What is Real Cider?
Real cider is
essentially the fermented juice of the apple with nothing
added and nothing taken away. At the moment the majority of
the cider sold in the UK is mostly made from imported apple
concentrate, is full of artificial colourings, sweeteners,
and preservatives, is filtered, is pasteurised to render it
inert and is kept and served under carbon dioxide pressure.
Don't assume that if it is served through a hand pump that
it is real cider.
To protect traditional English varieties of cider and
perry, the CAMRA set up a sub-group, the Apple and Pear
Produce Liason Executive (APPLE). APPLE publish the Good
Cider Guide which lists pubs in Britain where real cider
and perry are available. APPLE have defined two categories
of real cider (and perry), anything which does not fall
within these categories is not considered to be real cider
(or perry).
Category
A:
A definition
agreed by APPLE to denote the very best of cider and perry,
with nothing added or taken away.
Category A - must:
- not be pasteurised before or after fermentation
- not be filtered
- not receive enzyme treatment
- not contain preservatives or colouring
- not have the natural yeast replaced by a cultured yeast
- not have a nitrogen source added unless essential to start fermentation
- not be diluted
- only contain sweetners if labelled Medium or Sweet, and then only if they are shown to be safe and do not affect the taste
- be produced from only freshly-pressed fruit, and
- not contain concentrate
- not contain
extraneous carbon dioxde
Category B:
Category A covers the majority of cider makers but only a small proportion of the total amount of cider made. A larger number of real ciders differ in some small respect from Category A ciders but are sufficiently authentic to be designated real cider since the taste and character of the cider is unaffected. These are Category B ciders.
Category B - must:
- not be entirely made from concentrate
- not contain
extraneous carbon dioxide
Scrumpy?
Scrumpy is a term often used to describe certain types of cider. It is one of those terms for which everyone has a definition and everyone's definition is different. Originally it was cider made from windfalls (scrumps). For most people it means a rough, cloudy and unsophisticated cider. It is most often applied to young cider, ie that which is only a few months old and has yet to undergo the maturation phase (including the malo-lactic fermentation). For other people, including some cider makers, it can mean the finest cider, from selected, better apples, slowly fermented and matured for longer than ordinary ciders.
What is Real Perry?
Perry is identical to cider with the exception that it is made from pears not apples.
Pear-Cider?
Under the definition of “real cider” as prescribed by CAMRA “Pear-Cider” cannot exist. However if a product contains both percentages of “real cider” and “real perry” then under CAMRA’s definition that product is called “Pider”.