Monday 29 April 2019

Cider.



Do you like Cider?

When my son Kimbo was here recently, not only did we crack open a few bottles of Canard Duchene, but also some good ole Breton farm cider.

I really do enjoy drinking quality cold cider. On a Summer's day, there is little more refreshing; other, of course, than my own Elderflower Champagne.

France makes a big thing of it's farm produced Cidre Bouché. It is regarded in a similar way to wine, even though there is no Cidre Grand Cru, Chateau Pomme, or great vintages. 

But the French have a right to be proud of their Cider, it's a wonderful drink, not overly alcoholic (5.5%), and follows a tradition that dates back for centuries.

The UK produces FOUR TIMES the amount of Cider than France, but it tends to be sold in big nasty plastic bottles. The main producers make no attempt to market it as a quality drink, and as a result it is held in little regard. I think this is a big mistake.

When we first moved here, local farmers used to pass fresh Cider through their wine vats after the wine had been drawn off. The mixture of the remaining wine, and the Cider, in amongst all the grape detritus made a very acceptable bonus Cider flavoured wine.

I remember, up in Normandy and Brittany, that cider used to be sold in shops without labels. The bottles were corked in the same 'Champagne style' fashion, but the maker wasn't mentioned. I rather liked this, it gave a rusticity that was authentically Breton.

Cider, like Beer, is a quality drink and really should be treated with the respect that it deserves. I love it.


41 comments:

  1. Cider is very popular in the UK and is the fastest growing sector of the drinks industry. More young people drink it than beer or lager. I live opposite a cider making farm who sell it at the gate along with apple juice. This was a cider producing area for over a 100 years and my local town was known as cider town until 20 years ago when Gaymers sold out and production moved to Somerset.

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    1. Rachel, not Banham Cider by any chance...

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    2. I live 3 miles from Banham but there is a farm even closer across the road still with one ancient orchard and a cider press.

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    3. You're lucky. I would be at their door regularly.

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  2. French cider is way superior to all but the artisinal/small producer British versions.
    Open a bottle of Le Brun, Valderance or even a big, PLASTIC bottle of one of the big French makers and you have a refreshing, complex-flavoured, quality drink.
    As a driver of a handicapped wife who doesn't drive, I find the Doux from the first two highly acceptable... the flavours are very complex still... and, at 2%ABV, I can have a couple of tumblersfull!
    One of Somerset's favourite cider apples.... Black Dabinett.... is actually a Normandy apple!!
    The first two makers above also do an extremely nice perry... a drink long out of fashion in the UK thanks to Babycham... or, to give it its real name Baby Sham!

    Any CAMRA Festival in the UK has a Real Cider section where the little producers can show off their wares. CAMRA also do an "Apple" section in their monthly paper...
    there is proper cider in the UK... you just have to seek it out.

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    1. I hate the way, in the UK, they call Perry 'Apple Cider'. It has its own name; use it.

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    2. Perry is pear cider. Dorset is famous for it.

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    3. Tom, the "Pear Cider" nowadays isn't actually all pear, it contains apple juice in the ferment...
      so, the big manufacturers have to describe it as a pear-cider... Babycham was 40% apples... CAMRA supported the perry makers in getting the name Perry dropped from these "mixtures"!
      Perry is, really, only available from the small producers... all the big perry orchards were grubbed up long ago... it is only the small, ancient orchards [like that which Rachel lives opposite] that have any real perry pears left.
      And real Dorset perry is delish! Often very dry and slightly malic in the first mouthful... then the pear comes through...wham!

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    4. Sorry, I meant they call Perry 'Pear Cider'.

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  3. I remeber buying cider in Somerset, many years ago, from a cider maker. Boy, was it rough. I see cider here has come back into fashion and we even find it in the shops on Poros but I think it is a rather fancied up version of the real stuff. Cider with watermelon? Id love to taste your french cider on a hot summer's day

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    1. It's a beautiful drink, with a real flavour of Apples. I've had some of that Somerset Scrumpy. I can't imagine what it's made from!

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  4. Not even the WI can sell their foodstuffs without a lable of date, full contents, maker, weight and I expect S.G..
    The local market has been made too hard by regulation.

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    1. Some WI stalls do ignore the rules. Power to them!

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  5. I think I shall have to try some now. You gave all convinced me.

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    1. Sorry... autocorrect keeps changing my words!!

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    2. Henney's from Herefordshire is available from Morrisons, Waitrose and Sainsbury's... three excellent flavoured real cider... and they do a real Perry... but always in short supply... we used to buy it six bottles a go!

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    3. I'lI take a look, thank you. We do not have all of those supermarkets here but I am sure I shall be able to find them somewhere.

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  6. Cider is nice but I never choose to drink it .... I don’t know why ? Re selling it in plastic bottles here .... if you buy wine from a vineyard in France it often comes in plastic containers .... I think we associate cider in plastic bottles with kids drinking it in the park ! Mind you, we should all be ditching the plastic. XXXX

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    1. I buy my wine in 5 litre plastic 'cubis', but they are re-used countless times. No, I've always had the impression back in the UK that Cider is either a cheapo drink, or is associated with 'yokels'.

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  7. I never really tried cider. My stepmother is rather fond of it, a sweet version. It is like salted caramel to me. Pound foolish and penny wise, I am not going to pay for something I am so doubtful about.

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    1. I suppose if you like the taste of Apples, you'd like the taste of Cider. If not, best left alone.

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  8. Cider is now very popular here (Ontario), being sold in liquor stores in cans. There are also flavoured ciders, pear cider, etc. I'm not a big fan, but husband quite likes Thornbury cider (named after the town in which is it produced). -Jenn

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    1. I don't like the sound of 'flavoured Ciders'. Nothing like the real thing.

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  9. There are a few "hard" ciders sold around here that I absolutely love. Woodchuck brand is my favorite. I don't know of any that are locally produced, though. Not that we grow many apples I'm SC anyway.

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    1. Does 'hard' mean alcoholic? Usually Ciders are produced in very specific areas; here it's limited to the North.

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    2. Yes, ciders here are designated as "hard" when they're alcoholic.

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  10. I tasted cider for the first time in Paris at a crepe restaurant. There were tables of well-dressed pairs of ladies quaffing it so felt it had to be tried. It was very "barnyardy" in smell and taste and I loved it! I'll see French cider from time to time in one of our local bottle shops and can't resist it. Takes me straight back to the Ladies-Who-Lunch in Paris!

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    1. What a great image you have of both Paris and Cider. I hope the ladies were complete with Poodles!

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  11. I can remember getting very merry indeed on some real Zummerzet Zider many years ago.

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    1. With, probably, a terrible headache afterwards.

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  12. We have cider here in the states, but don't think it's as popular here as in England and France. I've had apple cider and peach cider made at a local peach orchid. It's definitely good and very refreshing.

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    1. It always seems like a Northern European drink to me; it goes with the landscape.

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  13. It never seems to be a popular drink here in the UK - or maybe I just move in the wrong circles.

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    1. I think you mix in the wrong circles Weave. It has had a phenomenal rise in popularity in the last 10 years and is going up all the time while beer and lager sales go down. It is the chosen drink of the young

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    2. It does still have that image of being drunk in churchyards by ne'er-do-wells, from big plastic bottles in brown paper bags.

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  14. I remember buying plastic gallon containers of Scrumpy at Glastonbury Festival in 1989 complete with chunks of wood for a fiver a go. I miss Real Ales too living in Ireland.

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  15. A lot of our cider is sold in cans. We've a few decent ones produced by smaller breweries dispensed in glass bottles topped with cork, but nothing like that of what you have in France, I would imagine.

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