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To legally call something ‘cider’ in Britain it only needs to be made from 35% apple juice. The juice itself doesn’t have to come from cider apples, and it can even be from concentrate. The remaining 65% of the ‘cider’ can be water, caramels, colourings etc., so most of the ciders we drink are a somewhat industrial creation. Rather than being seasonal they’re produced year-round and can be made from start to finish in as little as three weeks. The artisanal end of the spectrum aims to use 100% cider apple juice. Part of what makes the finest ciders taste so good is how long they take to make – their long, slow fermentations often take six to nine months or even over a year.

STYLES

There are many different styles of cider: still and sparkling, dry and sweet. Often the method of production in a certain region has arisen from the properties of the local apple varieties. Where fine cider is concerned, sparkling will be naturally sparkling rather than carbonated. The methods to make cider sparkle naturally go back to the 17th century, before even champagne, when the first glass was created that could take the pressure that sparkling drinks exert on a bottle. It was invented in western Britain and the French titled it ‘verre Anglais’. Aristocrats then began to experiment with making cider and wine sparkle, using cork from Portugal to seal bottles.

What about pear cider? The true name for pear cider is perry. And just as there are apples for making cider, there are pears for making perry, for example Thorn and Blakeney Red. Perry pear trees can be over 200 years old and the perry from their fruit exquisite: it was once called the ‘English champagne’ by Napoleon.