A Fist Full of Apples

Everyone has their holiday traditions. Although I don’t tend to go in for most of the stuff people do, being a little more on the “bah humbug” side of the scale, there are some small things that my family always did that I still like. One of those things is getting sparkling apple cider instead of champagne or some other drink for celebrating the season. Back years ago you could basically only get two or three bottles of sparkling juice. A couple of grapes (red and white) and Martinelli’s Gold Medal Sparkling Apple Cider. That has, of course, changed.

Now there is a whole spread of flavors of juice you can get with tasty fizz in them. I still prefer Martinelli’s over other brands (Welch’s is just too sweet for my taste) but I do sample a few different flavors any time the holiday season rolls around. It’s easier to find all the other flavors beyond “just apple” during the holidays. So I went out and gathered all the ones I could find in my area so I could do a taste test to find the best.

Gold Medal Sparkling Apple Cider

We start with the standard, the traditional flavor that everyone knows (or should, at this point, know and if you don’t, well, go out and taste it). Martinelli’s Gold Medal Apple Cider was introduced back in 1962, with the “Gold Medal” apparently being their internal certification for the quality of the apples they buy (and not, as I always assumed, some kind of award they earned). It does make them sound fancy, but it also does seem deserved as this has always been the gold standard I’ve seen for those that like sparkling cider.

The juice does live up to the hype every time I sample it. It has a crisp, light flavor, tart and delicious, with a good apple flavor. The blend of apple juice with the sparkling fizz makes the effervescent juice taste tangy, just the bite. Not too sweet, not overpowering. A proper juice to raise in a glass and toast, well, whatever. I have sampled other ciders in the past (like Welch’s), and I’m sure I’ll try some again just to see, but this is the best sparkling cider I’ve tested. It sets the bar for what other ciders should be, hands down.

Gold Medal Sparkling Peach Cider

Yes, I started with the one that I knew would be the best, but you have to have a baseline somewhere. Drinking the apple cider first let me come into the other flavors and see how they could possibly compare to the best I know, and some actually do fare well. The Sparkling Peach Cider is a pretty close second. A blend of apple and peach juice, what I appreciate about this (and the other flavors we’ll look at) is that what it says on the label is what you get. If you buy a bottle of Ocean Spray 100% Juice Cranberry, it’s not just cranberry. Yes, it’s all juice, but it’s a blend of four flavors to make the cranberry, presumably, more palatable. They don’t have to do that with Martinelli’s though. Peach and apple is just peach and apple without any other fillers.

Flavorwise, this is pretty great. It’s got a nice, forward peach flavor. One that hits on the first taste before mellowing to a general cider vibe, before the peach comes back on the aftertaste. The peach does add a slight bit more sweetness, but not in a bad way. It’s still not overpowering or too strong. It’s a nice combination of flavors that, if you like peaches (as I do) will work well if you’re just not in the mood for apple. Not better than the apple cider, but, again, a close second.

Gold Medal Sparkling Pear Cider

This one is more miss than hit but that’s only because this blend doesn’t feel that different from the standard. The pear cider is a blend of apples and pears, but the flavor shows a problem that pears have, namely they’re a more mellow, subdued fruit. When combined with apples the peach flavor is generally lost. It’s most noticeable on the aftertaste, but for the most part the juice tastes like apple cider. It’s good, because Martinelli’s makes good apple cider, but it’s not really different.

The big knock against it is that if you didn’t know you were drinking pear cider you’d never be able to tell. It doesn’t really change anything about the cider game, unlike the other flavors we tried, and that leaves it feeling like a distant competitor. Not bad, but there’s not much point in getting this when the standard apple is out there.

Gold Medal Sparkling Blush

Two of the first flavor combos I ever saw from Martinelli’s were an apple-raspberry and an apple-cherry. Both, at one time or another, were labeled as “Sparkling Blush”, although the standard is now for the apple-cherry to be the Blush version. The other variety had its name changed to just “Apple-Raspberry” and, from what I can tell, it was completely discontinued. I can’t find it on the Martinelli’s site anymore, only via image searches online. Weird, but they were probably experimenting and found a flavor people liked. It happens.

I will say, the current Blush is really good. The cider doesn’t taste explicitly like apples and cherries, more like an apple-berry blend, but it’s good. The cherries add a little tart sharpness to it, and the berry flavor doesn’t get as lost as it could with raspberry. And it’s not just a cherry aftertaste; this is flavor through and through, a delicious blend that is very drinkable. It’s not really cider, not exactly, but more something to compete with the Welch’s flavors that are out, and I like that a lot.

Gold Medal Sparkling Apple-Cranberry

And then we get to an apple blend that doesn’t try to call itself cider or even some funny wine name. This is apple-cranberry, through and through, and it doesn’t taste like any of the other ones. I love cranberry, regularly having a bottle of the juice in my house. It’s my go-to drink because I like tart and sour flavors. When Ocean Spray put out the 100% juice version of their blend I switched to that over the sweetened juice cocktail. I really just like cranberries. So an apple-cranberry sparkling juice is right up my alley.

For me, this one is perfect. It’s tart and flavorful and everything I want from a cranberry blend. It doesn’t taste like apples much at all, and it certainly doesn’t taste like the other ciders. This is its own thing. Very strong, very cranberry forward, very delicious. For me this is the one I look for outside the standard cider, and I’ll grab both any time I can. I will note that my wife doesn’t like it as much, preferring the crisp sweetness of the apple cider, so this is certainly designed for specific tastes. If you like cranberry, though, then this is one to get.

Other Flavors and Final Thoughts

Of course, there are a few other flavors out there I wasn’t able to grab this time around, with two that I’ve never seen before. The Martinelli’s website lists three other cider blends that might suit your tastes. Apple-grape sounds like the strongest competitor for the Welch’s crown, although I always worry that grape will be too sweet. Apple-pomegranate sounds like one that I would love since pomegranate can have a tart flavor not dissimilar to cranberries. And then there’s apple-mango, which sounds interesting. I expect it will be like apple-peach, with a strong cider flavor along with little notes of mango. If I can ever find these I’ll do a follow-up article.

But yes, all five of these sampled flavors are good. Some are better than others, but none of them are bad. I happily drank down every one of these over the course of a week with not a drop gone to waste. Martinelli’s is a name in the business for a reason, and you’ll find something you like in any of the flavors.