About
Harvesting from over thirty heritage orchards and backyards on Pender, Saturna & Mayne Islands, we are a community-centered cidery dedicated to making traditional cider and perry fermented only with native yeasts—cider which truly conveys our island terroir.
7.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
750mL bottle, pours a clear golden with a quickly-dissipating white head. Aroma is wonderfully fragrant, with intense barnyard funk, crisp apple skins, and some earthy core. Flavour is nicely funky and nearly bone dry, with lots of barnyard funk, crisp apple skins, and some earthy core. Carb is below average for the style and the cider suffers a bit because of it. Good funk and dryness but doesn't have the complexity of some of their others. Good.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Jun 2023
at 06:09
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
750mL bottle, pours a gorgeous dark mahogany with a quickly-dissipating pink head. Aroma is wonderfully funky, with musty grape skins, barnyard funk, and a touch of leather. Flavour is bone dry, with lots of red grape skins, lots of wine must, barnyard funk, and a touch of apple skins. Champagne-like effervescence finishes this off with an assertive but fitting carbonation. Maybe not as excellent as previous Grape Friends versions, but it's very tasty.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Apr 2023
at 07:30
7.6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
750ml @ Ryan's. Appearance: light straw, almost like unfiltered apple juice, quickly disappearing white head. Aroma: some sweetness, funk, some manure. Taste: quite sweet, but almost bone dry at the same time. Overall: pretty pleasant.
Tried
on 06 Apr 2023
at 03:40
7/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
Poured from 750mL bottle. Hazy gold with extremely quickly dissipating white head. Gentle red apple mix, some apple core, dry-ish with an underlying sweetness, hint of barnyard in the background.
Tried
from Bottle
on 06 Apr 2023
at 03:31
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
750mL bottle, pours a cloudy murky golden with quickly-dissipating white head. Nose is bone dry, with a nice barnyard funk, apple skins, and champagne-like effervescence. Flavour is lightly sweet, with plenty of barnyard funk, lots of apple core, some apple skins, and a gentle champagne-like effervescence. The sweetness on the flavour is much more evident than on the aroma. I somewhat prefer Twin Island's funkier, drier ciders -- as this one is a bit too apple core-y -- but it's clearly a well-made cider as usual.
Tried
from Bottle
on 06 Apr 2023
at 03:30
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
750ml @ Matt's new place during Andrew's visit. Appearance: a bit hazy blonde with a quickly disappearing white head. Aroma: very funky, woody, nice apples. Taste: along the same lines, quite carbonated and dry. Overall: good one.
Tried
on 11 Feb 2023
at 08:21
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Off-dry, lots of apple skins, earthy, esoteric apple character. Ok, this is a lot of fun.
Tried
on 11 Feb 2023
at 08:21
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Poured from 750mL bottle. Clear-ish gold with quickly dissipating white head. Very crisp apple skin with an underlying gentle funk. Quite crisp, quite decent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Feb 2023
at 08:19
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
750mL bottle, pours a clear blonde with a massive white head with quick retention. Aroma is full of barnyard funk, champagne-like effervescence, and wild yeast. Flavour is rather citric, with tons of champange-like effervescence, wild yeast, plenty of funk, and crisp apple skins. Very highly carbonated, with tons of champagne notes and wild yeast. Excellent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Feb 2023
at 08:05
7.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
750mL bottle, pours a hazy pale golden blonde with a quickly-dissipating white head. Aroma brings out lots of barnyard funk, champagne-like effervescence, and crisp apple skins. Flavour is funky as hell, with lots of barnyard funk, crisp apple skins, champagne-like effervescence, and bone dry mouthfeel. There's a moderate tartness and a tiny hint of acidity. Bone dry finish with a nice funky tartness. Very good.
Tried
from Bottle
on 02 Feb 2023
at 04:46