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It’s no secret that America remains divided on yet another July 4 weekend. Avid Cider Company’s seasonal Rocket Pop cider won’t be the balm that reunites the country, if the polarizing reactions the beverage elicited from WW staff are a sign of anything. But if nothing else, Avid at least made a bomb conversation starter for your barbeque.
Inspired by the classic patriotic-hued icy Bomb Pop treats, Avid’s pear and apple-based cider includes flavors of raspberry, cherry and lime. The Bend-based company sent WW a pack to try, and though not everyone in the office who drinks alcohol would call themselves a fan, nobody seemed to have a bad time satisfying their curiosity.
Purely from our reactions, Avid’s Rocket Pop Cider is chaos in a can. Negative impressions from one person were cancelled out by another experiencing an equal and opposite reaction. The drink’s sweetness and sharpness seem tied to how well one likes sugary and tart tastes, while its viscosity and carbonation rates were similarly contested. The only absolute is that nobody who tried it walked away indifferent.
Some staffers see Avid’s Rocket Pop Cider as a sweet substitute for soda and hard seltzers, while others saw themselves enjoying it more as a second drink than a first (“once my taste buds are dumbed down,” one staffer quipped). Where some tasted dessert and a faithful recreation of a Popsicle’s profile, or nostalgic childhood fruit juices, others flashed back to regrettable nights with cough syrup, Four Loko and MD 20/20 (or Mad Dog). Those in the latter camp clarified that they weren’t clear if this was a negative or positive response.
One staffer wondered if they could reverse engineer an adult popsicle by freezing Avid’s cider. It does indeed freeze in WW’s official ice trays. Water spilled into a few of them, with the unintentional dilution positively dialing back the Rocket Pop’s intensity. Further testing could reveal if they would survive a trip to the river or what drink pairings might work best together, but our unscientific test revealed possibilities erupt like sparks in the summer sky.
Our tasters’ notes proved as quotable as they were from our recent wine tasting, and are presented here to guide any last-minute purchases:
“I like it better than I thought I would.”
“I actually like this a lot. There’s so much shitty viscous cider out there, and this isn’t it.”
“It’s too much flavor. They should have edited it down to two flavors.”
“There’s a tartness, and it’s not overpoweringly sweet like I thought it would be.”
“It tastes just like the ice pop that you get from the ice cream man.”
“It tastes like someone ate one of those ice cream pops and spit it back in my mouth. I don’t know [if it’s bad or good]. A little bit of both, like if someone did it for the first time.”
“You know that weird aftertaste that raspberry seeds have? It has that.”
“There’s a zippy citrusy thing going on that I like.”
“It tastes like something you would drink when you were 15 and get belligerently fucked up.”
“I could pound two of these and then get acid reflux.”
“I’m trying to imagine what parts taste red, white and blue as I’m drinking it and separating out.”
“This is more than I would put in a cup, as a combo of things, but I can see how this would be really fun for a picnic, on the waterfront or at party time. This isn’t a session drink, this is game time.”
“This is like, if you’re going to be at the beach and have just one thing, this is it.”
“Did they melt down Bomb Pops for this?”
