Name: Black Cherry Cider
Brand: Cowbell Brewing Co.
Availability: InStock

Cowbell Brewing Co. makes its Black Cherry Cider with Ontario apples and Ontario cherries, and lets the cherry go first.

The Blyth producer's small-batch cider is 5 percent ABV in 473 ml cans, available at the LCBO alongside the brewery's Absent Landlord sale running through October 10. Cowbell describes a profile of black cherry with soft hints of apple, finishing on what it calls a crisp, refreshing apple cider character.

The order of those two matters. In a category where fruit is frequently an addition layered over a finished apple base, Cowbell is describing the cherry as the lead and the apple as support - the can itself reads "made with 100% Ontario apples and cherries." The brewery's notes point to floral and tart flavours alongside the fruit, with the apple supplying the dry, clean landing rather than the headline.

Ontario is well-suited to the combination. The province's tender-fruit and apple growing regions overlap closely, and sour and black cherries come off the trees within weeks of the early apple harvest. Both fruits bring sharp acidity, which is what lets a cherry cider finish dry instead of collapsing into sweetness.

Cowbell suggests an unusually specific pairing list: cinnamon buns, lemon chicken, gingersnaps, coconut curry and almond rings.

Cans are on LCBO shelves now.

Editor’s Take

Most fruit ciders are apple cider wearing a fruit costume, and you can usually taste the seam. What catches my attention here is the ordering Cowbell describes: black cherry in front, apple as "soft hints" behind it. That is a deliberate inversion, and it is harder to pull off than it sounds, because apple is not a shy base. Getting it to stand back and let the cherry lead means the cherry has to be doing real work rather than sitting on top as flavouring.\n\nThe fruit pairing itself is old and sound. Cherries and apples are both pome-and-stone orchard neighbours in Ontario, ripening within weeks of each other in the same counties, and they share enough acid structure that the cherry reads as an intensification rather than an intrusion. Cowbell's pairing list is where it gets properly interesting though - cinnamon buns, gingersnaps, coconut curry. Somebody there has worked out that tart cherry against warm baking spice is one of the great combinations, and then quietly wandered off into curry territory. I would follow them. A cold, acidic, faintly sweet cider against coconut and heat is exactly the sort of thing that makes you reconsider what you have been drinking with takeout all this time.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Black Cherry Cider Is Built on Ontario Fruit, Cherry Over Apple

A small-batch cider made with 100 percent Ontario apples and cherries, where the black cherry leads and the apple sits underneath. Cowbell puts it at 5 percent, on LCBO shelves now.

Source & Editorial