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The Can Says: "Extra
Strong White Cider" Rortise
Says: Extra strong indeed. At 7.5% this cider
seemed like just another generic white cider, a la
Zeppelin, Frosty Jacks and Quite Frightening but
how wrong could one be? Could White Star take
Frosty Jacks' crown as the king of the ciders or
would it just be another also ran, falling at the
wayside when the going gets tough? The bottle
itself led no clues to the delicious nectar hidden
inside, Matthew Clark (the producers) choosing a
rather mundane blue bottle with the large words of
"White Star" emblazoned across the
front. An extra mark gets awarded for the use of
an actual star instead of an 'A' we like that. A
lot. 
The
bottle opened as one would expect, cleanly and
crisply, even after a fair journey which one would
assume would shake the contents to the point of
exploding. The pour into the pint glass was
uneventful with the small head soon amalgating
itself with the rest of the cider. Here is where
the curious experience began. This 1 litre bottle
filled not one, not two but 2 and a half pint
glasses! That's a tad over 1.4 litres! How or why
this happened (although there is speculation in
some quarters that it was the hand of Oliver Reed)
is beyond us, but it did. Another bonus point for
White Star, then. The taste was surprisingly
bereft of chemicals which was as pleasing as it
was surprising. A clean, crisp texture welcomed
the taste buds, however, that was all that
welcomed them. A lack of chemicals sadly also
produced a lack of taste. Still, with 7.5 units in
a supposedly 1 litre bottle the price isn't too
bad but it's not on the level of Zeppelin. 
In
Conclusion: White Star promised much but
failed to deliver on the taste front. The price is
good, the drink amicable enough and Oliver Reed
obviously smiled upon us when pouring. The huge
let down was the taste. If it had more taste then
it would have been a contender to the Frosty Jack
throne, however this was not to be. Still a fairly
reasonable score can be awarded of 8/10 Maverick
says: It's like a tardis. More on the inside
than on the out! | 
