#doc's draft

Bottle: 22oz bottle, capped

Glass: tumbler

Cost: $8.99

Pours: Orangish red, with a light pink tint. You can tell both apples and raspberries are involved. Not much head, but plenty of carbonation and a little cloudiness.

Smell: Raspberries, primarily, with just a touch of apples in the background

Taste: Raspberries dance on the tongue as the carbonation kicks the flavors around. There's a little apple flavor in there, but it mostly serves to ensure the raspberries don't get unbearably tart -- the raspberries are the star of the show and they shine mightily.

Overall: A delightful and surprising cider. Perhaps a shining example of how raspberry ciders should be done -- well balanced, tart but not fully sour, plenty of fruit flavor without being sweet, and enough carbonation to have some fun in your mouth. Good enough that it put the last bit in the fridge and reopened the next day -- I never do that, but I'm really glad I did as it didn't fall off.

Juice Factor: 6/10

Pumpkin Apple Pie

Somehow, a cider won the Willamette Week's pumpkin beer taste off. With 81.2 points Doc's Draft blew away the pumpkin spiced competition. I picked up a bottle for my Harvest Festival for our gluten free friends (we try to be inclusive). 

Doc's Draft Pumpkin Hard Apple Cider is an interesting blend. Somehow they have found a way to marry pumpkin and apple pies. Like some sort of pie turducken (a little Google search confirms the cherpumple is a thing). Doc's Draft blends spice and fruit nicely without the sweetness of some pumpkin beers. It's more balanced at only five percent alcohol. 

Doc's Draft Cassis - Black Currant Hard Apple Cider

I swear, I'm going to start carrying a notebook with me, so I can take notes about these ciders that I come across when I'm not expecting it. Doc's Draft Cassis is very sweet. The black current juice really takes over in this cider, and you can see that in the vibrant, red color. (It's hard to take pictures of ciders in dark bars, I tried to use the candle to show the intensity of this ciders color). Worth a try, but I'm going to stick with Doc's Draft Original, and sometimes Docs Draft Hopped.