This article titled “Consider cider” was written by Oliver Thring, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 9th August 2011 09.00 UTC

I don’t think any food or drink plummets through quality quite like cider. Its best examples are sharp and auburn, tasting of hay and meadowsweet. In the middle lie the fizzy wee of Strongbow, its jumped-up, overbranded cousin Magners and a slew of similar products like Gaymers and Bulmers. Thrashing at the bottom is gutrot white cider, at once the friend and enemy of many underage and homeless drinkers.

This country has had a continuous tradition of cider-making for at least 1,000 years, and likely longer. It’s hard to be sure because both Roman orchards and the eighth-century monasteries that revived them might have used their fruit for eating or cooking. The Normans have always been enthusiastic cider-makers and no doubt a few came over after 1066. But basic scrumpy-making isn’t particularly difficult, and it seems probable that not long after the apple left Turkey, Iran or elsewhere in western Asia, people worked out how to ferment its juice.

Real cider remains happily bucolic, rooted in druids and wassailing and hymned by the sprites of the orchards. The jug-eared mugs you traditionally drink it from are descended from old English loving cups.

But cider has only recently returned to fashion. It all but vanished in the first half of the 20th century, choked by hops and decimated by Britain’s sad rejection of domestic apple varieties. By the 1960s it was close to a yokelish footnote. Its market has swollen more than fourfold since the 70s thanks in large part to a favourable tax situation. The Treasury takes a little over 30 quid for every 100l of “mainstream” cider, compared to about £125 for beer and just under £170 for spirits. (“Fizzy” cider attracts a much higher tariff.) This was to protect traditional cider-makers and revive a moribund industry, and to a large extent it succeeded.

Companies like Sheppy’s and Aspall had been quietly making cider through the slump, and unlike most of their competitors (Bulmers, Magners, Gaymers), both avoided being taken over. But all cider producers benefited from the system, and 2m new cider apple trees were planted in the UK between 1995 and 2006.

In its final budget in 2010 Labour announced plans to hike the duty on cider 10% above inflation: it shelved these plans after a bizarre and very British outcry. I’m not sure this rediscovered taste for the drink means we cook with it any more: English recipes use cider almost exclusively in pork dishes, though Normandy has been somewhat more inventive.

Sadly, the cider renaissance also helped to spur the growth of white cider, which remains the cheapest way to get drunk. Alcohol and homeless charities are tireless in explaining the social costs of white cider. In April this year the chief executive of Thames Reach likened its use among alcoholics to that of heroin among heroin addicts, and Alcohol Concern has called for it to be banned altogether. All cider has to contain at least 35% apple juice by law, but white cider manufacturers make this up using imported apple concentrate.

It seems astonishing that Magners only launched nationwide in 2006, so ubiquitous has it become. I have to say I find it unpleasantly acidic and gassy, and the conceit of serving it over ice is perhaps the most affected thing to happen to alcohol since Anthony Blanche’s brandy alexanders. But what a clever bit of marketing that was: fill the glass with ice and sell less product for more money. Magners led to the relaunch of Bulmer’s Original and, this year, to Stella Artois’s “Cidre”, which I haven’t tasted but which the great beer writer Pete Brown describes as “not unpleasant … but odd”.

As the Guardian’s wine writer Fiona Beckett points out, by buying decent cider you get “the best artisanal products Britain has to offer for the same price as the dullest commercially produced wine”. Despite 40 years of government-led investment, most of us could still be drinking more of this criminally underrated drink, which at its best easily rivals champagne. I like Westons from Herefordshire, and Healey’s sent me a bottle the other day which was excellent. But there are now enough small cider producers that every half-decent pub should stock them, and there’s only one way to find your favourite.

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Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White has taken the controversial step of banning Foster’s lager and Strongbow cider from his new pub.

The Hell’s Kitchen star removed the popular drinks from sale at his Angel pub in Lavenham, Suffolk, just months after buying the pub from its previous owners.

He bought the pub with a view to creating an authentic ale and cider house in the village.

“I don’t like Foster’s and Strongbow,”explained Pierre White, “I like traditional ales and ciders. If they don’t like that, I’m sorry.”

His plans have already upset some local beer drinkers who feel they are being pushed out of their local pub.

“The Angel is the heart of Lavenham,” said regular Rod Benson, “We like a drink, but we’re not lager louts. When the drinks we like disappeared, we got the message he doesn’t really want us there.”

The pub, which was first licensed back in 1420, had come close to closure prior to Pierre White’s purchase.

Since restoring the interior of the pub, the chef has sought to attract a different kind of beer drinker.

He is also taking steps to curb “laddish” behaviour, with swearing, tattoos and dogs on chairs also outlawed.

“If I was going to take my mother to dinner there I would not wish her to be exposed to that sort of thing,” he said.

“When I take over an establishment I see myself as the caretaker. I accept not everyone will agree with my decisions.”

http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2011/08/tv-chef-bans-popular-drinks/

The Statutory Instrument can be viewed from the Office of Public Sector Information site at

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2010/pdf/uksi_20101914_en.pdf

Cider

2. In section 1 of the Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979 (the alcoholic liquors dutiable under that Act), in subsection (6) (definition of “cider”)(b), for the words after “section 55B(1) below,” substitute— “cider (or perry)—
(a) which is of a strength exceeding 1.2 per cent but less than 8.5 per cent,
(b) which is obtained from the fermentation of apple or pear juice, without the addition at any time of—
(i) anyalcoholicliquor,or (ii) any liquor or substance which   communicates colour or flavour,
other than such as the Commissioners may allow as appearing to them to be necessary to make cider (or perry),
(c) the pre-fermentation mixture for which satisfies the pre-fermentation juice requirement, and
(d) which satisfies the final product juice requirement. For the purposes of this subsection—
(i) “the pre-fermentation mixture” for cider (or perry) means the mixture of juice and other ingredients in which the fermentation from which the cider (or perry) is obtained takes place, as that mixture exists immediately before the fermentation process commences,
(ii) if the cider (or perry) consists of a blend of two or more liquors constituting cider (or perry), references in this subsection to the pre-fermentation mixture are to the pre-fermentation mixtures for each of those liquors taken as a whole,
(iii) the pre-fermentation mixture for the cider (or perry) satisfies the pre- fermentation juice requirement if the volume of apple or pear juice of a gravity(a) of at least 1033 degrees included in the mixture is a volume not less than 35 per cent of the volume of the pre-fermentation mixture,
(iv) the cider (or perry) satisfies the final product juice requirement if the aggregate of the volume of apple or pear juice of a gravity of at least 1033 degrees included in the pre-fermentation mixture and the volume of any such apple or pear juice added after fermentation commences is a volume not less than 35 per cent of the volume of the cider (or perry), and
(v) the volume of any juice, the pre-fermentation mixture and the cider (or perry) is to be computed as at 20°C.”.

I don’t really care whether the exact interpretation of this means that Industrial cider makers can get away with making cider at only 35% juice content, or maybe even quite a bit less than that. The very idea of condoning such low juice industrial concoctions as genuine cider and perry for the purposes of profiting from the considerable tax advantages compared with other acoholic drinks is to be condemned.

Accepting the definition of cider with only 35% juice content can only be a setback for the real cider making movement, and anybody supporting it is deliberately conniving with big industrial cider makers to continue to deceive cider drinkers into believing the big brand ciders advertising lies.

About seven years ago, there was a prolonged and open discussion in the craft cider community to arrive at a definition of real cider which came out with the following:

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 new government definition of cider at 35% juice for tax purposes will permanently legitimise the practice of creating low quality, low juice drink concoctions in which most of the alcohol is derived from corn syrup, and then selling it with the image of unsullied natural orchard scenes.

The big question many real cider makers and drinkers will be asking is why is this legislation being supported by the NACM and their apologists within the craft cider movement?

There is a movement in the wine business that says that all wines should carry ingredient labelling (see what Bonny Doon(1) are doing) just as most other food & drink products do. The question will be, will any consumer understand those ingredients, what they mean, and what the effects are? Are we defending the consumer, or simply confusing them “for their/our own good”?

via wineconversation.com » Blog Archive » Would you like a dash of natamycin with that?.

(1)

Bonny Doon’s labels bare all

Spotted yesterday at a trade tasting: Bonny Doon’s labels are now baring all and putting a full “ingredient” list. This is not a legal requirement but more comprehensive labeling for wine is a subject that is in play. While more information on labels is a probably good thing, it would be helpful to have some context about some of lesser-known aspects of winemaking. But maybe that’s what the internet is for, researching things like wine ingredient lists.

100% Pear

Originally uploaded by LoopZilla

Magners Pear Cider Advertisement claiming 100% pear.

A breakthrough for ingredients labelling?

WKD is breaking into the cider market

It’s the brand’s first move into non-spirit products since 1996.

WKD Core is a 4.5% ABV apple cider, packaged in 500ml green bottles featuring the familiar WKD logo. It will be rolled out to the trade from early May.

The cider is aimed at longstanding fans of the brand, as well as new recruits that will appreciate the personality of WKD but don’t consume ready-to-drink products, according to Beverage Brands marketing director Debs Carter.

“We see this as a huge opportunity to broaden the appeal of the WKD brand and at the same time bring a new edge to the cider category, which is continuing to flourish,” she said. “We believe there is still room for expansion by taking a different approach, as research has shown that there is demand amongst cider consumers for a sweeter, lighter cider drink with a more modern image.”

A marketing campaign including TV advertising, online activity and sampling will accompany the launch.

via thegrocer.co.uk | Articles .

Point-of-sale material is available to the trade, and – with Beverage Brands advising that WKD should be stocked in fridges alongside other ciders, not RTDs – cases will be boldly labelled ‘Please put me with cider’.