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Geography and Influence on Modern, Heritage, Specialty Origins

Cider is an ancient beverage, though no one is quite sure when it was first made because of the geography of its main component, the apple. In the cider market, the ciders can be broken down into two main styles, standard and specialty. The first group consists of modern ciders and heritage ciders. Modern ciders are produced from culinary apples such as Gala. Heritage ciders are produced from heritage, cider specific, crab or wild apples, like Golden Russet. Historically, cider was made from the only resources available to make it, so style wasn’t a large factor when considering the production process. Apples were historically confined to the cooler climates of Western Europe and Britain where civilization was slow to develop record keeping. Cider was first made from crab apples, ancestors of the bittersweet and bittersharp apples used by today’s English cider makers.

English cider contained a drier, higher alcohol content version, using open fermentation vats and bittersweet crab apples. The French developed a sweet, low alcohol ‘cidre’ taking advantage of the sweeter apples and the keeving process. These are the roots of the standard styles we know today. Cider styles evolved based on the methods used, the apples available and local tastes. Production techniques developed, as with most technology, by trial and error. In fact, the variables were nearly too widespread to track, including: spontaneous fermentation, the type of vessels used, environmental conditions and the apple varieties. Refinements came much later when cider became a commercial product and the process was better understood. However, since there is growing popularity in ciders, the production of specialty styles has begun to increase.