Bernie's Best Gravenstein apple cider: The last time I was a Cheeseboard, I purchased an excellent bottle of Autumn Blend apple cider from Bernie's Best. This time, I opted for the only other flavor available at the pizzeria: Gravenstein apple. Unfortunately, this flavor lacked the depth achieved in the Autumn Blend and altogether tasted pretty typical for a decent store-bought apple cider. Not bad by any means, but also not worth going out of the way for. 3.0/5.0
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Kimura Yuzu cider: I think I could live in the soft drinks section of Marukai Market in Gardena, LA, with its seemingly endless array of bottles in every color of the rainbow. It was hard to pick just one, but the beautiful vintage-style label of the Kimura brand sodas stood out to me, and yuzu-flavor just felt appropriate. The fizzy drink is pretty sweet, like a tangier Sprite. Paired with the rich burger I had for lunch, it worked well, but on its own, it's a bit too sweet for my taste. Still, as an alternat... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Up Mountain Switchel Original Apple Cider Vinegar, Maple Syrup, and Ginger Switchel: Switchel seems to have gotten pretty popular over the past two years, which makes me happy because I especially enjoy ginger drinks. I purchased this one from a Vietnamese restaurant but recently saw that Whole Foods sells it. It's a little too sweet for me, and doesn't have as potent of a ginger flavor as I expected it to. Pretty average as far as switchels I've had. 3.0/5.0
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Fantasy Fruit Farm Blueberry cider: Purchased on a whim from Fantasy Fruit Farm at the Union Square farmers market in NYC, this bottle of fresh pressed blueberry cider was insanely sweet, making it difficult to consume. Perhaps this speaks to the freshness of the fruit, but a milder drink would be more palatable. It tastes a bit different than normal cider, but if I hadn't seen the label, it would have been hard to guess it was blueberry flavored. 2.5/5.0
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Zenchai Apple and ginger matcha drink: Zenchai is a matcha cafe in the LES (NYC) with seasonal green tea drinks. I was really excited to try their fall apple cider and ginger green tea drink, but after I ordered and they began to pour out cider from a gallon container of Zieglers (which I haven’t had since I was a kid), I had a sense I was in trouble. Visually, the drink was appealing with a colorful ombré effect. But it had little ginger flavor and mostly tasted of very sweet and concentrated store-bought apple cider. I did feel... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Kuze Fuku & Sons Yuzu with Apple Cider Vinegar: I enjoy switchels so I was hopeful about this apple cider vinegar-based drink purchased on sale from Uwajimaya, but the verdict is that it was not good - it tasted like an unbalanced mix of lemon juice and apple cider vinegar with little more, somehow both bland and a little too sour. Would not recommend this low calorie beverage. 1.0/5.0
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