Carling Cider

One of the newer drinks on the market is this nicely styled bottled cider from Carling, yet another lager brand entering the cider world. It comes in half litre bottles and so far, I have not seen it in a can or in any other format.
It tends to be expensive and for that reason, I have only sampled it when it is on special offer.
The taste is pretty good, the sweet apple hits you first and this is followed by a nicely rounded honey after-taste. No harshness here, no sweeteners detected and overall a very welcome and refreshing drink. The sweetness is well-balanced, and although the after-taste has those very distinctive honey tones, the result is still a refreshing medium-dry cider.
Whether it justifies it's rather bold claim to be worth £1.99 a bottle or nearly £4 a litre is doubtful. I bought this 6-bottle pack for £7.00, while the single bottle was on offer at £1.25. At these promotional prices, this is a must-try drink, but there are other equally good ciders that don't try to command the prices that Carling do. Whether this pricing policy is deliberately conjured up to make the drink more attractive when on 'special offer', or whether Carling are genuinely going to try and market this drink in the £4 a litre bracket in the longer term, only time will tell. I aim to keep an eye on this pricing policy and will definitely be flagging this up, if they drop the price in the future - not because I want to let people know that the drink has become more reasonably priced, but to make people aware of what I believe could well turn out to be a marketing strategy designed to make mugs of us, the consumers.

Price Guide: bottle £3.98 per litre - available in 6 x 500ml bottle pack
Rating: **** (4 stars)
Brewer: Molson Coors
Alcohol content: 4.5%
Sold in 500ml bottles
(500x4.5)/1000= 2.3 units of alcohol
Recommended Safe Daily allowance: 1 bottle