Stella Artois Pear Cidre (Cider)

Last year, I reviewed the new cider from Stella Artois, which, for reasons of pretension and/or marketing guff, they insist that everyone call “cidre not cider”, even going so far as to provide phonetic notes*. That said, the cider itself was pretty well-received, both from me and the cider-drinking folks I speak to.

So popular, in fact, that a second product has been added to the range: a pear cider (oops, sorry, I mean cidre!); this follows in the footsteps of Magners, Bulmers and Kopparberg.**

Stella Pear Cidre is made with hand-picked pears using a Belgian recipe and is bottled at 4.5% ABV. Beyond that, I couldn’t find out much.

But how does it taste?

Colour: Light green (rather like Rose’s Lime Cordial).

Nose: Slightly acidic; there’s some fruit, but it’s not that inviting.

Taste: Far, far better than the nose (but then who goes around sniffing cider?), with a medium-high level of fizz. It is not too sweet and has plenty of juicy, fruity notes and a good amount of dryness. Overall, I thought it was rather good and pretty refreshing, but maybe a touch too gassy.

Over ice: I don’t think that ice adds much to the flavour of the drink, but it will keep it cooler for longer and will quickly cool down a bottle that’s at room temperature. Personally, I would rather drink Stella Pear Cidre without ice, but well-chilled.

In Conclusion

I think that, all thing considered, this is a pretty good product and is far better than the offerings from Bulmers or Magners (which I’m not very keen on). I’d buy Stella Pear Cider again.

Stella Artois Pear Cidre (Cider) is available to purchase from supermarkets for around £1.80 for 568ml (one imperial pint).

* I think that this is a pretty vain and nonsensical gimmick; if someone has trouble pronouncing the name of your product, they are going to be less likely to order it from a bar. That said, in supermarkets (where no such oraton is required), this cider has done very well; according to The Grocer magazine, it has done £36m of supermarket sales, which is the equivalent of 16.8% (by volume) of the current cider market.

** Strongbow have also followed suit with a pear cider.