When Adam told me that Malt was coming to an end I was both surprised and saddened. What Mark and Jason had allowed and supported Adam to build for cider over the last year was a gold mine of educational and envelope-pushing content that has really driven forward the conversation in cider and perry by miles. The opportunity to contribute myself over half a dozen articles further demonstrated their generosity to be a conduit for cider content.

In my early days writing about cider I did feel very alone at certain points; was my opinion valid, was I writing anything interesting that people wanted to read, did I even know what I was writing about. I started out writing for Crafty Nectar, then my own blog and following that Malt Review and it’s not until recently that I’ve started to move beyond those doubts, although they’re still there in some form. What I’ve found is that the bigger the conversation and the more diverse people and opinions involved the better the outcome. Through my friendship with Adam, I have learnt a considerable amount both from his writing and expertise as well as through the in-depth discussions we’ve had on all aspects of cider making and drinking. 

So when he explained that he was going to set up a new site and asked if I’d like to come on board as a co-editor, well I of course immediately said yes. [Ed: Who’s more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?”] So now we’re comrades on this new journey into slightly uncharted territory (I’ve only really played about at website editing in the past). Unlike many new websites however, we already have a rich back catalogue of content which Mark very kindly transferred over from Malt. It’s like starting to build a building, when someone has already got the planning permission and built the foundations. I don’t take for granted the fortune that affords us, but also know that hard work is ahead as we build Cider Review into a great online cider and perry resource. We recognise our similarities of cider taste, opinions on various topics and our demographic. As Adam puts so well yesterday, our hope is that this journey won’t be ours alone and we’re hoping in the long term for other voices to join us along the way. Equality, diversity and inclusivity are extremely important to us and Cider Review will be a beacon to those principles. Any form of intolerance won’t be accepted on our pages or those we link to as other resources.

It’s not our intention to lambast or focus on the negative through this site. We will write about the challenges, difficult subjects and faults but won’t be focusing our specific reviews on ciders or perries that we found to be faulty or undrinkable to our taste. We feel a better use of our time with those drinks would be spent engaging with the producers and retailers. We hope that over time Cider Review will become an encyclopaedia of reviews and long form articles that cut into the fabric of cider and perry’s culture, history and aspiration. We also want you, our readers, to engage with us. Feel free to disagree, feedback your thoughts and comments on our article or even suggest new subjects for us to look into and cover. It is true that there are many things we would like to write about, but we also want to write what you want to read. Hopefully those two are aligned, the reaction to all the articles on Malt would support that, but we hope to attract new readers with new ideas, so please get in touch.

Like Adam, I am nervous and excited about what this new adventure will bring, but my hope is that we can continue to make a valued contribution to the conversation around the drinks about which we are so passionate. So bookmark the site, pop us in your favourites and join us every week for Cider Review.