Lilley’s Cider vs Crafty Nectar | Fruit Cider Review
Confused about which fruit cider to pick? With several popular options like Crafty Nectar cider and Lilley’s creating a stir in the market, here is a comparison to help you decide which one is worthy of your refrigerator (and tummy)!
With a plethora of options available, choosing the right cider can be quite the task, but understanding the flavour profiles, ingredients appearances, and process behind the various ciders can help us understand which ones reigns supreme.
Here is a list of attributes we will be focusing on in our Battle of The Fruit Ciders:
- Overview
- Process & Crafting
- Rhubarb Cider Battle
- Blackberry Cider Battle
- Full Range Review
- The Winner
Cider Decider Overview
For those unaware, fruit ciders are exactly as their name suggests — a fine marriage of delicious fruit and flavourful cider. While they aren’t for everyone (is anything ever?) They can be a great option depending on the occasion. In fact, many cider enthusiasts have come to prefer fruit ciders due to the added dimension in taste and drinking experience.
Since the fruit cider space has grown considerably, the number of brands has increased, too. However, not all deserve to be on the top shelf of your refrigerator! Many make use of artificial flavours or just lack the quality that a cider enthusiast would expect from a high-quality beverage.
Crafty Nectar and Lilley’s are two of the biggest names in the fruit cider scene, but they both differ considerably in terms of their history and what they stand for.
Crafty Nectar Cider Co
Created for enthusiasts by enthusiasts. Driven by passion (and several bottles of the finest cider), Crafty Nectar began operations as a cider subscription service. With time and support from their loyal customers, they started their own range of ciders.
Crafty Nectar’s lineup includes a variety of ciders, but their fruit ciders have become quite popular lately. It was an instant hit, and for good reason, as it was made in collaboration with industry veterans and experts, carefully keeping in mind feedback from the customers.
Lilley’s Cider
Based in Somerset, Lilley’s is a family-owned cider producer that makes English ciders with a ‘twist’. Like Crafty Nectar, they boast of a wide range of ciders too, including fruit ciders. And just like Crafty Nectar, Lilley’s has a bit of a fan following, too.
These similarities make the case for a comparison even stronger. After all, both claim to make the highest quality ciders for enthusiasts and have passionate cider lovers at the helm. So, which one will it be?
Ingredients & Crafting
While what makes a cider “good” can be largely subjective, one area that even the most unfussy of cider lovers would agree with is that having quality ingredients and a well-thought making process is very important.
This means that the apples (and fruit, in this case) must be sourced from a good orchard. And, in this case, it must be actual fruit. Artificial flavours are a big no-no!
Cider can be a challenging drink to perfect, in that oftentimes tiny, insignificant tweaks in the crafting process can make significant and substantial differences in taste, texture, and overall experience. So, which one does it better?
Crafty Nectar — Ingredients & Crafting
Crafty Nectar adopted a community-first approach while developing their fruit ciders. Started by cider enthusiasts, they partnered with the best in the business to ensure that their ciders are what cider lovers world over really wanted. This means that everything from the ingredients to the process of crafting the ciders is pure and puts a core focus on the taste and drinking experience.
Many other brands, like Lilley’s Cider, are infamous for using low-quality fruit juices or extracts while making their fruit ciders, but Crafty Nectar ciders use 100% full juices. The same attention-to-detail can be noticed in the crafting process, too.
Their №9 co-ferment is a great example. Made in collaboration with the King of co-ferments, Simon Day, it’s honestly a very different experience to many of the other ciders in the market.
🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏 8/10
Lilley’s Cider — Ingredients & Crafting
Lilley’s Cider aims to offer a wide range of good-quality ciders. They have a wide variety of options available. However, while it is also a business run by cider-enthusiasts, the similarities in process and culture end there.
Whereas Crafty Nectar focuses on crafting cider using real juices and apples, Lilley’s Cider uses artificial flavour. A lot of it. One of the main problems that people tend to have with fruit ciders (or sometimes ciders in general) is that they taste too “fake” and “medicinal”. These are all problems that are largely caused by the usage of concentrates and additives.
Since Lilley’s Cider makes use of these “unnatural” or “inauthentic” ingredients, the crafting process feels wrong right off the bat.
Sure, this is a problem that plagues the craft cider scene in general, but “craft cider” should be crafted, not “assembled”. And unfortunately, that’s how the Lilley’s feels and tastes.
🍎🍎🍎🍎 4/10
Rhubarb Cider Battle
We all drink ciders for their taste and for the experience. Creating a good-tasting cider isn’t hard. Creating a great-tasting cider? Well, that’s where things change.
Both Crafty Nectar and Lilley’s Cider have tried very hard to create a lip-smacking cider, but just one has succeeded and thus, takes the lead. Let’s take a better look at their rhubarb ciders first:
Crafty Nectar — Rhubarb Cider Battle
As soon as you crack open the bottle, the aroma greets you, inviting you to take a sip. And you do, you’re welcomed by a sweet rhubarb-y taste with a tart finish.
The flavour is very refreshing, and while some may find it a tad too sweet, we felt it was actually quite well balanced as it really let the 100% rhubarb juice shine through whilst still celebrating those delicious apples. Really goes to show what fresh ingredients and a well-crafted brewing process can do!
🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏 9/10
Lilley’s Cider — Rhubarb Cider Battle
Now I just love the smell of this rhubarb cider and you get a proper rhubarb pong. The Lilley’s is a little cloudier in appearance and the differences only grow wider from there. Take a sip, it’s very sweet (almost sickly) and you notice that the cider does not feel nearly as fresh as the Crafty Nectar №8 and overpowers the whole liquid. This, we feel, is a deal-breaker as the entire appeal of fruit ciders (especially rhubarb ciders) is the lovely freshness that they bring to mingle with the delicious apple flavour.
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 6/10
Blackberry Cider Battle
The Rhubarb Cider Battle showed us a clear winner, so it would be interesting to see if Lilley’s can catch up in the Battle of Blackberry Ciders! It’s supposed to be a great fruit cider, slightly darker, and very delicious.
What we are looking for here is to see the right fruity notes and some complexity. Some fruit ciders struggle here as they taste a tad too “medicinal”. Let’s see how the two perform:
Crafty Nectar Blackberry Cider
Crafty Nectar’s №9 is a very unique blackberry cider. It’s a blackberry & hibiscus co-ferment and it really does hit all the right notes. A collaboration between Crafty Nectar and Once Upon a Tree, the cider has a lot of complexity for what it is and really does make for a fantastic drink.
Many may find the combination unique, and they’re right. But, it works very well! The flavours really flow through nicely and make for a super refreshing drink.
They seem to have spent a lot of time really nailing down the flavour as the cider feels positively fruity without ever tasting like a child’s medicine. Yummy!
🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏 8/10
Lilley’s Cider Blackberry Cider
Lilley’s has blended their famous Somerset cider with apple & blackberry juice. After doing a bit of initial research, we were really looking forward to this one but were left severely underwhelmed as it suffers from the same problems as the rhubarb (and their other offerings).
It just lacks the freshness, the complexity, and the orchard-like experience one would expect from a cider. And, of course, it didn’t help that we tried the Crafty Nectar №9 before tasting the Lilley’s. We expected a fruity delight, but it felt more like a lozenge dipped in apple juice…
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 5/10
Overall Taste
We’re going to finish this article with a review of their full range based on taste and for the experience.
Creating a good-tasting cider isn’t hard. Creating a great-tasting cider? Well, that’s where things change.
Both Crafty Nectar and Lilley’s Cider have tried very hard to create a lip-smacking cider, and while both have succeeded, one takes the lead. Let’s take a better look:
Crafty Nectar — Overall Taste
They have gone with a classic lineup of a 100% rhubarb fruit cider and a dabinett and blackberry co-ferment. We will discuss the process and ingredients in the following sections, but the first thing you feel after taking a sip is the sheer quality.
Many brands tend to overdo fruit ciders by either making them taste too fruity or bland. The №8 and №9 hit the spot and are perfectly balanced. The community agrees as they have both won two stars at the Great Taste Awards 2020.
🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏 9/10
Lilley’s Cider — Overall Taste
The brand has a completely different philosophy than Crafty Nectar’s. The two are poles apart, and this is quite evident in how their ciders taste. There’s something distinctly artificial about these, partially because that’s how they are made (but more on that later).
Their Tropical fruit cider was passable for what it is, but it is nowhere close to Crafty Nectar’s offerings. They’re so different it’s like comparing chalk and cheese.
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 6/10
The Cider Decider Winner:
👑 Crafty Nectar Cider Co are the kings of Fruit Cider
Both cider makers are entirely different in their thought processes and approaches, making deciding on a winner quite easy.
Lilley’s Cider, for instance, is primarily a family-owned cidery, and while they claim to be a “craft cider” brand, unfortunately, there isn’t much authentic crafting going on. Lots of other brands adopt this approach, and some people will be fine with it, but cider enthusiasts are sure to notice the difference in the drinking experience. It almost feels sacrilegious…
Crafty Nectar, however, seems to stand for something much larger. They are very well immersed in the community and seem to be bringing in some freshness (quite literally) in the market by their co-ferments like the №9.
Several reasons point towards why Crafty Nectar’s ciders feel superior to Lilley’s. But let’s see how they stacked up, overall, in the most important area of this battle — the taste.
The results were not even close. Crafty Nectar’s lineup ticked all the right boxes. Lilley’s, however, compromised on some very crucial areas.
While there was nothing offensive or repulsive about the Lilley’s, it really was quite hard to justify calling their ciders “craft” when they use additives and concentrates, an instant no-no.
Moving to Crafty Nectar, both ciders we tested were a work of art. They are definitely some of the best-crafted ciders in the market right now, and the ingredients work exceptionally well with each other. Easily our top pick for fruit ciders!
This is why our winner for this Battle of the Ciders is Crafty Nectar!
Which cider do you prefer!?
Next week I’ll be putting a West Country Showdown between a renowned producer from Herefordshire vs a king of keeved cider from Somerset.
Don’t agree with me? Take the taste test yourself...
www.craftynectar.com to buy Crafty Nectar ciders
www.lilleyscider.co.uk to try Lilley’s cider
