The other week one of my regular haunts, The Station House in Durham, won CAMRA Regional Cider Pub of the Year. They always have 4 real ciders on but I normally have a dark beer. Last week, to celebrate their win I thought, bugger it Im going to have a cider. I conveyed this startling information to my mate who normally accompanies me every Tuesday night. He was shocked.
"Cider Ken ?"
I patiently explained this was real cider, not the fizzy crap like Strongbow or Magners. Even the pub owner was shocked, expecting me to order my usual dark beer. Being no expert, I asked for a sweet one and was given Bread & Sabre Yardarm. Nice and sweet !
I was compiling a half page in our branch magazine about our local pub cider winners. The Ship Isis was the Sunderland winner, so some research was needed ; namely a visit to see what they had.
I opted for Friels, at a hefty 7.4%. Now the problem I have , with sweet drinks like this, they go down so easily. I pondered this weakness of mine on the bus back home.
In 1989 when I worked for the Post Office I was sent on a week secondment to our IT HQ in Farnborough Hampshire. I opted to stay with an acquaintance who lived a train ride away in Weybridge Surrey. The week was not that demanding and so the inevitable drinking sessions took place every night.
One night a bunch of us set off on a train into rural Surrey to a cider pub. Ive no idea what it was called or even where it was. My brain has retained random images of that night which allows me to piece together roughly what happened.
We were all drinking cider only so I am thinking it was no ordinary pub. We were drinking outside so it must have been summer. We had that many that I ended up drinking someone elses pint as well. It was late when we set off back to the station. There were about 6 of us, with me walking with 3 others ahead of the other 2, one of which was the guy I was staying with. We spotted the last train coming and dashed up to the station and got on the train, thinking the other 2 were with us. They weren't !. They missed the train !
Now when I have had a few I tend to shut out the bad stuff so I just sat there on the train without a care in the world ! The fact I had nowhere to kip that night just didnt occur to me. Anyhow, we pulled into the next but one station and spotted the missing 2 belting over the station footbridge . They had caught a taxi and caught the train up . Lucky me.
Since that night, I have had a reluctance to try cider, well till now !
