Monday, February 20, 2012

Embodying Exactly What It Claims To, Mott’s Hot Apple Pie Instant Cider Mix Is Delightful!


The Good: Aroma, Tastes great!
The Bad: Environmentally irresponsible packaging.
The Basics: Mott’s Hot Apple Pie Hot Spiced Cider is the best flavor in the company’s line-up of instant cider drinks!


I am not a fan of apple pie. I wanted to be clear about that up front because I don’t want anyone to think I am biased in favor of Mott’s Hot Apple Pie Spiced Cider because of some love of apple pie. No, I am not a fan of apple pie or pie in general. To be honest, I like apple pie filling, but I am so turned off by the messy, flaky pie crust that helps to define pie that I am not a fan.

I am, however, now a big fan of Mott’s Hot Apple Pie Hot Spiced Cider. This is all of the best aspects of apple pie (as far as I am concerned) without any of the pie liabilities!

The Hot Apple Pie flavored hot cider is the latest one I have tried. I started with the Original flavor (reviewed here!) and moved on to the Caramel flavor (reviewed here!) and can easily say that the Hot Apple Pie flavor is the very best of the line I have tried thus far!

Basics

The Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style hot cider mix is part of the Mott’s Hot Spiced Cider hot cider line. The mix comes in a .74 oz. sealed foil package and come fifteen per box. Each .74 oz. packet is a single serving and these bear a relatively high price tag virtually everywhere I have found them. They tend to run approximately seventy cents each on their own, which might not seem like a lot, but adds up quickly. This is a little more expensive when compared to other make-at-home products, but easily beats the pants off of prices one pays when getting a hot beverage like this at a restaurant.

Ease Of Preparation

The Mott’s Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style hot cider mix is ridiculously simple to make. The cider is rather enduring and the packet my wife and I purchased in early January did not have an expiration date on it (though there was a batch number of some sort). Because each packet is individually sealed and has some preservatives in it, this is likely to last virtually forever unopened. A single serving is the packet and six oz. of water. There is no measuring of the product involved!

As a result, preparation is ridiculously simple. The top of the envelope has a perforated edge and one need simply tear open the top, which is quite easy, and pour the contents of the packet into a mug that is at least eight ounces large. Then, simply pour hot water - near boiling, but not actually boiling as boiling water cooks the ingredients as opposed to simply dissolving them - over the powder and stir. Stir the powder until there are no blobs of apple cider powder visible in the water or giving resistance from the bottom. The beverage will have a translucent brown color to it.

Taste

Mott’s Hot Spiced Cider Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style smells perfectly like a Hot Apple Pie, fresh out of the oven. The scent is richly apple scented with a good helping of cinnamon to the scent in a way that is immediately evocative of apple pie.

Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style hot cider tastes like the liquid incarnation of apple pie filling. Perfectly. Mott’s got this flavor absolutely right. There is no dry aftertaste, this is all sweet and apple-cinnamon flavored in a way that reminds me of the best aspects of apple pie.

As the drink cools, the beverage picks up a slight sour aftertaste, but it is still exceptionally good, flavorful and just like apple pie in its taste!

Nutrition

Mott’s Hot Apple Pie Hot Spiced Cider is a hot cider mix and is not as nutritious as fresh cider, though the Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style flavor could be far less nutritious than it is. While I am used to reviewing things like all natural teas where the ingredients are all easily pronounceable and recognizable, the Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style hot cider has a few ingredients that sound more like a chemistry experiment than a food product. The primary ingredients are sugar, maltodextrin and corn syrup solids. Oddly, apple puree powder is the fifth ingredient, which is surprising because it does have a strongly apple flavor to the drink. I could find nothing in the ingredients that would make this not vegan compliant, though the package does note that this is produced at a facility that works with milk and soy.

Obviously, Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style is pretty high in sugars. In each cup of Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style Hot Cider mix, there are 80 calories, none of which are from fat. There is no cholesterol and the consumer gets 1% of their recommended daily allowance of sodium out of a single packet of this beverage! This is fairly balanced by contributing 100% of one’s needed daily Vitamin C!

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style Cocoa Classic powder in its packet, it ought to stay usable. One assumes it will last quite a while and dissolve appropriately when one attempts to use it. The packets, for those of us who consider the environmental impact of such things, are terribly wasteful and expensive. The foil/plastic wrappers are not recyclable anywhere I've been. In bulk, I tend to prefer canisters which reduce such waste, but this cider does not appear to be available in that form.

Cleanup is very easy. If the product spills while dumping it into the mug, simply wipe it up or brush it up with a dry or damp cloth. If it has already been reconstituted with water into hot cider, simply wipe it up. Light fabrics are likely to stain if this gets on them, in which case consult your fabric care guide to clean it up.

Overall

The Mott’s Hot Spiced Cider Hot Apple Pie Orchard Style is the best option I have yet found for instant hot cider drinks and it is well worth picking up!

For other hot instant beverage mixes, please check out my reviews of:
Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast Instant Coffee
Swiss Miss Indulgent Collection Mocha Cappuccino Hot Cocoa
Land O' Lakes French Vanilla & Chocolate Hot Chocolate

8/10

For other food and beverage reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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