This is my second time dueling with Blake’s Hard Cider Company’s El Chavo. I thought it had such an interesting flavor the first time around, I really wanted to try it again. There aren’t many things infused with habanero & mango, and far fewer that actually pull of the taste, but the El Chavo is one of them.
Up against it, I grabbed a cider I haven’t tried before in Starcut Ciders’ Mosa. The can promised another set of unique flavors, describing it’s fermentation process with Michigan apples and blended with orange juice. While it may not match the unique blend of the El Chavo, there’s still an interesting mix going on here. Let’s see how it goes.
HopDuel Survey
| Better label | Blake’s El Chavo |
| Better aroma | Starcut Ciders Mosa |
| Better taste | Blake’s El Chavo |
| Better finish | Blake’s El Chavo |
| Winner | Blake’s El Chavo |
Tell us about it
El Chavo did it again. I can’t get past the flavor combination of this cider. The aroma is almost all mango, but the habanero pepper reigns from the taste through finish, presenting a heat you don’t often find in a cider. I really enjoy this one, and could see it going places in this category.
The Starcut Ciders Mosa was also a quality cider, but it was a little too much like drinking orange juice to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like orange juice as much as the next person, but I didn’t feel like it should be the overpowering flavor of the cider. The aroma was very refreshing and crisp, so the Mosa took that category, and if there was a category for color it would have taken that as well because of it’s eye-catching, semi-transparent cloudiness. But there wasn’t enough here to overpower the El Chavo.
HopDuel 