Cider in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
is widely available at
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
s,
off licence
Off or OFF may refer to:
Art and entertainment
*Off (video game), ''Off'' (video game), a video game by Mortis Ghost.
*Sven Väth, German DJ and singer who uses the pseudonym OFF
*Off (album), ''Off'' (album), by Ciwan Haco, 2006
*Off! (album), ' ...
s, and shops. It has been made in regions of the country where cider apples were grown since Roman times; in those regions it is intertwined with local culture.
The UK is the largest producer of cider in Europe and has enjoyed a renaissance in the 21st century, with a greater diversity of producers, brands and consumers than ever before.
History
Since the early Roman era, dessert and cider apples had been spreading out of the Mediterranean and naturally would have eventually been brought to Gaul, a province of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
after the defeat of
Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix (; Greek: Οὐερκιγγετόριξ; – 46 BC) was a Gallic king and chieftain of the Arverni tribe who united the Gauls in a failed revolt against Roman forces during the last phase of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Despite ha ...
in 46 BC by
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
, and
Franconia
Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian languages, Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch'').
The three Regierungsbezirk, administrative ...
, parts of which would have formed
Magna Germania
Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north-c ...
.
Much later the northern part of Gaul, heavily populated by a mix of Gauls, Romans, and other Celts, became
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
and the domain of the lords that grew apples on their fiefdoms.
[ The Normans were most certainly a vector for the arrival of continental apples to England—the word ''cider'' derives etymologically from the 12th-century French word ''cidre''—but older accounts tell a different story.
Saxon chronicles before their conquest of the Britons mention cider-like drinks and also mention the production of a drink called ''æppelwīn'', an ancient cognate of the ]Modern German
New High German (NHG; german: Neuhochdeutsch (Nhd.)) is the term used for the most recent period in the history of the German language, starting in the 17th century. It is a loan translation of the German (). The most important characteristic o ...
’apfelwein’’, both literally meaning a wine or alcohol made from apples. Though it is unknown if there is any relation between the ancient drink and the modern German product, at least one account indicates the drink was a luxury item that only the wealthy could afford. There is also evidence from the mid-late Anglo-Saxon period of the growth of orchards before, during, and after Christianisation of this group and their ceremonial use, most famously the custom of Wassail
Wassail (, , most likely from Old Norse ''"ves heill"'') is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation ei ...
at Yuletide, and it is known that monks grew apples in their gardens.
There is also more recent evidence that indicates that the Romans were growing apples and pears in their stay in Britain, and one of the Vindolanda tablets
The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have since been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern fro ...
indicates that the largely Asturian-derived guardsmen near Hadrian's Wall, men with an apple and cider culture predating their own conquest by Rome, were seeking the best apples that could be found locally.
One scholar, Professor Christine Fell, posits that a drink served was an apple-based alcohol using honey as a sweetener and extra fermentation agent and served in small cups that are often found in Saxon burials with the dead.
A journalist and beer scholar, Martyn Comell, notes that with the rise of the word ''cider'' in the 12th century, the use of ''beór'' as a word disappears entirely from use as well. No form of the word was ever in use again before the 1500s, where ''beer'' was renamed following its import from German, ''bier'', and thereafter the word began to describe a grain-based alcohol of barley or wheat, sometimes brewed with hops and malt.
Further final evidence from an archaeological dig in Gloucester in 2002 suggests that crab apples, in addition to their traditional use as a foodstuff, were also being pressed into an alcohol sweetened with honey. With the invasion of 1066 the natural sugar in the Norman apples slowly displaced the need for honey as a sweetening agent and so began the love affair between the English and their apples and cider. Increased planting of apple trees began in earnest as soon as the feudal system introduced by William of Normandy could be secured, and continued down over what is becoming close to a thousand years.
One of the earliest mentions of a named apple cultivar in English comes from the Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in ...
era near the end of the 12th century, ” Costard”. This apple was an all-purpose apple that was occasionally used in cider and remained wildly popular until at least the 19th century: as an illustration, a slang term for the head or brain in the works of Shakespeare is ”costard”, a word a man who spent his life traveling back and forth between his wife in Warwickshire and the theatre in London would have known very well; indeed Shakespeare named one of his clowns after the product in the case of ''Love's Labour's Lost''.
In Renaissance England, a ”costermonger” was a seller of apples or wares and remained so right up until the 1960s, long after the apple it was named for became extinct. With the introduction of hops in the earlier reign of Henry VIII, the production of cider declined a bit but through the efforts of His Majesty's fruiterer new plantings of French varieties began in what is now Kent, setting the stage for more cross pollination with varieties already present and the expansion over the reign of Henry's children and great nephew into Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, and eastern Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
.
Not all of the apples in the UK have ever been grown solely for dessert purposes, and indeed in British cookery the distinction between cider apple
Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider (referred to as "hard cider" in the United States). Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or ...
s, cooking apples
A cooking apple or culinary apple is an apple that is used primarily for cooking, as opposed to a ''dessert apple'', which is eaten raw. Cooking apples are generally larger, and can be tarter than dessert varieties. Some varieties have a fir ...
, and dessert apples has remained intact since before the Tudors
The House of Tudor was a royal house of largely Welsh and English origin that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd and Catherine of France. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and its ...
and spread wherever the British colonized, with some blurring of lines in North America due to necessity and scarcity.
Early publications on the subject of cider making
Vinetum Brittanicum: A Treatise of Cider
In 1676, John Worlidge
John Worlidge or John Woolridge (1640–1700) was a noted English agriculturalist, who lived in Petersfield, Hampshire, England. He was considered a great expert on rural affairs, and one of the first British agriculturalists to discuss the import ...
wrote his ''Vinetum Brittanicum'', a treatise on the production and processing of apples[ that gives great insight into how little the method has changed in 340 years. Worlidge was writing at a time in which some of the earliest written intact horticulture tracts were being produced in Britain, alongside cookbooks. Both advocate for proper storage of the apples, told which were the correct ones to use for cooking and for drinking, and in the case of Worlidge, advocated the new technique of fermentation in bottles, something that had come into vogue in the 1630s when glass was first strengthened with coke.]
Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber
In 1702 an appendix was added to John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or ...
's previous publication of 1664, ''Sylva''. This newly added appendix was named "Pomona: concerning fruit-trees in relation to cider, the making and several ways of ordering it". It is one of the first English cider essays consisting of contributions from several other authors, notably a Dr Beale of Yeovil, as well as Evelyn himself.
Present day
In the present day, the United Kingdom drinks the most cider in the world, if one includes white cider which would not legally qualify as cider in many other countries. It is very common to find cider on tap in pubs and in bottles and cans at the local off-licence
A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence (i ...
and large supermarkets. UK cider is mostly associated with the West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...
, the West Midlands, and portions of the Home Counties
The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often included ...
and East Anglia, more specifically places like Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
, Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, Suffolk, Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
and more recently Buckinghamshire and Cheshire. It is also produced in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Cider is available in sweet, medium and dry varieties. Recent years have seen a significant increase in cider sales in the UK. The National Association of Cider Makers (NACM) estimates a minimum of 480 active cider makers in the UK. As of 2008, UK cider production comprises 61.9% of cider produced in the EU, and a 7.9% share of UK alcohol servings. There has equally been a marked increase in demand for cider amongst the young: Since 2001, UK supermarket Tesco has increased its cider range by 60%, tripling its premium cider category to keep up with demand.
Overview
There are two broad main traditions in cider production in the UK: the West Country tradition and the eastern Kent and East Anglia tradition. The former are made using a much higher percentage of true cider apple
Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider (referred to as "hard cider" in the United States). Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or ...
s and so are richer in tannins and sharper in flavour. Kent and East Anglia ciders tend to use a higher percentage of, or are exclusively made from, culinary and dessert fruit; Kentish ciders such as Biddenden
Biddenden is a large, mostly agricultural and wooded village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The village lies on the Weald of Kent, some north of Tenterden. It was a centre for the Wealden iron industry and also of ...
's, Rough Old Wife and Theobolds are typical of this style. They tend to be clearer, more vinous and lighter in body and flavour.
At one end of the scale are the traditional, small farm
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...
-produced varieties. These are non-carbonated and usually cloudy orange in appearance. Britain's West Country contains many of these farms which have an abundance of ancient varieties of specialist cider-apples. Production is often on such a small scale, the product being sold only at the site of manufacture or in local pubs
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
and shops.
At the other end of the scale are the factories mass-producing brands such as Strongbow and Blackthorn
''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, ...
.
Mass-produced cider, such as that produced by Bulmers
Bulmers cider is one of a number of brands owned by British cider maker H. P. Bulmer of Hereford. It is one of the biggest selling British bottled cider brands in the UK because it has the highest concentration of apples, with a number of vari ...
, is likely to be pasteurised
Pasteurization American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mi ...
and force-carbonated. The colour is likely to be golden yellow with a clear appearance from the filtration. ''White ciders'' are almost colourless in appearance.
Consumption
Commercial cider
White cider
White cider is made from pomace
Pomace ( ), or marc (; from French ''marc'' ), is the solid remains of grapes, olives, or other fruit after pressing for juice or oil. It contains the skins, pulp, seeds, and stems of the fruit.
Grape pomace has traditionally been used to pro ...
, the dry apple pulp left over after juicing, and the final product is almost colourless. Some manufacturers make white cider from imported apple concentrate mixed with glucose or corn syrup.
A key market segment exists in the UK for strong mass-produced cider at 7.5% alcohol by volume. Cider with higher than 7.5% alcohol has a higher rate of excise duty. This makes white cider at the lower duty level the cheapest form of commonly available alcohol in the UK, both to buy and to produce. The drink was first produced in the 1980s, and typical brands include White Lightning, Diamond White, Frosty Jack, 3 Hammers and White Strike. By volume of alcohol, the excise duty on cider is lower than any other drink. The duty, as of 2011, was £35.87 per 100 litres of cider of up to 7.5% alcohol. 100 litres of table wine or alcopops
An alcopop (or cooler, spirit cooler n South African English">South_African_English.html" ;"title="n South African English">n South African English or malternative n American English is any of certain flavored alcoholic beverages with relati ...
would attract £241.23 of duty, wine under 5.5% was charged £102.21, £139.28 for 100 litres of 7.5% beer, and £191.40 for the equivalent alcohol volume of spirits
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
.
Before 1996, brands could be labelled at up to 8.4% alcohol when they actually contained 7.4%. This happened because the duty was levied on the actual strength of the alcohol, but Trade Descriptions legislation allowed the label to overstate the alcohol content by up to 1%. After 1996, White Lightning was then sold in both 7.4% and 8.4% strengths, due to uncertainty about whether consumers would prefer the pricier, stronger drink, or the original and still cheap one, which was thought incorrectly to have been reduced in strength.
Until 2005, the market-leading White Lightning brand was being sold on an almost continual 50% extra free promotion, giving 3 litres of 7.5% cider for a typical selling price of £2.99. Scottish Courage, which owned the brand, decided that year to restrict bottle size to 2 litres as part of its responsible drinking strategy. A spokesman for the company spoke of white cider in general, "It is the cheapest way to buy alcohol in the UK. This is pocket money these days. There is no other alcohol category that has the same challenge as white cider. One three litre plastic bottle of white cider contains twice full recommended weekly alcohol intake for a male or female drinker" (225 mL, 22.5 units, of pure alcohol content compared with the recommended maximum of 14 units).
This led to a 70% drop in sales of White Lightning,
but increased sales of the brand owner's weaker, more profitable brands. Other manufacturers followed by increasing prices and scrapping their 3-litre bottles.
The price increases on 7.5% cider has increased sales of 5% mass-market cider, which is still widely available in 3-litre bottles in supermarkets.
Since September 2010, HM Revenue and Customs
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has decreed that, to be called cider, a drink must contain at least 35% apple or pear juice and must have a pre-fermentation gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
of at least 1033 degrees. The legislation was introduced to stop cheap, high-alcohol-content drinks being called cider, thus taking advantage of the lower duty rates applied to cider.
"Real" cider
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) defines "real" cider as a product containing at least 90% fresh apple juice, with no added flavourings or colourings.[ Their definition prohibits the use of apple and pear concentrates, and prohibits substantial chaptalisation of the juice (adding sugar prior to fermentation) except in years when the level of natural sugar in the fruit is low.] They allow the addition of sweetener for taste after fermentation, and allow limited dilution after fermentation.[ CAMRA states that the practice of adding a substantial amount of sugar at the fermentation stage to produce a high-alcohol (12–14% abv) beverage that is then diluted with water down to 8.5% abv or less does not conform to their definition of real cider.][ Some traditional cider enthusiasts consider this requirement is insufficiently strict and prefer ciders made wholly from apple juice, using apple peel as the source of yeasts.
More leniently, UK law defines cider as containing at least 35% apple or pear juice, which may be from concentrate.][ The gap between the legal minimum juice content and the traditional method (nearly 100% juice) has led to traditional cider enthusiasts refusing to acknowledge many mass-produced drinks bearing the name "cider" as being so at all. Enthusiasts have similarly been critical of manufacturers labelling perry as "pear cider".
]
By region
West of England and West Midlands
Cloudy, unfiltered ciders made in the West Country are often called "scrumpy
Scrumpy is a type of cider originating in the West of England, particularly the West Country. Traditionally, the dialect term "scrumpy" was used to refer to what was otherwise called "rough", a harsh cider made from unselected apples.Leeds, W. '' ...
", from "scrump", a local dialect term for a small or withered apple. Ciders from Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
and Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
made from traditional recipes have a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) awarded by the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
in 1996. There are over 25 cider producers in Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
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, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
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alone, many of them small family businesses.[, ''a'' Orcharding year, ''b'' Somerset cider producers] Historically, farm labourers in Devon, Wiltshire, Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset would receive part of their pay in the form of a substantial daily allowance of cider and local traditions such as the Wassail
Wassail (, , most likely from Old Norse ''"ves heill"'') is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation ei ...
recall the earlier significance of cider-apple.
Large producers in the West of England and West Midlands include Thatchers Cider in Sandford, Somerset, Bulmers
Bulmers cider is one of a number of brands owned by British cider maker H. P. Bulmer of Hereford. It is one of the biggest selling British bottled cider brands in the UK because it has the highest concentration of apples, with a number of vari ...
(the producer of Strongbow) in Hereford, as well as Brothers Cider and Gaymer Cider Company The Gaymer Cider Company produced and marketed cider. It has been owned by C&C Group since 2010. However, the Gaymer brand is no longer used and the business has been consolidated into the parent company.
History
It is unknown when the Gaymer famil ...
, both based in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. There is also Weston's Cider
H.Weston & Sons Limited ("Weston's Cider") is a cider and perry producer based in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England. The family-owned company, founded by Henry Weston, has been making cider in the same location since 1880 and the managing dir ...
in Much Marcle, Herefordshire. Hogans Cider in Alcester, Warwickshire produces cider from apples from Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
& Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
. Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm produces Rattlers branded cider in Truro, Cornwall. there were at least 11 other commercial cider producers in Cornwall. There are still many cider producers in Devon. The number of cider producers in Dorset is rising.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, a condition known as Devon colic
Devon colic was a condition that affected people in the English county of Devon during parts of the 17th and 18th centuries, before it was discovered to be lead poisoning.
The first written account of the colic comes from 1655. Symptoms began ...
, a form of lead poisoning, was associated with the consumption of cider, vanishing after a campaign to remove lead components from cider presses in the early 19th century. The lead poisoning was also prevalent in Herefordshire as lead salts were added to the cider as a sweetener, being much cheaper than sugar.
Wales
Cider is seidr in Welsh.
Smallhold production of cider made on farms as a beverage for labourers died out in Wales during the 20th century. Cider and perry production began a dramatic revival in the early 2000s, with many small firms entering production throughout the country. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has actively encouraged this trend, and Welsh ciders and perries have won many awards at CAMRA festivals; meanwhile, the establishment of groups such as ''UKCider'' and the ''Welsh Perry & Cider Society'' have spurred communication among producers.
Welsh varieties of apples and pears are often distinct from those grown in England, giving cider from Wales a flavour noticeably different from ciders from nearby regions. As such, ''Traditional Welsh Cider'' was submitted for Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status in 2014.
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
once had a strong cider-making tradition likely largely due to the cultural and linguistic ties it had with the Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
region of France. Cider had been produced in the area since the Middle Ages, but production increased dramatically in the 16th century when commercial opportunities offered by cider exports spurred the transformation of feudal open-field agriculture to enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
. By 1673, apple growing became so popular that the States of Jersey had to introduce legislation to keep farmers from growing them: the King forbade the Channel Islands from planting any more unless they had an orchard already extant because he was losing money on the tithes he normally collected. Late 18th and early 19th century accounts suggest the island of Jersey was breeding its own indigenous apples for cider making, apples with names like Noir Binet, Petit Jean, Limon, Pepin Jacob, Carré, Bretagne and de France and the islands's proximity to Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
and Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
encouraged the migration of seasonal workers just to pick them all, and cider was often part of their payment.
Until the 19th century, it was the largest agricultural export with up to a quarter of the agricultural land given over to orchards. In 1839, for example, of cider were exported from Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...
to England alone,
and almost were exported from Guernsey 1834–1843,
but by 1870 exports from Jersey had slumped to .
Beer had replaced cider as a fashionable drink in the main export markets, and even the home markets had switched to beer as the population became more urban. Potatoes overtook cider as the most important crop in Jersey in the 1840s, and in Guernsey glasshouse tomato production grew in importance. Small-scale cider production on farms for domestic consumption, particularly by seasonal workers from Brittany and mainland Normandy, was maintained, but by the mid-20th century production dwindled until only 8 farms were producing cider for their own consumption in 1983.
The number of orchards had been reduced to such a level that the destruction of trees in the Storm of 1987 demonstrated how close the Islands had come to losing many of its traditional cider apple varieties. A concerted effort was made to identify and preserve surviving varieties and new orchards were planted. As part of diversification, farmers have moved into commercial cider production, and the cider tradition is celebrated and marketed as a heritage experience. In Jersey, a strong (above 7%) variety is currently sold in shops and a ''bouché'' style is also marketed.Jersey Evening Post
The ''Jersey Evening Post'' (''JEP'') is a local newspaper published six days a week in the Bailiwick of Jersey. It was printed in broadsheet format for 87 years, though it is now of compact ( tabloid) size. Its strapline is: "At the heart of ...
, 22 July 2006
In Guernsey the only commercial producer of cider is The Rocquette Cider Co. which produces a wide range of ciders and is beginning to compete on an international stage.
In Jersey, cider is used in the preparation of '' black butter'' ( Jèrriais: ''nièr beurre''), a traditional preserve.
Scotland
Cider is made in Scotland mainly by small producers, such a
Nøvar Cider
Thistly Cross Cider, Steilhead Cider, Caledonian Cider Co. an
Seidear
The apples are sourced in Scotland, and the resultant ciders are mainly sold near to the place of origin. Thistly Cross Cider produce many fruit flavoured ciders which are now being sold in Scottish Waitrose
Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...
and Peckham's
Peckham's is the trading name of a chain of delicatessens and cafes in Scotland. Peckham's advertised itself as a vintners, victuallers and delicatessen company, and also offered luxury hampers & gifts online.
The stores usually contained a de ...
stores. Steilhead Cider is made with apples collected from within Dumfries and Galloway, and is mainly sold at farmers markets and festivals. Seidear is made from Scottish walled garden apples using the Méthode Champenoise. Other Scottish cideries are Cairn O’Mohr and Scruffy Dog Cider in Perthshire, in the Highlands there's Nøvar Cider and Caledonian Cider Co., in Fife there is Naughton Cider and Dour Cider.
List of cider and perry producers in the United Kingdom
See also
* Cider
*Perry
Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also mad ...
* Cider in Ireland
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*{{cite book, ref={{harvid, Product Specification: Worcestershire Perry, 2007, title=Product Specification: Worcestershire Perry, publisher=Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, year=2007, url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/271200/pfn-worcestershire-perry.pdf, access-date=15 July 2014
External links
Welsh Perry and Cider Society
South West of England Cidermakers’ Association
Three Counties Cider and Perry Association
CAMRA Cider and Perry
National Association of Cider Makers
Cider
British ciders