By Trevor.

Does anybody have experience in using such a device for real in a cider orchard or is it still faster to get down on your knees and pick them up two hands at a time?

Helford Creek Cyder

Originally uploaded by AndyRob

I bought this bottle of Helford Creek Cyder in the Costcutter shop at Carnon Downs in Cornwall on the way between Truro and Falmouth. At £3.99 I didn’t know whether to expect a good quality craft cider or a bit of a touristy rip-off but the credentials on the label seemed sound and there wasn’t any other decent cider available in the shop, unless you like cans of Rattler or Merrydown. The label didn’t give too much away:

Helford Creek Cyder
Sparkling Medium

6.5% vol

Situated in the heart of Cornwall, near the Helford River, on a small 18th century farm.
Helford Creek produce delicious apple juice and cider traditionally matured in oak barrels

Produced in Cornwall on the Lizard peninsula.

Mudgeon Vean
St Martin
Helston
Cornwall TR12 6DB
Tel: 01326231341 01326231933

The cider was good quality, nice and clean tasting with a high juice content I think, but definitely some water added. Not a high proportion of westcountry cider apples, more subtle than that in the new wine style cider with some eating apple varieties included I would suspect. It tasted more interesting once the initial fizz had died down the cider was allowed to warm up a bit. You don’t want to drink it straight from the fridge, not that it ever gets that boiling hot in Cornwall anyway.

Compares well with a bottle of Tillington Hills cider from the Coop, if you can ever find any.

An interesting touch is the wine like stamp on the back label, which reminds one of a rioja label Denominacion de Origen Calificada. It’s a badge which implies approval by Cornwall County Council, my old employers no less and says:

Made in Cornwall

Cornwall County Council Approved Origin Scheme

Made in Cornwall - Approved Origin Scheme - CCC

So there.

Orchard Cider is made from 100% local cider apples and is being trialled in selected outlets in Cornwall and Devon.

Joe Keohane, of Sharp’s, said: “Our introduction to Cornish Orchards was the Eden Project. We are incredibly proud of the cider produced as a result of this partnership.” Orchard Cider is the only draft cider available at local tourist attraction the Eden Project.

Sharp’s said there are plans to extend the distribution of Orchard Cider next year.

Another brewery, Bath’s Abbey Ales has launched Hell’s Bells, produced by the Tricky Cider Company, situated in the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.

Abbey Ales managing director Alan Morgan said of his company’s new product: “We will be offering it to our existing customers initially, and in our own pubs, the Star, the Coeur De Lion and The Assembly Inn.” Distribution will be extended later in the year.

This is a light cider ( 5.5% ?) with some good somerset cider apple flavour, but a hint of toffee I thought, although the label indicated a pure fresh pressed apple juice product. Found in a farm shop in Fife, Scotland.

This bottled cider in the eastern counties style was of excellent quality and interest. I think the cider comes from Seddlescombe Vineyard and is labeled simply as “Organic Dry Cider” made by Organic County Drinks Ltd. Using only real, fresh organic English apples, mostly from Kent and Sussex. With wild natural yeasts and judicious use of oak.

Around Britain with a fork | Experts | Life and Health
Oliver isn’t a scientific blender, he says. “I just use my nose and palate, and I try to end up with something that I know is going to work. I don’t try to produce something that’s going to take someones head off.”

And, sure enough, my head isn’t blown off by a glass of his Three Counties medium-dry perry, but I am blown away by it, by its quiet, off-dry elegance, the suavity of its fruit, as debonair as a Savile Row suit, with a long, long finish.

Perry is a wonderful drink which should be celebrated much more than at present, and Olivers is exemplary of the craft genre. Too much perry in one session however, should be avoided not because of the danger of getting your head blown off exactly, but for reasons which involve other bodily systems such as the digestive and perambulatory parts.

There are lots of recipes but also information and advice on orchards, produce including cider, contacts etc. The Apple Source Book is available from Amazon at £10.19 and from the Apples and Orchards category page at the ukcider bookshop

The Apple Source Book
by Sue Clifford and Angela King with Philippa Davenport
for Common Ground
Hodder & Stoughton, October 2007 304 pages b&w illustrations

a philosophical and practical guide to
growing apples communally or for yourself
eating them simply or in style
whilst enriching both our culinary and cultural landscapes.

******************************

*****************************************
Common Ground,
Gold Hill House, 21 High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8JE UK
+44(0)1747 850820

www.england-in-particular.info – local distinctiveness
www.commonground.org.uk – archive, arts and Apple Day
www.corrugated-iron-club.info – world wide sheds