Sxollie Granny Smiths cider review (8.0/10) “Pricey and tangy in a spiky way”.
The Good
“Pleasant, natural smell.
“Practical”.
“Light carbonation”.
“Natural tang and sweetness”.
“Lasting natural aftertaste”.
“Delightful, medium mouthfeel”.
“Good brand image and message”.
“Full-flavoured”.
The Bad
“Not smooth”.
“Harsh tartness”.
“Sickly sweetness”.
“Expensive”.
“No dryness”.
“No USP”.
“Unbalanced”.
Packaging
With 8.5 and 8.75/10, my previous impression of Sxollie has been good. From the heart of South Africa we find another monovarietal cider. This time featuring none other than the Granny Smiths apple. The bottle reassures us this is the case, quantifying 3.3 apples of the type used.
Here is a quick borrowed snapshot of Sxollies’ history from my previous reviews. For full history, check out my other Sxollie reviews on the links below: “Apples grown in the hot Elgin orchards of South Africa. Here the partnership, (Laura and Karol), came from Australia to set up a squeaky clean, new and hip cider business in 2014. “
On bottle inspection, the traditional mark of “X” from South African pottery, has been decoratively repeated, suiting the “Lit” brand message. I’d suggest the bottle detailing paleo-friendly, paleovegan friendly, and vegan friendly, suggests this “on fleek” product, lives up to it’s brand identity. It thereby is still staying in touch with to-the-minute, fashion.
Lack of unnecessary text, keeps things engaging, with it’s simple taste descriptor of “tart and crisp”. Again, no backstory is detailed on the bottle. This lack of backstory was anticipated though, due to the recent Sxollie est. year of 2014, and consequent lack of lengthy company history.
The Granny Smith is now a “worldwide distributed” apple variety, which is clearly very popular, providing a sharp taste. Without delving any deeper than google, I’d expect reasonable acidity levels here. Anything other than a strong and noticeable tang, would be highly disappointing.
Providing 1.5 units from 330ml, at 4.5% ABV, the drink resembles its fellow single variety Sxollie counterparts identically. With 2 bottles supplying the safe, “Do not exceed” range, of 3-4 units. Consequently, this drink is practical. As for price, less favourability can be seen. Bought for £1.80 from Sainsbury’s, this results in a total spend of £3.60, to hit this limit.
Whilst pricey, this is less than the £4 spend I’ve previously made, to hit this level from other Sxollie drinks. My previous 2 Sheppy’s offerings (review links below), have come in at £3.34, for the 2 necessary bottles. This makes Sheppy’s, cheaper than Sxollie, and I even classed that as fairly expensive.
So Sxollie is clearly expensive, yet practical for a safe evening of drinking.
Adding to our expectation for strong tang, the website is next to useless. Using “Cripps pink” as our point of reference, we may expect: light carbonation, no dryness or fruity sweetness, and good balance. If it lives up to that Sxollie product, our rating will be (8.75/10). We can only hope ……
Smell
The smell was very weak, yet fresh and natural. It had a kind of “bready” note to it, which lead me to expect a good level of sweetness on tasting. There was barely any head. That, suggested very light carbonation.
Taste
Carbonation was light as expected, and immediately, a quickly growing hit of sweetness, collided with fizz on my palette. The aftertaste persisted as a slightly tarter, yet still sweet, fruity experience.
On the second sip, the drink became very acidic as expected, with a very high level of tartness. Collectively, this educated me with hindsight benefits, to invert the drink multiple times before consuming for the best results.
Further into the bottle, it became apparent that this harsh combination of sweetness and acidity, would prevail throughout drinking. It was certainly bold in flavour, so much so, it overpowered my mouth completely.
It was just aswell the drink had “only” medium mouthfeel therefore, since it already possessed such a potent flavour. Every element of this taste was highly natural and fresh too.
No woodiness or dryness could be detected. At least these elements weren’t falsely promised.
Whilst plenty of acidity and sweetness were clearly present, they were both detected separately, and were both very harsh. The drink therefore wasn’t well balanced or smooth.
Summary
Pricey and tangy in a spiky way. Natural taste though …
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Sources
https://www.orangepippin.com/varieties/apples/granny-smith
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/counterpart
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/
More cider reviews and Products:
Our other Sxollie reviews from 2017-present :
https://reasea.org/2018/11/02/sxollie-cripps-pink-cider-review-pure-and-fruity-young-and-fun-if-a-bit-expensive-8-75-10/
https://reasea.org/2017/08/16/sxollie-golden-delicious-monovarietal-cider-hip-sweet-and-fruity-if-expensive-8-510/
My last “Somerset” cider review
#139 Sheppy’s “Original cloudy cider” review- (8.5/10) “Well-balanced, delightfully tart drink. No real USP, means the drink is good rather than excellent”.
Sidastroll ( 10 Cider review summary book) written by me for just £1.99
Tags: Sxollie, South Africa, Granny Smith, green apple cider, Granny Smiths cider, Laura and Karol, established 2014, 4.5% ABV cider, cider reviews, African cider reviews, cape cider, reasonedandseasoned, moist cider reviews, reaseaorg, weekly review, benandthegang, costly cider,
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