So I got a few bottles of mead sent the me from St. Ambrose Cellars – one of them was the Evil Twin Cherry and Ginger Mead and the other two were without labels… I had to assume they did that because they’ve read my reviews and know that I like to spend a decent amount of time analyzing the label design and they wanted me to focus on the mead itself…touché St. Ambrose, touché.
…I actually emailed Kirk at St. Ambrose, and he was happy to send me labels, but I had to guess out of 3 types which one I got. It wasn’t hard to tell. I got the X.R. Cyzer – “A Hard Honey Cider. Made with Michigan maple syrup.”
Get it…”Exerciser?” It actually took me a little bit to catch on to that. 
It pours a light straw color with slight carbonation and no head, jut a few lingering bubbles. The aroma gave it away immediately – sweet spiced cinnamon apple (excuse the alliteration). The flavor followed suit. When served chilled, the apple is at the forefront, but as it warms, the cinnamon spiciness builds. It’s very sweet and gets way too sweet the more I drink. After a while, I can feel the sweetness attacking my teeth. Aside from being overly sweet, it has good, rich flavors.
I don’t mind the “exerciser” pun, but I wish it went deeper than face-value. The X.R. should stand for something like “Extreme Raspberry” or “Xigua Rambutan.” It would also make more sense to have this old timey guy lifting barbells or something like that, instead of boxing…a little more excersizey. This new label also has some more consistency in the fonts on the front compared to their Evil Twin Mead recently reviewed.
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