Apple cider
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the alcoholic beverage known in the U.S. as hard apple cider, see cider
Apple cider is the name for a non-alcoholic beverage produced from apples by a process of pressing, especially in the United States and parts of Canada. It is more sour and cloudy than conventional apple juice, retaining the tart flavor of the apple pulp which is lost in conventional fruit juice production.
Cider is generally best in late autumn corresponding with the harvest season, and is a popular traditional beverage on Halloween and Thanksgiving.
[edit] Production
In the United States, well over 12,000,000 gallons of apple cider are pressed each year by very small operations, with medium sized industrial presses producing many times more than that for mass distribution.
In the United States of America, cider was traditionally fermented, but that alcoholic apple drink is now referred to as hard cider or as alcoholic cider. Today in the US (and Canada to some extent), cider is a nonalcoholic beverage; a subcategory of apple juice traditionally made from early-harvest apples which have a lower sugar content and are more acidic, thus cider has a more tart, tangy taste than apple juice. It is generally (though not always) unfiltered, giving it an opaque appearance from suspended solids.
Cider is occasionally sold unpasteurized -- generally on-site at small orchards. Many feel that the unprocessed version has much better flavor, but because of the possibility of contamination by salmonella or E. coli, most apple cider is pasteurized before distribution.
[edit] Variations
Apple ciders are often made from blends of several different apples to give a balanced taste. Some businesses may try to maliciously pass off standard apple juice as cider. There is some local competitiveness among cider mills in apple country for the highest quality blends, and makers keep their formulas secret. One trick used to add interest to a cider blend is the addition of a percentage of crabapples. Cider doughnuts are often sold at cider mills and contain cider in the batter. Visiting apple orchards in the fall for cider, doughnuts and u-pick apples is a large segment in U.S. agritourism.
Hot cider or mulled cider (also known as "Wassail") is a popular fall (autumn) and winter beverage, consisting of apple cider, heated to a temperature just below boiling, with cinnamon, orange peel, nutmeg, cloves, or other spices added.
Another cider available in the US is sparkling cider, a carbonated nonalcoholic beverage made from filtered apple cider or apple juice.
[edit] What is "cider"?
It has been suggested that in United States of America the differences between apple juice and cider are not legally well established [1], but in American common use, cider is usually understood to be the cloudier, unfiltered and less processed of the two products. Nevertheless, some large U.S. corporations continue to market the same clear, filtered, processed, and pasteurized apple juice as "apple cider", particularly in urban supermarkets, where customers might be less likely to notice the difference.de:Apfelsaft nl:Appelsap simple:Apple juice
