Cider Traditions
When most of us think about apple cider, visions of crisp fall days, trees burdened with red sun-ripened fruit, and roadside stands stacked with jugs of golden liquid corne to mind. This is the cider of autumn, the drink that is traditionally served to the hordes of thirsty children who knock expectantly on neighborhood doors in search of an annual Halloween treat. For skiers and football fans, it’s hot cider with a shot of rum, to take the chill off a windy afternoon. And in reo cent years, cider has become the beverage of choice for those who favor wholesome natural food and drink.
In fact, we are probably more likely to agree on our feelings about cider than on the nature of the drink itself. Even the basic definition of fresh cider causes some disagreement. The one that we prefer is perhaps the most simple.
Fresh sweet cider is the natural liquid that is released or expressed by pressing finely chopped or ground fruit. Although apples are the most common fruit from which cider is made, pears and sweet cherries are often pressed for cider as well. That liquid is fresh cider as long as it remains in its natural state and is not sweetened, preserved, clarified or otherwise altered. As the natural fermentation process runs its course, the cider remains cider at every step of the way.
Fresh sweet cider is converted into what is commonly labeled and sold as apple juice by pasteurizing and the addition of preservatives that stop the fermentation process for a month or longer. Apple juice can also be made by pasteurizing clarified cider at 195 degrees Fahrenheit for one minute. These procedures produce a liquid with relatively long shelf life and no other significant advantages. Apple juice is a cider derivative with very little resemblance to its source in intensity or general quality of flavor. Even though some producers label apple juice as cider, especially during the fall, apple juice is simply not cider.
Fresh apple cider is always (sometimes very) sweet in taste, amber to golden in color, opaque in appearance, aromatic in odor and entirely non-alcoholic. However, this description only strictly applies to the first hours (or days when refrigerated) of the beverage’s life. Fresh ape ple cider is a lively and occasionally volatile liquid that can change many aspects of its distinctive character practically overnight.
As fresh cider is separated from the ground pulp of the apple with a machine-powered or hand-operated press, wild yeasts that are naturally present on the skin of the fruit are swept along into the liquid. These yeasts begin to change the natural sugar in the liquid into alcohol. The natural fermentation process is most often described as turning, working or hardening.
Cider ferments very rapidly and sometimes even violently at temperatures above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The process is more leisurely and the results much smoother when the temperature around the working cider is 40 degrees or less. As fermentation converts the sugar into alcohol and the solid particles slowly settle, the sweetness begins to subside and the cider appears clearer and lighter in color.
The beverage that results from the natural fermentation process is the cider of pioneer North America, produced in great quantities wherever farmers had apples. Our forefathers were proud of their cider production and they eagerly anticipated a good annual supply. The mildly alcoholic beverage was not only a pleasure to drink, but ale so a most convenient and easy means of preserving the usually bountiful apple harvest.
Even those who relish the clean refreshing taste of fresh cider often misunderstand the complexities of the beverage in its different stages of natural fermentation. The prevailing confusion, found today from coast to coast in much of the United States) is partly the result of political turmoil) as well as a decided shift in national flavor preferences.
Naturally fermented “hard” cider was a staple of life in the United States from the earliest colonial times until the mid-19th century temperance campaigns that resulted in the destruction of thousands of acres of apple orchards. By the turn of the century) hard cider had all but disappeared from the national diet. The return now of fresh sweet cider to the nation’s tables and kitchens has brought wide acceptance for the beverage in its sweet state) but many of the most enthusiastic cider lovers mistakenly consider the beverage spoiled as soon as fermentation begins. As a result) unfortunately) tasty) good cider is often thrown away.
The cider of the pioneers was not unlike what is now produced for the commercial market in Canada and Australia, as well as in England, France and other countries in Western Europe. Bottled cider is a clear and usually straw-colored liquid which is effervescent in character and often somewhat fruity in taste. Bottled ciders are, in fact) apple wines with a wide variety of alcohol content. The heady cider known as scrumpy, sold from barrels in pubs throughout Devon and Somerset in England) runs as high as 10 percent, but most bottled ciders are a more modest 3 to 6 percent alcohol.
American winemakers are beginning to show great interest in bottled cider, and those with easy access to good cider apples are making cider with great success. The size of their production keeps the market strictly local, but the popularity of bottled cider has encouraged these winemakers to keep the cider coming.