When I go for a night out I always have spirits to drink with a diet mixer, vodka mainly, I am definitely not a beer drinker, in fact I cannot stand the smell of it. However a couple of Christmas's ago I decided to give Pear cider a try, it smelt nothing like the usual beer or lager that I cannot stand, but instead smelt fruity and really not like an alcoholic drink. After trying it a couple of years ago I love it, to be honest it is something that I only really have at home but it really has grown on me. I think that I would go for a vodka and diet coke most of the time, but pear cider does make a nice change. This Christmas as with the previous 2 Christmas's I decided to buy some Pear Cider, looking around my local Tesco I noticed that Bulmers Pear Cider was on offer, being much cheaper than the other brands I decided to give it a go.

Packaging
The Bulmers Pear Cider comes in a tall dark brown glass bottle, it has a roundish shaped label stuck in the middle of the bottle, this has a picture of an apple in black in the centre of it outlined in gold, this has a green border around it, in turn this is outlined with a gold line followed by a thin white border. In the centre of the black apple shape are the words Blumers (written in large white letters) Pear (written in green letters) and above this is written Estd 1887.. On the edge of the apple shape and slightly overlapping onto the green border are 2 gold coloured pears, the Bulmers signature is also written next to this picture in gold. Right at the bottom of the label on the edge of the green border is written "Premium Quality Cider" this is written in very thin black writing and really does not stand out against the main writing in the centre of the label. There is a small rectangle label stuck on the back of the bottle, this is mainly black and green in colour, there is a black band across it with the words Bulmers (in white writing) Pear (in green writing) written across the centre of it. The rest of the label is green and is covered in small black writing, consisting of a small sentence about the Pear Cider product and the recommended units per day, along with warnings about drinking alcohol. All of this information is very clear and easy to read and the black writing really stands out against the green background. The bottle has the typical metal ridged lid which has to be removed by a bottle opener, this is gold in colour and quite rough around the edges. The whole top of the bottle is covered by a green foil which comes part of the way down the neck of the bottle, it has a small black apple logo printed on it along with the words Bulmers Pear, the small apple logo has a B written in the middle of it in green.

The Cider
On the back of the bottle the cider is described at using the finest pears to deliver the premium quality cider which has a natural and refreshing taste. When I first decided to try Pear Cider I was a bit concerned that it was going to taste like beer or lager (horrible in my opinion) The smell as I have mentioned was nothing like what I was expecting, it had quite a fruity smell to it, whilst there was a slight smell of alcohol present in the background the main smell was of fruit. I poured a small amount of the cider into a glass and it was a light amber colour and clearly carbonated. After I drank a small amount of the pear cider I was surprised at how fruity the cider tasted, again the taste was clearly of an alcoholic drink but the main taste was that of pears, the cider had a slightly sweet taste to it but not too sweet that it was sickly. I did find the cider quite fizzy and I also noticed that it held its fizz for quite some time, with some alcoholic drinks which are carbonated I have noticed that they do loose their fizz quite quickly leaving them very flat which is not always a good thing, however with Bulmers Pear cider it really does keep its fizz for a long time, which personally I think enhances the taste.

Price
I bought my Bulmers Pear Cider from my local Tesco and bought a pack of 8 1 pint bottles for just £5.00, they were on offer at the time and should have been around £10.00, it was just a few days before Christmas and a lot of products were on offer so I had to get a box. Bulmers Pear Cider can also be bought in single bottles, these cost £1.65 per pint bottle in Tesco, but are currently on offer for 3 bottles for £4.00, a good offer but not as good as the offer I got at Christmas.

Warnings
The warnings on the back of the bottle really are pretty much standard in that it states "know your limits" and it also warns about drinking whilst pregnant. The recommended units for both men and woman are also shown on the back of each bottle, and these are as follows
Men - 3 to 4 units per day
Woman - 2 to 3 units per day
It also warns not to exceed this guideline on a regular basis, below this is the website www.drinkaware.co.uk

Whilst I do really enjoy Bulmers Pear Cider it is definitely a drink I would mainly drink at home, as they come in pint bottles I think if I spent the night drinking these I would spend half of my time in the loo. Personally I find Bulmers an extremely refreshing and cooling drink, it makes an excellent drink on a warm summers evening, although saying that it is suitable for every occasion (depending on your personal taste)
For me it is a drink I would have relaxing at home rather on a night out. But despite this I would recommend Bulmers Pear Cider, it is of an excellent quality, has a lovely fruity flavour which is not over powered by the flavour of alcohol. I have to agree with statement on the back of the bottle in that it really does have a natural and refreshing taste, the lovely taste of pear really does enhance the flavour of the cider itself. Overall I definitely would recommend Bulmers Pear Cider to anyone.