Black Dog Black Cider

Not one for fruit cider but when you're at a cider festival why not... Cloudy dark red colour, no carbonation. Smells of blackcurrent with a farmy undertone. Really pleasent you can taste the apple tannic acid from the apple. Lots of tannic favours with a little puckering from the blackcurrent. Really nice cider. Chepstow ale and cider festival.

the general sourness overwhelms the citrus and lavender

This is a novelty drink. The activated charcoal did create a black cloud. The cider industry is enjoying a rebirth. I recommend that one learns how to make a cider before they make novelty drinks.

Bottle pour at Cider Summit Seattle 2015. This is a unique “black cider”, which is from adding activated charcoal (apparently a new beverage trend, and is good for the digestion too). It also includes lemon and agave nectar. The color turned out a very weird green-blue-black tint. Fairly dry. I’d say similar to Spanish Sidra (as it had a lot of sour citrus flavor) with a hint of weird from the charcoal. I thought of it as more of a novelty, but some of my tasting buddies said they would actually buy a bottle. This was more drinkable than their Cactus Red (which was crazy tart), but not my thing.