type: Cider
origin: Belgium
ABV: 4.5%
location: Biergarten
served: 568ml bottle to a glass, over ice"C'est Cidre, not Cider" the billboards claim, as the makers of Stella Artois try to convince us that their new product somehow transcends mere fermented apples, and is actually some sort of high-class, luxury drink that is the toast of Belgian high-society.
I'm not convinced.
It's a served-over-ice cider, and call me cynical all you like, but it's going to fit into the same bracket as Magners, Bulmers and Kopparberg. It's InBv's latest attempt at plugging a hole in their all-encompassing market strategy. It's a great BBQ cider, ideal for a lazy summer's evening, but it's not a Martini, or a fine bottle of Beaujolais... whatever that is.
It's cider. People in pubs will order it as such:
"Bottle of Stella cider please."
"Want a glass with ice with that?"
"Aye, please."
is how it's mainly going to play out.
That said, it does look good in a beer garden. The bottle is a fairly classy design, with a chunky, high-quality look, and a gold label that complements the colour of the cider well. Once poured (over ice) you get a refreshing, easy to drink pint, politely described as 'rounded'.
It's a cider that 'non-cider-drinkers' could probably drink quite easily. There's very little taste of alcohol, and very little aftertaste. There is a little bit of apple in there, but you need to be looking for it. It's not unpleasant by any means, but it's clear that InBev aimed directly for Magners with this one, and only missed the mark by a short way.
Smell: There's nothing bad to say about the aroma, but most of that has to come down to the fact that it hardly smells of anything. 2/4
Colour: A very Magners-like pale orange, but just a little bit paler, in my estimation - outdoing their Irish rivals in getting their watered-down Irn-Bru tone one step lighter than Magners itself. 2/4
Taste: Less sweet than Magners, with less aftertaste and less prominent flavours. Slightly acidic, but overall very drinkable due to its inoffensive nature. 2/4
Overall: Not bad, but not Magners. Slightly less of all the important bits (or at least the bits I use for ratings, anyway) and slightly more of the premium branding. 6/12
The 'Stella Artois' part of the name becomes clear when you consider all of this, as this really is the cider equivalent of Stella Artois Lager. It's got the same sort of characteristics as its namesake - generic, commercial, mass-produced - and will probably sell just as well. The marketing strategy might as well have been "Reassuringly Expensive" again... or just "More Expensive than Magner's" since everything else about Stella Cidre seems to have been developed using that as a yardstick.
It's disappointing that InBev just rolled out a generic cider, with no real uniqueness to it, stuck a familiar brand label on it and were satisfied with that. They could have created something new, launched a genuinely new product, with a genuinely new brand identity, but they weren't feeling adventurous enough.
The Premium over-ice cider market has a few 'big-guns', and Stella Cidre is a 9mm with '.44 Magnum' stamped on the side.
more info: http://www.stellaartois.com/cidre/
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