Cider Information
Cider Background
Hard cider became the traditional drink of New England not long after
the first settlers arrived.
Then and until recently, "Cider" meant "hard cider".
Legally it still does. It was on the table with meals in town houses
and farm cottages. Presidents and farm hands drank it. Cider was traded
between countryside and town, Orchardists looked for apple varieties
suited for cider. The apples were than pressed in the neighborhood,
put in casks and brought to the cellar to ferment and age. Our farm
neighbors still carry on this tradition.
Cider is a world wide tradition.
In France the traditional cider is light and sparkling and is poured
from a champagne bottle. The complex ciders of the Basques and Asturians
in Northern Spain come in a corked wine bottle. In England the traditional
ciders are kegged like a beer and served on tap at the local pub.
In this country the cider tradition is being renewed. Cider can be
found on tap, in six packs, and in wine bottles. Cider is flowing from
large scale producers as well as the cellars on New England farms. It
is made from generic apple concentrate as well as carefully selected
fruit from varieties grown especially for cider. It can provide cool
fruity refreshment on a hot afternoon, or complement fine food.
Cider is not wine and it is not beer.
Like wine it is fermented from fruit and can capture the complex flavors
of fruit. Like beer, cider has under six or seven percent alcohol and
tastes best with some sparkle. It is different from both: a unique beverage.
Because of the lower alcohol it is much less intense than wine. To expect
the mouth feel of wine when tasting cider ends in disappointment. The
smooth taste of grain based beer is contradicted by the aggressive tang
of the apple based cider.
What are the characteristics of a good cider?
In Spain, France and England they will tell you with certainty and pour
a glass of their local cider to demonstrate. The tastes are wildly different.
The only clear guide is that there are different styles and traditions
with new ones emerging.
There is the same variety in the making of cider. The scale ranges
from an orchardist with a cellar full of barrels to large scale production
facilities. The technology ranges from medieval to Victorian to state
of the art. Underlying this is the same dictum that winemakers use:
it takes good fruit to make good cider. The future in this country is
exciting as both orchard-based artisans and large-scale producers experiment
with new technique, and orchardists plant traditional and newly developed
varieties.
Information provided by Cider Day 2001. www.ciderday.org
All About Cider
The time is ripe to discover the delicious
world of cider!
A passion for cider has existed for centuries. In 1708, J. Philips,
the English poet, wrote an epic style poem, (spanning two volumes!),
called Cyder. He elevates cider to glorious heights and enthuses that
only the best apples should be used,. . . thy Press with purest Juice
Shall flow . . .
What is cider?
Most cider is made from fermented apple juice. Natural cider has nothing
added and relies, for fermentation, upon the wild yeast present in the
apples. For mass-produced ciders, a yeast culture is added in order
to achieve consistency. Although much of today’s cider is produced
from apple concentrate, many traditional cider-makers use only cider
apples, cultivated specifically for the purpose.
Both traditional and mass-market ciders are available carbonated or
still and range in style from the bone dry, to the extremely sweet.
In Europe, cider refers to fermented apple juice that contains varying
levels of alcohol. In the USA, fermented apple juice is known as hard
cider; unfermented, freshly expressed juice is called sweet cider.
Recent developments
A thirst for decent, real cider has led to much experimentation amongst
world cider producers. New, flavoursome cider apples are constantly
being developed to meet popular demand. Nowadays, modern varieties called
Kingston Black, Brown’s Apple and Yarlington are being planted
alongside traditional cider apples such as Foxwhelp, Blood Butcher and
Slack-my-Girdle.
A fresh optimism is sweeping through the cider industry. Today's cider
producers are bubbling with confidence.
Cider has never tasted so good!
Cider History
There is a general consensus that apple trees existed along the Nile
River Delta as early as 1300 BC, but it is unclear whether cider was
ever produced from their fruit.
When the Romans arrived in England in 55 BC, they were reported to
have found the local Kentish villagers drinking a delicious cider-like
beverage made from apples. It has been recorded that the Romans and
in particular their leader, Julius Caesar, embraced the pleasant pursuit
with enthusiasm! How long the locals had been making this apple drink,
prior to the arrival of the Romans, is anybody’s guess.
By the beginning of the ninth century, cider drinking was well established
in Europe and a reference made by Charlemagne clearly confirms its popularity.
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, cider consumption became widespread
in England and orchards were established specifically to produce cider
apples. During medieval times, cider making was an important industry.
Monasteries sold vast quantities of their strong, spiced cider to the
public. Farm labourers received a cider allowance as part of their wages—the
quantity increased during haymaking. English cider making probably peaked
around the mid seventeenth century, when almost every farm had its own
cider orchard and press. The industry later went into decline, due to
major agricultural changes. Cider regained its popularity during the
twentieth century, but demand was largely for the mass-produced variety.
Only in recent years has traditional cider making finally triumphed.
American history tells a different tale. Early English settlers introduced
cider to America by bringing with them seeds for cultivating cider apples.
During the colonial period, hard cider was one of America’s most
popular beverages. Often, a town’s prosperity was judged by the
volume of cider it produced! Consumption increased steadily during the
eighteenth century, only to plummet dramatically after 1919, with prohibition.
Today, the tide has turned. Both in America and Europe, traditional
cider making is experiencing a major resurgence. History has gone full
circle.
Information provided by the History of Cider website.
www.history-of-cider.com
