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Sorry about the dead rat reference, that’s not got nothing to do with how to make cider whatsoever.

Cider Brandy

An award-winning Devon cider maker has started making a new cider brandy. After five years of patient waiting for the potent drink to mature in barrels, Yarde Real Drink has now come out with its own brandy.

Yarde Real Devon Cider Brandy

Yarde Real Devon Cider Brandy is understood to be the first apple cider brandy to be produced in Devon. Husband and wife cider makers, Paul Gadd and Rebecca Jack, said the brandy had been a long time coming but had been worth the wait. Mrs Jack said distilling cider into Calvados-like brandy had been a natural extension of their cider and juice business.

Every year we set aside one barrel of our cider to distill into brandy. The first year we sent our cider to the distillers, they sent us back a sample. It was like fire water. But after five years of slowly maturing in oak barrels it has become quite smooth. It’s very nice and is best drunk after dinner like any good brandy.

The cider brandy, made from the aromatic juice of Devon cider apples, is first fermented into cider and then double distilled through old Calvados stills.

The couple produce only 800 bottles of brandy and 1,500 gallons of cider every year which is the cider company’s legal duty limit.

This year’s Cider Apple crop

We are extremely excited about this. As far as we are aware it’s the only Devon cider brandy on the market. It’s been a long time in the making, lots of people have been very patient but it’s definitely been worth the wait. It’s generating a great deal of interest.

Just looking at the orchard across the road, there are already small apples on the trees. We’ve been lucky with the blossoms. We avoided any frost and strong wind. It’s looking pretty good. The rain will have helped. We had some sunshine in June, rain in July now we’d be happy with some more sunshine to concentrate the sugar in the fruits. Last year we had a good crop. We should have another good one this year.

Cider Brandy Online

Yarde RealDrink was among the first producers to introduce ‘provenance’ or place of origin to their range of products, naming orchards of origin on their labels. They
also offer a wide range of premium juices, cordials and ciders, all made with fresh local fruit and flowers grown and harvested in traditional orchards and hedgerows around the South Hams and Torbay areas of Devon.

The very first bottles of the limited five-year-old 40 per cent ABV cider brandy were available to buy at the Yarde RealDrink stand in the Food Hall at this year’s Totnes Show, back in July, and a small quantity of cider brandy is planned to be made available to buy online.

Licences to make Cider Brandy in the UK are severely limited, with The Cider Museum at Hereford being granted a licence in 1984.

The first written records of Cider Brandy in the UK go back to 1678.

The Somerset Cider Brandy Company at Burrow Hill also claims to have the first full cider distilling licence in recorded history, granted in 1989, so Yarde Real Drink is now either the proud holder of only the third such licence to distill cider brandy in the UK, or else they are making use of one of the other two licensed distillers to get their own cider made into cider brandy and then matured on their own premises.

Apple Cider Making. Woods Cider Mill is located in Weathersfield, VT and online at: www.woodscidermill.com This Video was produced by McNaudio Media Solutions LLC at www.mcnaudio.com Music for this video is credited to: The Skillet Lickers from Goergia Recorded in the 1920′s Roots of American Fiddle V.1 – This Cider Mill was Featured during the knife fight scene in the movie “The Cider House Rules”

This 1910 photo shows the cleaning-up process after sugaring at what was then the Aldrich farmhouse. The Aldrich/Wood family has been making maple syrup here since the early 1800s, and apple cider, cider jelly, and boiled cider since 1882.

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’.