Weekend not wine: What to drink while watching the Super Bowl? Cider!

Hard cider and football — natural companions!

The weekend bring us Super Bowl XLVI (translation: Superbowl 46). You will be exposed to the usual bevy of...beverage! choices. And most of it beer and, for those not yet of age, soda. 

Isn't there anything else?

Why yes there is. It's called hard cider. Everyone probably already knows what this is — it's an alcoholic form of apple cider. But what you need to know is that it's the perfect drink to accompany football, especially the big game. 

Beer is a year-round thing (although there are seasonal brews). Cider is, to my mind, an autumn-winter drink — football season. Nothing is nicer than cracking open a bottle of hard cider (or even better, getting a pint drawn from the tap) on a cool afternoon with some salty snacks on the side. A crackling fire also helps.

So what ciders should you seek out? Well, this isn't the U.K., where there are many hard ciders available. But in the U.S., we still have a quite a lot. One of the better brands is Woodchuck, which sells for about $9 a six-pack. You can also look for Hornsby's, which is a bit cheaper and produced by the Gallo people. I'm not nuts about it on its own, but I think it's quite tasty mixed half-and-half with Sam Adams Boston Lager in what I call a "Shandy," although I understand it's properly known as a "Snakebite."

If you must have an authentic cider from England, Strongbow can be found at Southern California's own BevMo, for about $10 a six-pack. 

Each of these ciders has its own, unique properties: flavors, textures, aromas. I'd say the dominant theme is crispness. But all these ciders go great with...football! So it doesn't matter if you're a Giants fan or a Patriots fan. Everyone can be a cider fan.