Trader Joe’s Spiced Apple Cider

Trader Joe’s Spiced Cider. There is nothing more that signals the colder months than having some hot spiced cider! I don’t know about you, but growing up we would go Christmas tree shopping and the guys at the Christmas tree farm we used to visit when we were kids always had a pot of hot, spiced cider to keep everyone warm! They put a candy cane in it for extra fun. I highly recommend it. (For the adults, put a shot of rum in there for an extra kick!)

Trader Joe’s is well known for their high quality fruit juices and their weird concoctions like Purple Carrot and Beet juice. But they have excellent mainstream juices like Lemonade and Apple Juice. Then during the holidays, they come out with an assortment of spiced and mulled and whatever juices to enhance the holidays. Something I’ve seen for a very long time at Trader Joe’s is a Spiced Apple Cider juice that pops up this time of year. I had never tried it before, but one of my sons wanted to give it a shot and you know I always need fodder for this blog!

What we have here is a big bottle of unfiltered apple juice and some spices. Nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and for the secret ingredient, there is lemon and orange juice in the cider to give it a nice citrusy kick at the end. The cider is a nice brown color, what you’d expect for an unfiltered apple juice. On the palate the cider dances around your mouth with a nice zing of acid and they went pretty light on the spices. You can obviously taste them, but it doesn’t come of with the heavy potpourri flavor you sometimes get from those holiday spices. Nice and light going down and not too sweet, which I really like!

You can drink it straight from the fridge, which my kids do. Or if you are so inclined, warm it up in a pot and when you serve it in a coffee mug, put a shot of regular or spiced rum in the cider to warm you up! Top with a cinnamon stick or a candy cane. Yum!

I think Trader Joe’s Spiced Apple Cider is a great combination of fruity apple and nice spice flavors that are not overdone. Not too sweet but just sweet enough. You can drink this as is or spice it up with some rum or whatever you have in the cabinet to warm you up. My kids also really loved it!

I am going to rate Trader Joe’s Spiced Apple Cider 8 Bells!