Our Baby Announcement

I know, it might seem funny to talk about alcohol and being pregnant in the same post, but since we served this at the barbecue where we told our good news to our families, it fits. Since I of course am not drinking alcohol right now (PREGNANCY AND ALCOHOL DON’T MIX!), this review is based on the opinions of Eric and our family members. With barbecue season finally upon us (although still interspersed with days of rain here in Washington), I’m excited to have this light beer alternative for our gluten free guests.

Last Sunday we had both of our families over for a barbecue to celebrate an early Father’s Day and the three June birthdays. We lined everyone up for a group photo, then I said that for the last photo we had party hats for the fathers. I gave one to my dad, one to Eric’s dad, then one to Eric. Everyone cheered and I ripped off my sweater to show the start of my baby bump!

It was a great day of celebration and the cider was the perfect party drink.

Hard cider has typically been a seasonal drink, something for fall and winter that just seems too heavy for spring and summer barbeques. But Michelob is changing that with their new ULTRA Light Cider.

Eric and I were admittedly skeptical at first. We tend to like microbrews and typically find mega brands of beer to be, well, gross. When Eric worked at Safeway, his co-workers could never understand why he’d buy “the expensive stuff”. It’s because we don’t drink alcohol to get drunk, but like the flavor. Fortunately we found that the Michelob ULTRA Light Cider was pleasant, mild and bubbly. It’s much lighter than your typical hard cider and doesn’t have a strong alcohol taste so can be a good options for guests who don’t drink very often. Everyone agreed that it’s fresh, crisp and extremely carbonated so it tastes almost like a sweet and fruity champagne. Take careful note of that last sentence! Don’t buy this expecting a normal, strongly flavored hard cider, this is very different.

Now if you’re seriously trying to lose weight, abstaining from alcohol is a must. But for those of us who are just trying to make sure we don’t consume more calories than we need, this cider has the added bonus of being just 120 calories! It’s naturally sweetened and made with real apples. Plus, as I mentioned before, it’s gluten free!

We’ve tried pairing this with a few different meals, so let me give you some tips. This is not the best drink to pair with spicy Mexican food, the strong flavors really overpower the light cider. But it’s fantastic with grilled chicken or fish, and even burgers or brats, especially on a hot sunny day. We served ours at the family barbecue with grilled Italian style sausages.

My other tip, is for how to find this delightful cider.  It was tough!  We went to several different grocery stores with no luck, then finally started calling instead of visiting.  Still no luck!  Finally, I had the brilliant idea of, “maybe there’s a website to let you find it in your area!”.  Sure enough, there was, and I wish I’d been brilliant a little bit sooner.

If you’d like to give the cider a try (and trust me you will), visit the Michelob ULTRA site and click on the button that says “FIND MICHELOB ULTRA LIGHT CIDER”.  It lets you enter your zip code to find it at a store near you.  All the stores in my area that carried it were gas stations!

We really liked the Asian woman who was running the gas station where we found ours, her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she saw how old we actually are.  “But you!  You look so young!  Teenagers even!”  Oh yeah, we’ve still got it 😉

You can also visit the BlogHer promotion page to see what other bloggers thought about the cider.

We’ve decided our favorite way to enjoy this cider is at a lazy family BBQ.  How about you?  Which favorite summer meal or activity do you think would go best with Michelob ULTRA Cider?