Cider in the United Kingdom

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 at Yuletide, and it is known that monks grew apples in their gardens.

[7] 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.

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.

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”,[9] 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.

[10] 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, Gloucestershire, and eastern Wales.

In 1676, John Worlidge wrote his Vinetum Brittanicum, a treatise on the production and processing of apples[1] 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.

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.

It is very common to find cider on tap in pubs and in bottles and cans at the local off-licence and large supermarkets.

White cider is made from pomace, the dry apple pulp left over after juicing, and the final product is almost colourless.

[18] Some manufacturers make white cider from imported apple concentrate mixed with glucose or corn syrup.

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.

[22] 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.

[25] Since September 2010, HM Revenue and Customs 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 of at least 1033 degrees.

Cloudy, unfiltered ciders made in the West Country are often called "scrumpy", from "scrump",[29] a local dialect term for a small or withered apple.

Ciders from Gloucestershire,[30][31] Herefordshire[32][33] and Worcestershire[34][35] made from traditional recipes have a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) awarded by the European Union in 1996.

[36] 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 recall the earlier significance of cider-apple.

[38] The Channel Islands once had a strong cider-making tradition likely largely due to the cultural and linguistic ties it had with the Normandy region of France.

[39] 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 and Normandy encouraged the migration of seasonal workers just to pick them all, and cider was often part of their payment.

[43] 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.

Steilhead Cider is made with apples collected from within Dumfries and Galloway, and is mainly sold at farmers markets and festivals.