UnitedStatesofCider

Inside Cider: Regarding Cider Apple Terminology

April 13, 2013April 16, 2013UnitedStatesofCider1 Comment

More USEFUL TERMS regarding Cider Apples:

TANNINS: bitter, astringent substances found in some apples. They give bitterness & complex, earthly flavors, plus drying, tautening, & body in the “mouthfeel”.

ACIDS: sour-tasting, or ‘sharp’ substances found in apples. Acids give a refreshing sourness, bright flavor, & a keen, mouth-watering “feel’. To ferment cleanly, raw cider juice needs a strong acid content.

SUGARS: sweet-tasting substances found in apples. Yeast ferments natural fruit sugars into alcohol.

CIDER APPLES: apple varieties that produce superior juice for fermenting. Like wine grapes, cider apples often taste bad. They can be super-bitter, super-sour, sickly-sweet, dry soft or any combination of the above. When a good eating apple works well for cider, or vice-versa, it is prized by Farnum Hill Cider & Poverty Lane Orchard’s as a ‘cross over’.

BITTERSWEETS: a class of cider apple varieties valued for high tannin content & high sugar content.

SWEETS: apple varieties grown for high sugar alone.

BITTERSHARPS: a class of cider apple varieties valued for high tannin content & high acid content.

SHARPS: apple varieties grown for high acid alone.

Adapted from Farnum Hill Cider & Poverty Lane Orchards booklet Inside Cider: Fast Facts for Wholesalers, Retailers, and Aficionados from Farnum Hill Cider © copyright Poverty Lane Orchards 2011. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

Cider Review: Breezy Hill Orchard Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider: Cider52

April 11, 2013June 12, 2013UnitedStatesofCider1 Comment

Cider: BREEZY HILL ORCHARD HUDSON VALLEY FARMHOUSE CIDER

Maker: Breezy Hill Orchard and Cider Mill

Origin: Staatsburg, New York

website: www.hudsonvalleycider.com

ABV: 4.5% ABV Bottle: 2 litre growler, screw cap

Maker’s Style Notes: Produced by Elizabeth Ryan of Breezy Hill Orchard. Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider is fresh, unfiltered, unsulphited, authentic artisan farmhouse cider. It has a shelf life of 2-4 weeks and must be kept refrigerated. Slightly effervescent…a rare opportunity to enjoy a truly authentic beverage.

Fruit: Apples.

Tasting Notes – In The Glass: Opaque golden amber. Effervescent with mostly tiny bubbles. The primary flavors are all fruit but of various types: Pear, Tropical Fruit, Banana, Citrus, Culinary Apple. Vegetal and floral notes. Grass and Vanilla. Medium body with a silky mouthfeel. Sweetness balanced by salinity. Acid and bitterness are present but in low levels.

Rustic and easy drinking like a Saison.

Our Pairings – The Tasting Lab: Drank solo (before breakfast!) – but mused on cured meats, bitter greens, fudgey blue cheeses and best pairing of all – Maple Bacon Donuts. This one makes us think of our colonial forebearers. Surely Ben (Franklin) quaffed a beverage like this before bustling off to invent something extremely useful.

Red Flannel Hash (hash with beets) just begs to be paired with breakfast cider – channel your inner lumberjack.

Overall Impressions: This IS Breakfast Cider. Of course discerning cider drinkers may certainly find other times of day to enjoy this most wholesome and refreshing drink.

Tasting was over a period of days and the cider is so fresh and alive that each day it offered a different profile and was SO lively. Sweet, silky, astringent, slightly effervescent, and bursting with all kinds of apple cider goodness. We love this cider. High marks for transporting qualities.

If we were having Breezy Hill Orchard’s Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider with donuts for breakfast we might try something like:

Dynamo Donut Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donuts – AND they make a Quince Crumb Donut.

EVERYDAY is Bacon Donut Day.

Donut Plant‘s Ginger Donut – Cake or Yeast.

For further reading while enjoying your Breakfast Cider:

Donut Planet: the History of the Donut by Michael Krondl at Savuer.com

Cider Review: Cider52: Harvest Moon Cidery Heritage Hops Hard Cider with Hops

April 10, 2013June 12, 2013UnitedStatesofCiderLeave a comment

Cider: HARVEST MOON CIDERY HERITAGE HOPS HARD CIDER with Hops

Maker: Harvest Moon Cidery

Origin: Critz Farms, Cazenovia, New York

website: harvestmooncidery.com

ABV: 6.75% Bottle: 22 oz bottle, crown cap

Style Notes: Hopped hard cider. Made from fresh sweet cider, with champagne yeasts, lightly carbonated.

Fruit: Apples.

Makers Bottle Notes: “Our Heritage Hops Cider is a tribute to the early hop growing history of Madison County, dating back to the mid 1800’s. Using a strain of locally grown hops, propagated from those originally grown nearby, we “dry hop” the cider after fermentation. It is aged for several months, then lightly carbonated”.

Tasting Notes: In The Glass: Clear, bright, pale straw. Initially lots of large bubbles, some legs, settles into a tiny mousse ring. Piquant, slightly pungent, winey, Sauvignon Blanc, steel, hoppy, herbaceous, asparagus, green pepper. Tannic, slightly bitter bite from the hops, medium long finish, somewhat drying.

Our Pairings – The Tasting Lab: Liddabit Sweets Sweet Potato and Black Pepper Caramels. Cider enhances the caramel’s flavors and the caramels intensify the bitter crisp acidity of the hoppy cider.

Cheesemonger’s Notes: Any bloomy rind goats milk (Humboldt Fog, Coupole, Valencay) will pair exceptionally well with the bright flavors in this cider. Spicy Blues such as Valdeon or Blaue Geiss would also be lively companions.

Overall Impressions Refreshing flavors of fresh cut grass, minerals, green pepper, nettles and of course hops. If you love American IPAs this is a cider for you.

Note: Harvest Moon Cidery, Critz Farms “plans to establish a new orchard dedicated specifically to growing cider apples. A mix of European cider apple trees and other dessert apple trees will be planted in the spring of 2014.”

If you have tasting notes to add please leave a comment.

Portrait: Apple Blossoms circa 1906

Image April 8, 2013April 7, 2013UnitedStatesofCiderLeave a comment

Detroit Publishing Company Collection circa 1906

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection,

[reproduction number, LC-D4-16374]

Clare Barboza: Documentary Food Photographer

Image April 7, 2013April 7, 2013UnitedStatesofCiderLeave a comment

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harmony2

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ClareBarboza.com

www.claremariephotography.com

claremariephotography.blogspot.com

Images: Tahuya River Apiaries, Harmony Orchards, Pipitone Farms, Poverty Lane Orchards, cider.

Discover the Craft of Documentary Food Photographer Clare Barboza.

April 7, 2013April 18, 2013UnitedStatesofCider1 Comment

Clare Barboza is a Seattle-based visual artist and documentary food photographer focused on capturing the telling details that illuminate the stories behind what we eat, make, raise, and grow.

Her evocative images are featured in Rowan Jacobsen’s upcoming book, Uncommon Apples. Glimpse a few portraits of these unique apples: Knobbed Russet, Blue Pearmain, and wild Khazhaks – here. Clare discusses her experiences shooting the book, and shares beautiful pome fruit images, in her blog post a whole lotta apples.

Enjoy the images Clare graciously shared with us, and explore her work further at ClareBarboza.com

Image: Harmony Orchards