What is it about Magners?

It must be the advertising that has made this cider so popular. Him Indoors (Guinness & real ale drinker) told me how lovely it was (with ice) and that I really should try it. Maybe there was too much ice but I thought it tasted less cidery than the non-alcoholic Cydrax of old - not impressed at all.

Seeing I was filling my basket with other bottles, another customer wittered on to me, in Sainsbury yesterday, about the merits of Magners.

Still my current favourite is Weston's Vintage (8.2). Not only does it taste great, but as it is so strong, it can happily cope with the addition of ice - and it still tastes of cider. Westons also do a very tasty organic (6.5) and 1880 Premium to celebrate 125 years of cider-making (8.2). They do a Vintage Cider Box (7.2?) and another bottled variety to be found in Tesco, but for me, the Weston's Vintage 500ml is the best.

Most stores sell this at £1.57 but, at the time of writing, Morrison's are selling at four for £5 and on offer at Sainsbury £1.27 a bottle, and Tesco £1.18. Somerfield have just started doing a litre of Weston's (7.2) for £2 something - I can't remember exactly - but it's not as nice.

Apparently there is a chap who visits Sainsbury, Marsh Mills, every evening and purchases six bottles of Weston's Vintage - he is known to the staff as 'Westons Man'. It can often be 'feast or famine' with this cider and I do feel guilty if I take the last bottle off the shelf, knowing that I've deprived 'Westons Man' of his favourite tipple when he comes in later. On the other hand - it might have been he who cleared the shelf the evening before, when I go in to find the shelf bare!

A good low alchohol alternative is Sainsbury's 500ml offering at 99p - not more than 1.0% vol, but with a decent flavour.