My day job is editor of guardian.co.uk/money but whenever I get the chance I drink cider and write about it for the Word of Mouth blog guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth. Follow Hilary on Twitter.

Here are her responses to our questions for cider drinkers:

1. How did your love of cider start?
   Cider figures in some of my earliest memories. My mum and dad often used to have a bottle with Sunday lunch and I was sometimes allowed a very small glass of it. It tended to be Woodpecker or GL (Gloucester Lager as some people call it). When I was officially old enough to drink my dad used to make a great cider punch for my birthday parties.
2. What’s your favourite place to drink cider?
   At a festival – of cider or music. As long as it’s outside in the sunshine amongst friends.
3. What’s your favourite cider, and why?
   Difficult to say as it depends on the occasion. I love Aspall’s Peronelles Blush as a wine substitute on a hot day – I think it stands up to being drunk with food and is equally drinkable on its own. I also love Ross-on-Wye cider company’s rum-cask cider. That’s probably a better one for indoors in the winter. And Weston’s Herefordshire country perry is another of my favourites.
4. What makes cider so special, compared to other drinks?
   I like it because it can be refreshing on a hot day, because the flavours are often very complex and because you can find a sweet cider if you’re in that mood, or a very dry cider if you’re not. It can be lots of things. I also like the heritage – I grew up on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border so I really associate it with home.
5. What’s the perfect accompanient to enjoy your cider, special mug, cheese, pickles?
   Something from the Snowdonia cheese company, a pork pie or maybe some pork scratchings. We usually drink it out of glasses from one of Clytha Arms cider festivals we went to.