49 Fun Facts About Cider

Which region has the world's highest per-capita cider consumption?

The British Isles: the United Kingdom has the world's highest per-capita cider consumption and is home to the largest cider-producing companies, with the West Country its historic heartland.

The word 'cider' traces back through Latin and Greek to which language's word for 'intoxicating liquor'?

Hebrew: 'cider' descends from Latin sicera and Greek sikera, which rendered the Hebrew shekar, 'strong drink', a word the Bible uses for intoxicating liquor in general.

Which Roman's 55 BC invasion of Britain is traditionally credited as the first record of cider?

Julius Caesar led the 55 BC expedition to Britain; the traditional account has his legions finding Celts fermenting crab apples there, the story usually told as the starting point of cider history.

Under UK law, cider must contain at least what percentage of apple juice?

35%: HMRC's definition for duty purposes requires cider to contain at least 35 per cent apple juice, whereas CAMRA's 'real cider' standard demands 90 per cent fresh juice.

What is the name for the dry apple pulp left after pressing, traditionally fed to farm animals?

Pomace is the pressed-out pulp of skins, flesh and pips; in traditional farm cider making it was fed to pigs and cattle or spread back on the orchard.

Cider is fermented at a relatively cool 4-16°C; what advantage does this give?

Slower fermentation and less loss of aroma: the cool 4–16°C range is low for most fermentations but suits cider, keeping its delicate apple aromas from being driven off.

What is 'racking' in cider making?

Racking means siphoning the liquor off the yeast into a clean vat, leaving the spent lees behind; the vats are then filled to the brim to keep out the acetic bacteria that would turn cider to vinegar.

The Long Ashton Research Station classified cider apples in 1903 by tannin and the level of which acid?

Malic: the Long Ashton scheme splits varieties into sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp by tannin and malic acid content, with 0.2 per cent tannin and 0.45 per cent acid as the dividing lines.

Which of these is a classic bittersweet cider apple variety?

Dabinett, a Somerset variety, is a classic bittersweet: high in tannin and low in acid, it gives body and soft astringency to heritage ciders.

West Country cloudy, unfiltered cider is called scrumpy, from a dialect word 'scrump' meaning what?

A small or withered apple: 'scrump' is West Country dialect for such fruit, and scrumpy came to mean the rough, cloudy farmhouse cider made from windfalls; labourers were once part-paid in cider.

Devon colic, which plagued cider drinkers in the 17th and 18th centuries, was a form of what?

Lead poisoning: physician George Baker showed in 1767 that Devon colic came from lead in cider presses and vessels, and the disease faded once the lead parts were removed.

Percy Bulmer made his first cider in 1887, aged 20, using apples from the orchard of what?

His father's rectory: Percy's father was rector of Credenhill, a village in English cider country, and its orchard supplied the apples for his first pressing in 1887; brother Fred soon joined him.

Bulmers is based in which English city?

It has held the Royal Warrant since 1911 and is now owned by Heineken.

Strongbow, launched by Bulmers in 1960, is named after which figure?

A Norman knight, Richard de Clare, the 12th-century Earl of Pembroke who led the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170, bore the nickname Strongbow, which Bulmers borrowed for the brand.

By 1970 Strongbow was Bulmers' second-best-selling cider behind which stablemate?

Woodpecker, Bulmers' sweet flagship cider, outsold the drier Strongbow through the 1960s before Strongbow overtook it to become Britain's best-selling cider.

The Irish cider sold at home as Bulmers is sold in every other market under which name?

Magners: William Magner began making cider in Clonmel in 1935, and the export brand took his name because the Bulmers trademark belongs to H.P. Bulmer outside Ireland; serving it over ice is its marketing hallmark.

Which non-alcoholic apple soft drink, popular in Ireland, began life as a version of the Clonmel cider?

Cidona, first made in Clonmel in 1955 as a non-alcoholic offshoot of the local cider, became an Irish soft-drink staple; C&C sold the brand to Britvic in 2007.

British white cider such as White Lightning and Frosty Jack is made mostly from what?

Pomace and concentrate: white cider is fermented from the leftover pressed pulp plus apple concentrate and water, then filtered almost colourless; its low duty rate once made it the cheapest commonly available alcohol in the UK.

Before the 2023 UK duty reform, above what strength did cider pay a higher duty rate?

Under the old regime still cider between 1.2% and 7.5% paid the low rate and 7.5-8.5% a higher one; by volume of alcohol, cider duty was lower than on any other drink.

Ciders from which three English counties share an EU Protected Geographical Indication awarded in 1996?

Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire ciders each gained Protected Geographical Indication status in 1996, covering traditional ciders made within the three counties from locally grown fruit, with the same protection granted to their perries.

What is the drink made by fermenting pear juice rather than apple juice?

Perry is fermented from pear juice, traditionally from small tannic perry pears; enthusiasts object to the marketing label 'pear cider', and the French call the drink poiré.

Babycham, launched in Somerset in 1953, was the first alcoholic drink to do what?

Be advertised on British commercial TV: Francis Showering's sparkling pear drink, made at Shepton Mallet, ran its first television commercial in 1957, two years after ITV began broadcasting.

West Country orchard wassailing hangs cider-soaked toast in the branches for which birds?

Robins are seen as the good spirits of the orchard, so cider-soaked toast is hung in the boughs for them while shotguns are fired through the branches to scare the bad ones away.

On which date in the Christmas season does orchard wassailing traditionally take place?

Twelfth Night, 5 or 6 January, is the traditional date, though many West Country orchards wassail on 'Old Twelvey Night', 17 January, by the pre-1752 calendar; the aim is to wake the trees for a good crop.

The Wurzels' 1976 hit 'I Am a Cider Drinker' was a rework of which song?

Paloma Blanca: the Wurzels rewrote the George Baker Selection's 1975 hit 'Una Paloma Blanca' as 'I Am a Cider Drinker', reaching No. 3; their No. 1 'The Combine Harvester' had likewise reworked Melanie's 'Brand New Key'.

A snakebite is a drink of cider mixed in equal parts with what?

Lager and cider in equal measures make a snakebite; add a dash of blackcurrant cordial and it becomes a 'snakebite and black', also called a Diesel.

Which Spanish region produces more than 80% of the country's cider?

Asturias produces around four-fifths of Spain's cider, mostly sidra natural from its own apple varieties, and its per-head consumption is among the highest of any region in Europe.

How is Asturian sidra traditionally served?

Poured from a height into a wide glass: the escanciador holds the bottle high overhead and the glass low, so the falling stream aerates the uncarbonated sidra for a fleeting sparkle, drunk at once as a culín.

In a Basque sagardotegi, what happens when someone shouts 'txotx'?

Everyone goes to the barrels for cider: the cry 'txotx' announces a kupela being opened, and diners leave their cod omelette and steak to catch the thin jet in their glasses.

Germany's tart Apfelwein is chiefly produced and drunk around which city?

Frankfurt: Hessian Apfelwein, called Ebbelwoi in the local dialect, is served from a ribbed grey jug called a Bembel in the taverns of the city's Sachsenhausen district, at roughly 5.5 to 7 per cent alcohol.

In Breton crêperies, cider is traditionally served in what?

Ceramic bowls, the bolées, are the traditional Breton vessel for cider, the handleless earthenware cups set beside a galette in crêperies across the region.

Calvados is apple brandy from which French region?

Normandy: Calvados takes its name from one Norman département but the appellation covers orchards across the region, where the cider is distilled and aged in oak for at least two years.

Which Calvados appellation, granted in 1942, requires double distillation in a pot still?

Pays d'Auge: the appellation, created in 1942, requires double distillation in copper alembics; the Domfrontais appellation of 1997 instead demands at least 30 per cent pears and column distillation.

Pommeau, the Norman apéritif, is made by blending Calvados-style brandy with what?

Unfermented juice: fresh apple must is blended with young Calvados, the spirit halting fermentation in the technique called mutage, and the mix is aged in oak barrels for over a year.

Ice cider, made from frozen apples, originated in which Canadian province?

Quebec: winemaker Christian Barthomeuf made the first ice cider in 1989 in the Eastern Townships, pressing apples frozen by the province's winter, inspired by German and Canadian ice wines.

Applejack was traditionally made by concentrating cider through which process?

Freeze distillation, or 'jacking', leaves cider outdoors in winter and removes the ice that forms, concentrating the alcohol, and also the methanol and fusel oils, in what remains.

Applejack was first produced in 1698 by William Laird in which colony?

New Jersey: William Laird, a Scottish immigrant, settled in Monmouth County and began making applejack in 1698; his descendants' firm, Laird & Company of Scobeyville, has been distilling commercially since 1780.

Johnny Appleseed's seed-grown apples, too sour to eat, were mainly used for what?

Making hard cider: seedling apples are too tart for eating, but on the frontier cider was the everyday drink, and Chapman's nurseries supplied settlers with the trees to make it.

In the United States and Canada, what does the phrase 'apple cider' usually mean?

Unfiltered non-alcoholic juice: in North America 'apple cider' means fresh-pressed, cloudy, unfiltered juice, served at Halloween and Thanksgiving and often mulled, while the fermented drink is called 'hard cider'.

Angry Orchard, credited with putting cider into US restaurant chains, is owned by which brewer?

Boston Beer Company, the maker of Samuel Adams, launched Angry Orchard in the early 2010s and grew it into the country's best-selling hard cider within a few years, with a 60-acre orchard in New York's Hudson Valley.

In East Asia, what does 'cider' usually refer to?

A lemonade-style soft drink: in Japan and Korea 'cider', as in Mitsuya Cider or Chilsung Cider, is a clear carbonated lemon-lime drink, while the fermented apple drink goes by the French name 'cidre'.

Which Swedish brand, from a town famous for a rare postage stamp, became a best-selling UK cider?

Kopparberg, brewed in the Bergslagen town of the same name, arrived in Britain in the 2000s with sweet pear and mixed-fruit ciders that made it one of the UK's best-selling cider brands.

Somersby cider was launched in 2008 by which brewer?

Carlsberg launched Somersby in Denmark in 2008 as a sweet, easy-drinking apple cider and rolled it out across Europe and Asia, making it one of the world's biggest cider brands.

Savanna and Hunters are the two big cider brands of which country?

South Africa: Hunters, launched in 1988, and Savanna, launched in 1996, were both made by Distell at Stellenbosch, with apples from the Elgin Valley, which grows most of the country's crop.

In which South American country is sidra the go-to fizzy drink at Christmas and New Year?

Argentina: sweet sparkling sidra, poured alongside pan dulce, is the traditional toast at Christmas and New Year tables across the country.

Cider making in northern Italy collapsed under fascism because of a law protecting what?

Wine producers: a fascist-era law shielding the wine industry banned industrial fruit-based drinks under 7 per cent alcohol, which wiped out the cider trade of Piedmont and Friuli.

Laurie Lee's 1959 memoir Cider with Rosie is set in Slad, a village in which county?

Gloucestershire: Slad lies in a Cotswold valley near Stroud, where Lee grew up in the 1920s; the Rosie of the title was later identified as his cousin Rosalind Buckland.

Michael Caine's second Oscar came for The Cider House Rules (1999), set in an orphanage in which state?

Maine: the story unfolds at the St. Cloud's orphanage and an apple orchard on the Maine coast; John Irving won Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting his own 1985 novel.

John Worlidge's 1676 cider treatise Vinetum Britannicum championed which new technique?

Fermentation in bottles: Worlidge urged bottling cider so that a second fermentation gave it sparkle, a practice made possible once coal-fired furnaces produced glass strong enough to hold the pressure.