Lately, if I can’t see through it, I don’t want to drink it. (Unless “it” is beer.)

Etienne Dupont
Cidre Bouche Fermier
Normany region of France
imported byB. United International $8

I’ve been grabbing a bottle of this Dupont cider every time I go to the grocery store. This is an unfiltered and unpasteurized pure apple spa treatment. The maker of this cider also makes Calvados, an apple brandy that is on my list of most under-appreciated spirits.

Just the smell of it, the musty and sharp sweetness, reminds me of going to the farm in fall for homemade cider. The flavor is clean, with the taste of baked granny smiths–at least that’s what good off-dry cider always tastes like to me. Light in alcohol, it’s perfect pre-dinner and is the newest requirement in my tarragon mustard-cream chicken.

It likes to be ett with stinky, creamy cheese, baba ganouj, grilled veggies, and any derivative of ham.