While perusing my local World Market  for Valentine’s Day last month, I came across a unique find. Woodchuck Hard Cider‘s – Cellar Series “Chocolate”. I had to buy it and asked the employee stocking the wine shelves if it was good. She had said they had a tasting out over that weekend and had gotten good responses. That was good enough for me to purchase for a Valentine’s treat.

We did not get around to trying it on Valentine’s Day, nor the few weeks around it, but come mid-March, curiosity had gotten the better of me.

At first pour, it has a very light chocolate color, very straw like or dark caramel. At first smell, it smells like artificial chocolate or a non-chocolate candy my kids would eat. To me, it tastes the same way it smells, but aftertaste is like a tootsie roll.  Jon says he picks up Nestle Quick (after you first open a new box) and has a bite of chocolate caramel apple. I can see that and that’s where I pick up the artificial taste because it’s not traditional chocolate even though it is made with cacao beans and as it warms, the caramel tones do come out more.

How did they make Chocolate Cider? Check out the Woodchuck Cider Blog with pics of how they made the small batch cellar series by infusing crushed cacao beans with their famous cider.

I am glad that I picked it up to taste, but my tastes are more to the sweeter berry side of ciders & beers.

Update: Yesterday (3/29/14), I went to a winery that had a Chocolate Port and had a very similar character of the chocolate notes. To me, it tasted like a tootsie roll, yet again. My taste buds must attribute all chocolate alcohol with notes of tootsie roll.