What are "Top Rated Ciders"?
CiderExpert's 1-5 star rating system is far from unique. From all ratings, we compuate an aggregate rating. While there is some use to
this, it isn't as useful as you might think. A highly rated cider could be any of these:
- An overall excellent cider
- A cider good in its category, with a lot of reviewers who like that category
- A cider good in a popular category
However, there are very few ciders that have universal (or near universal) agreement that it is excellent (or poor).
Should I stick to highly-rated ciders?
Not necessarily.
If it's an overall excellent cider, you definitely want to give it a try! However in the other cases, if you don't happen to like that
category, you might be sorely disappointed.
So the short answer is no. Sticking to highly rated ciders is no guarantee you'll enjoy your cider, and you're likely to miss
out on a lot you will like.
Should I avoid low-rated ciders?
Not necessarily.
There are multiple reasons why a cider could end up with a low rating, for instance:
- It's just not a great cider
- A cider good in its category, but with few reviewers who like that category
- A cider good in an unpopular category
With just looking at the rating, you have no way of knowing why a cider got a relatively low overall rating. You might find
that you're a fan of ciders that are somewhat less popular.
If ratings aren't helpful, why does CiderExpert have a top-rated listing?
The Top Rated list has ciders that have a sufficient number of ratings that the number is meaningful, and
has the highest overall aggregate rating including all reviewers. This doesn't mean that everyone will like these ciders,
but they are popular.
So don't read too much into this list, but these ciders are good bets when:
- you are trying to start learning about different kinds of cider and don't know where to start
- you are picking out a cider to satisfy a group
Soon you will hopefully be venturing far beyond this list!
