Drink Of The Week: Hard Cider

Alright, I'm not trying to tell you what to do... who am I kidding? I am telling you what to do. Before you know it (hopefully) we will be back on UNH's glorious (can't say that with a straight face) campus, and if you're a guy who doesn't like hard alcohol and is sick of beer, try getting some bottles of hard cider in your greasy underage mitts.

I'm sorry to alienate the female gender here, but you know who drinks hard cider? Men. Lumberjacks drink it, pirates drink it (to prevent scurvy while still getting drunk), and mountain men drink it. No, mountain men are not the same thing as lumberjacks. Don't get into this argument with me, and don't change the subject.

Here's a list of activities that get twice as good when you add hard cider into the mix:

• Eating
• Watching sports
• Partying hard
• Partying softly
• Going to a beach
• Wrestling a bear
• Getting into a fight (hard cider also starts this usually)
• Studying
• Wrestling two bears
  

Even gay men can enjoy hard cider! Don't worry, I didn't leave you guys out! Do you want an appletini but don't feel like going through the effort to make it? Just drink a bottle of hard cider! It's just like it! Disclaimer: I have never tried an appletini and do not know the taste or difficulty of making such a drink.

Hard cider goes great with everything: sandwiches, steaks, pizza, wings... even breakfast! Drinking beer with breakfast just feels gross, but with hard cider, it's just a more relaxing apple juice! That way the first thing your taste buds (after a night of making out with fat girls and smoking cloves in front of your dorm to look cool while you're more drunk than Sean Connery on a Friday) get hit with in the morning isn't nasty-ass Keystone Light, but the delicious fusion of alcohol and apples. It's perfect for those homecoming weekends, or just weekends where you start drinking at 9:00 in the morning. If you do that a lot, though, you should seek help.

Now, here are the few setbacks of hard cider. There are only so many places to get it in Durham or Dover, but it's usually available at the DUMP. I'll admit, I've only tried Woodchuck Hard Cider, in Amber and Granny Smith flavors, brewed in New Hampshire's 69-ing partner Vermont, but I feel like tasting those delicious apple nectars is good enough for me. If it tastes great, why try something else to see if it tastes better? That's called greed, and there's no place for that in the mind of a college student. You have a very limited source of money and no one wants to gamble $10 on something that ends up tasting like that bullshit India Pale Ale. I hate that shit.

The Woodchuck Hard Cider (go to the website and look around, THEY HAVE FUCKING KEGS OF THE STUFF I ALMOST SHIT MYSELF WHEN I FOUND THAT OUT) flavors are great, and I'm not sure if they have any more, but I'll tell you that the Amber one is much more sweeter than the Granny Smith one, which is bitter and tart, but still good. Another drawback is the ridiculous amount of sugar in these things, and the fact that it gives you a bitch of a hangover if you don't drink your water before bed. Now, you're wondering, "Rusty, how much do I have to pay for access to this glorious drink that's manly but doesn't taste like balls at the same time?" Well, they only come in 6-packs, and they're about $7 each, which seems rather expensive. I will tell you this though: the alcohol content in each bottle is usually in the range of 5%, and regular light beers like Bud Light or Keystone Light are about 4.2%. It may not seem like much, but if you're someone who doesn't need a lot to get drunk (like me) you can be set for the night with a 6-pack of this shit. It's fucking gold. GOLD.

If you buy hard cider from the DUMP or any stores around campus, the demand increases, so the supply does too. They'll offer more flavors since people are buying more and also (possibly) lower the price a bit if it gets really popular. Of course, this is my ideal, demented view of what should happen and probably not what will happen. Either way, $7 isn't bad for something that you can get drunk off of while still liking the taste of it. I'm fucking looking at you, Natural Light and Busch Light. Stop drinking that shit and get some respect.

Finally, I just want to say that I'm not in any way related to the Woodchuck marketing agency or anything like that. I wish I was though, so I could get a FUCKING KEG of that stuff. I wouldn't ever leave my room. So when we get back to UNH and you're thinking of something to drink during the Super Bowl (even though the Patriots aren't in it, but I'm not going to talk about that), get a 6-pack of this shit and try to tell me you don't like it. Seriously, if you don't like it, just tell me and I'll take the rest of it off of you for no cost.

If you've tried hard cider and hate it, tried hard cider and loved it, have a different type besides Woodchuck (or a totally different beverage altogether), or want to yell at me because you're angry at something that has nothing to do with the content of this post, send something to unhblog@yahoo.com and I'll get it eventually.

Editors Note: Drink of the week will be a new feature for Wednesdays on the blog. Rusty got it started this week and I have a few in storage. We will feature lesser seen drinks on campus and also throw in a few UNH campus favorites here and there.