a little thin but there is a crispness there that stops it becoming cloying. Stewed apples, a tiny bit of vanilla maybe and as the finish develops you’re left with the clear sensation that you’ve just bitten into a golden delicious apple, which shouldn’t be a surprise but sort of is.

Very, very easy to drink, approachable and engaging, it’s a remarkable cider that’s far better than it should be. It lacks a little depth and complexity, if we’re going to be really picky, but single varietal ciders always face that challenge. All told, it’s a lovely little curiosity that’s well worth a revisit.

4️⃣/5️⃣