I haven't discussed an alcoholic beverage in a while, so here we are. One of the liquor stores near me has quite an extensive cider selection, including some foreign ones. When I saw they had four flavors of a Swedish brand of cider, from the Abro Brewery, I quickly bought one of each. In all, I tried the pear, the mango raspberry, the passion fruit, and the strawberry lime kinds, all of which were under the Rekorderlig brand.
The Abro Brewery (or Abro Bryggeri, with a small halo diacritical mark over the "A" in Swedish), has been around since 1856. It was started by Lieutenant Per W. Luthander. It's grown to be the 5th largest brewery in Sweden, accounting for 6% of the total alcohol sales, and 10% of the beer sales. Their annual output is 56,000,000 liters. Abro also exports to 23 countries worldwide. (I'd list at least some of these, but I couldn't find a specific country list of these 23.) Their Rekorderlig line dates back to 1996. Other than the kinds I had, they also make a spiced apple and wild berry flavors. According to the internet, "Rekorderlig" is a Swedish word meaning, "real, proper, genuine, or down to earth." There was also a online video about how to pronounce the word. Somewhat disappointingly, it was exactly how it looks like it would be pronounced, at least to this English speaker. Abro also sells soft drinks and mineral waters, along with their main product, beer.
1) Rekorderlig cider, pear flavor: All of these came in 11.2 ounce/330 milliliter cans, and contained 4.5 % alcohol. This one was a very pale yellow color. I should mention that I don't particularly like pears as a fruit, or a general flavor. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised about how decent this was. Nicely tart, very palatable. I give it a grade of B-.
2) Rekorderlig cider, mango raspberry flavor: This one had a pink color. Nice odor. I could taste both advertised flavors. Very good. B+.
3) Rekorderlig cider, passion fruit flavor: Clear color. Also very good. Pleasantly tart. Another slight surprise, given how passion fruit isn't a favorite fruit/flavor of mine, either. B+
4) Rekorderlig cider, strawberry lime: Red hue. Really tasty. Cool mix of the strawberry sweetness and the lime tartness. Very enjoyable. A.
So overall I was very impressed with the Rekorderligs. Even the flavors I don't normally like turned out pretty well. I highly recommend these to folks who like ciders.
Abro Brewery is located in the small Swedish town of Vimmerby. Vimmerby is arguably most famous for its association with children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002). She was born in a village very near to Vimmerby, and lived and worked there for part of her life. Lindgren is fondly remembered for many book series, such as the Bill Bergson series, the Emil of Lonnebergen series, the Karlsson-on-the-Roof series, and, most famously, the Pippi Longstocking series. Many television shows and movies have used these books as a basis. And part of me is very curious about the Karlsson series. Does Karlsson stay on the roof the WHOLE time, over all the books?!
On a writing note, I have an update about the psychological horror anthology I mentioned two weeks ago, which will feature one of my stories. It will be titled, "Shadowy Natures," after a Edgar Allan Poe quote. The cover will be presented very soon, too, so stay tuned. For those Poe obsessives, the quote was about instinct being superior to reason. Or, "the boundary line between instinct and reason is a of very shadowy nature." This was part of an essay, "Instinct vs. Reason--A Black Cat," which appeared in "Alexander's Weekly Messenger" in 1840, and given its title, may have been a precursor to Poe's famous 1843 story, "The Black Cat."
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