Real cider is the product of fermenting fresh apple juice.

The amount of apple juice which went into the final product must be between 85 and 100% and should be clearly stated on the container it is sold in or dispensed from.

No artificial sweeteners, flavourings or colourings
are permitted.

( For real perry substitute pear juice ) ukcider 30/11/2003

The point about ingredients labelling is something which is actively campaigned for by ukcider. We believe that cider drinkers of all types deserve to know exactly what goes into the products, and that this can only help the craft or artisan perry and cider makers who work with the unadulterated full juice.

The Real Ale organisation camra, on the other hand, has a definition which allows for the addition of extraneous sugar “to aid fermentation” but then goes on to suggest that “Ideally, however the minimum juice content should not be lower than 90% volume.” which is fine.

There is then a controversial clause in their description of “how to make real cider” which appears to condone the following practice under that heading:

A number of the larger producers will add sugar at the fermentation stage, enabling the cider to reach 12-14%abv, and then it is diluted down before it is sold (the legal limit for cider is 8.5%abv).

We were assured on 9th July that the above is not intended to cause ambiguity and will be altered on the website to avoid any confusion.

3CCPA Committee Proposal

The committee of the 3CCPA met on Monday 23rd April 2007 to discuss
the issue and consider a formal response to the NACM and formulate a
consensus lobbying position. As a result of the discussions held it
is proposed that – if there is a plan by the EU to remove the current
exemption – a sliding duty scale is put into place instead, with the
first 70 hI (Ca. 1500 gals) converted into a special band of zero
rate cider duty available to all cider makers. Thereafter, as an
encouragement to small rural-based businesses to grow and develop,
increasing levels of duty would be paid on increasing volumes up to
an upper limit of 700hl (Ca. 15,000 gals), after which the full level of
duty would be payable,

In principle, this would be similar to the sliding scale of duty
available to beer brewers currently operating in the UK and other
European Member States and would provide a real encouragement to
rural business, farm diversification and artisan and craft cider makers.