My apologies if I am going to disappoint anyone, but I do not like beer.
The smell is wonderful, but as far as I am concerned the flavour is lacking.
I know there are many beers besides Maccabi & Goldstar.
I have tasted beers of all kinds all over England and Germany, as well as boutique beers in Belgium, and I will be willing to taste others in the future.
However if I have not yet found my beer, it most likely does not exist.
So what do I drink with the guys?
A glass of white wine is not always in place, and unless you are in a restaurant it is usually a little pompous.
In Great Britain, it is not a problem, every pub has a selection of ciders, and I don’t mean the juice Americans call cider, but real fermented stuff. There are dry ciders, sweet ciders, semi-dry ciders, and they can contain anything between 3.7% and 8.4% alcohol, they come in bottles and on tap.
In Germany they even have different names for the cider depending on its age, type and fermentation stage, Apfelwein, Most…
France and parts of Spain also have a long history of the drink (Cidre, Sidra).
And in Israel, what do we have?
Galilee Cider (the apple juice producer) tried their luck a few years ago with an “alcoholic cider”.
It is not easy to put a new drink on the market, but if you try, at least make sure it is good – it wasn’t.
As far as I know there is no regular import of cider, but lately, following the proliferation of boutique wineries and the dabbling in beer, a few new Israeli ciders have appeared on the shelves.
Galilee Boutique Winery which was up till now involved in getting their “pomegranate wine” on the market, recently launched 2 new fermented beverages, something from pomegranates and Green Cider.
The cider contains 5.9% alcohol, and although it is not specified on the label, I would classify it as semi-sweet. I bumped in to it by chance in the Eden Teva Market chain – at 13 NIS reasonably priced.
…and most important – it tastes good!!!
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