Addmore Elderflower Cordial - NZ Apple product reviews

I love using cordials with water to make it a little more interesting so was excited to get the opportunity to try Addmore Apple and Elderflower Cordial. It comes in a very attractive glass 375 ml bottle and could pass for a small bottle of wine. The label recommends using it hot, cold or with soda water. It's also an excellent flavour enhancer that can be used in cocktails, desserts, sorbet and ice cream.

I first decided to try this cold with plain water. I found the cordial was more like a syrup and was very thick. Upon looking at the ingredients, I noticed that 60% is Elderflower syrup and 40% is Apple Juice Concentrate which would explain the thick consistency of the cordial. I had to stir the cordial with the water as the cordial just sank straight to the bottom. I also had to do this if the drink had been left as the cordial seemed to like being at the bottom of the glass! The cordial and water combined gave a lovely sweet drink that tasted of apples and a subtle hint of elderflower.

My favourite way to enjoy this drink was with soda water and I gave a glass to both of my daughters. The fact that they guzzled it down and asked for more proved that it was a bit hit. If you enjoy drinking Appletiser then save your money and buy some of this cordial! Mixed with the soda water it gives a lovely refreshing fizzy apple tasting drink that is sweet enough without being sickly sweet. Although the price may at first seem expensive, you'd be amazed at how much this cordial makes so it works out quite reasonable. I will definitely be buying this again and look forward to getting creative using it with my baking!

I first tasted Elderflower cordial which was handmade by my girlfriend, I was a little apprehensive because it was a by-product of flowers from her garden which seemed so unusual to me but I was so glad I tried it because I genuinely liked it. I tried it with lemonade as it was served to me that way, but I went away wishing that I had had the option to try it with iced water or soda water, so when I got the chance to review Addmore's Apple & Elderflower cordial I was excited to try these options.

The Addmore's bottle looked like a cute wee wine bottle with a very attractive label which was featured a elderflower picture coloured red which I can only assume was homage to the apple flavouring; a great idea so that if all the flavours in the Addmore elderflower range were lined up on the shelf the colours would distinguish the flavour mixes easier. I was also very pleased to see the cordial was made in NZ in a little South Canterbury town of Geraldine which already boasts being the home of another iconic NZ brand, Barkers. Fantastic to see that small towns of NZ have such innovative and go ahead residents!

I read the label, shook the cordial well and opened it, the initial scent of the cordial was exactly like sweetened boiled apples and when I poured the one part cordial into my glass I noticed the how very thick the syrup was. I poured in my ten parts iced water and I noticed my drink was a lovely pale shade of pink, which was very pretty, I then decided to enjoy my drink on my deck as it was a lovely early spring day. I sat down and sipped the cordial mix and my goodness it was so divine!!! So refreshing, not too sweet and just a fantastic smooth mix of apples and elderflower which you could certainly taste without trying hard. Before I knew it, my glass was finished, so I decided to break out the soda water which I had bought especially to mix with the cordial and just then my husband and children arrived home so it was drinks all round! My husband and eldest daughter (16) and I loved the soda water mix, with me especially noting the crispness that it added to the drink. My youngest daughter was more thoughtful and asked to try the cordial with water instead and when I poured her a water/cordial mix she decided this would be the way she preferred it, most probably due to the milder taste.

After all those drinks we still had about two thirds left so the price at $12.00 a bottle I believe is very reasonable as a little goes a long way. I have since looked up the Addmore's website and found local stockist and under instruction from hubby and children I will be purchasing on my next shop. This cordial is likely to become a firm favourite in my house and I cannot wait to serve it to friends and family over the approaching spring/summer.

I had already tried some of the Addmore range of elderflower drinks, so when I was able to get a bottle of two different fruit cordial varieties (the other one was pear) I took them along to a party so I could get plenty of feedback from a range of people. I made up two trays, one with each variety, and offered them round. I used a set of different glasses for each bottle and asked people to hold on to their glasses till I came back to get their impressions so I could record the varieties separately. If people thought it was funny that I had arrived at a party only to race around interviewing them and recording their feedback on my iPad, they were too polite to say so!

Whether or not my method was eccentric, I did get some very good feedback. While I was mixing the drinks, I had already noticed that the cordial seemed stronger than the other varieties I have tried. I put the recommended amount into the water and found that it was exactly right, neither too strong nor too dilute. However, although I had shaken the bottle first, I did need to give each glass a quick stir as the contents were determined to sink to the bottom. Once they were mixed, the result was a pleasant looking drink which had a strong resemblance to a glass of chardonnay.

The feedback was almost all positive. The one issue some people had was with the price as they thought it was quite expensive. However, ten people had each been given a glass, I had one myself, and there was still some left in the bottle, so it seemed on balance that it was not too steep. The flavour was popular: people could smell as well as taste the apple, and they also liked the fact that it was not too acidic - some apple based drinks can be hard on the digestion! There were also comments about the bottle and the fancy label which impressed some of them.

I did another round and offered people a top-up. I had hoped to try out the drink in other ways but before I knew it the lot had disappeared - people were enjoying it too much so who was I to say no?

Everyone felt that it was a good non-alcoholic substitute for wine as it looks good and when served in a fancy glass would be at home at any gathering. There is a market out there for people (like me and many of my friends) who lead a social existence but also rely on their cars for work so cannot afford to be over the limit. Unlike regular soft drinks, this cordial is best sipped rather than slugged so it lasts as long as a glass of wine. In fact, when I returned to two of my testers, they were still finishing theirs. They told me it was because they were savouring it and their slow response was in no way because they did not like it. So thumbs up all round for a great new product.

I waited to have the straight elderflower cordial before trying this variation which has apple in it and I'm glad I did as everyone enjoyed this version more than the first. I love the pattern used on the front of the bottles label and I like that it changes colour to suit the product, so in this case the flowers are red. Looking at the ingredients I note that this is 60% elderflower (and components) and 40% NZ apple juice concentrate, which is fabulous as so many products that I've tried and had apple in its main name, have had so little of the actual Apple in the final product, so this already had me thinking it would taste good, as I do love a juicy Apple.

I tried this first as a hot drink, I worked it out to be about 200mls of boiling water and approximately a tablespoon worth of the syrup made the perfect combination. I did notice that after a little while the drink required a bit of a swirl around as it started to get a bit cloudy, but that was easy enough to do and I do this with any hot drink often, so it wasn't any problem for me. I decided to dry this a little differently and added about half a cup of the cordial to approximately a litre of diet lemonade (an accidental buy) to see how it would turn out. All three kids drank this and all were dissapointed that there wasn't any left for them to have seconds. I enjoyed it but still prefer it better hot.

I can see us buying this again as a treat, or as a nice Christmas present for those who don't want items.

After having tried a previous Elderflower drink in the Addmore range and loving it I was really looking forward to to trying out this NZ Apple and Elderflower Cordial, as I believed it would be just as amazing and being a cordial I felt it would open up a whole range of different ways in which I could use it, and to me this is perfect as I just LOVE to use things in as many ways as possible.

The NZ Apple and Elderflower Cordial comes in a 200ml glass bottle which is dark green in colour, it looks very sophisticated with the green glass and white label which has lovely deep red flowers on it and lot's of fancy fonts used, if I was to see this on a supermarket shelf alongside other cordial bottles I would feel this one was a lot more fancy! Miss 4 who had enjoyed the previous Addmore Elderberry drink we had reviewed was excited to see this cordial as she recognised the label to be the same as the yummy drink she had tried and was begging for some straight away.

As per directions I shook the bottle before use and then placed 1 part of the cordial into a glass and topped it up with 10 parts of cold filtered water from out of the fridge and gave it a mix. The taste was amazing I could slightly taste the sweet flavours of the Elderberry amongst the fresh, crisp taste of the apple together this made an absolute winning combination, which the whole family LOVED!!! Even though it is winter so not the best time to be enjoying ice blocks, Miss 4 and I made some anyway by preparing the cordial the same way as we had the cold drink, these tasted great and the frozen state didn't affect the flavours at all.

I was making apple muffins for the weeks lunches and my recipe usually calls for apple juice, however I decided to add some elderberry and apple cordial in it's place by diluting 1 part cordial to 5 parts water (I wanted to create a strong taste in the muffins). This worked well and the thick cordial had no problems dissolving into a smaller amount of water. The result of the muffins was amazing and they had so much more flavour than they do when I use apple juice from a box.

As far as a versatile cordial goes this one is a winner it tastes great as a cold drink, in baking and made into ice blocks, but it is also a lovely soothing drink prepared warm to soothe a sore throat with a teaspoon of honey added to it. Our bottle is almost gone due to the amazing taste it presents so I will be looking to buy another bottle soon.