Cider Days 2011

An autumn weekend in the Pioneer Valley, a jam-packed schedule of ciders tastings, non-stop conversation with North America's leading cider makers and apple growers... add them all together and you got Cider Days, the nations biggest cider event and a perfect example of a successful grass-routes food movement.
Not an ounce of pretentiousness floats as cider's well-known characters come together and sip home-made drink along side scores of home-cider makers. The goal is not to forward anyone or any particular style, but to collectively better the skills of all involved with the craft. Cider Days is a beautiful moment when the keepers of American tradition get together and strengthen each others commitment to self-sufficiency and higher standards. It's nothing short of the strongest cider culture in America since the 19th century.

Nap Time Over

I too am guilty of calling the recent surge in true cider a "re-emergence" and a "revival" but it's only because I'm not looking at extended history. Cider was popular in America all throughout the 17th century, the 18th century, and the 19th century; it was even popular for a good part of the 20th century. As far as American history is concerned, cider as a popular drink should be considered the norm; it's only been "missing" since about WWII. So even though it feels like a revival, the better way to say it is: Cider is awakening from a brief nap.

Fact and Possible Reason

True cider tastes nothing like freshly-pressed apple juice, or what Americans call "cider." The same is true for wine: fermentation, the natural progression of sugars into alcohol, results in flavor changes and a different mouth feel. Wine drinkers, of course, know this; they anticipate a sophisticated, dry and full-bodied drink, but why don't Americans know this about true cider?

Maybe it is because cider starts out so well compared to wine, we don't want to see the sweet appley taste go. Emerson noted this distinction while visiting an Italian winery; a sweet and hard cider lover, he was repulsed by the taste of freshly pressed grape juice. But also to blame is the production of "hard cider" in America, which is widely available in beer stores and manipulated to remind the drinker of fresh sweet cider. Though it is marketed as a natural drink made from apples, it is far from natural as set by the standard of true cider or the wine industry. If artificial carbonation, back-sweetening with sugar or concentrate, and use of "table fruit" were the staples in the wine industry we would be drinking Seagram's wine spritzers instead of a "Merlot" and "Pinot Noir". But such is the state of the "hard cider" industry in which true cider is trying to distinguish itself.