|
Many Americans think of hard cider as the overly sweet stuff sold in grocery stores—made from dessert apples and designed more for sugar than complexity. But authentic cider is something else entirely. In the 1700s and early 1800s, cider was enormously popular in America and was often closer in spirit to wine than to the sweet drinks many people associate with cider today. Apples grew more reliably than grapes in much of early America, clean drinking water was often unreliable, and hard cider was consumed daily, especially in farming communities. John Adams reportedly drank cider every morning. Thomas Jefferson grew cider apples. And Johnny Appleseed planted apples intended largely for cider production rather than for eating. Historically, cider in both Europe and early America was dry, tannic, and complex, made from apples grown specifically for fermentation rather than from sweet eating apples. Those traditional cider apples contained tannins, acidity and aromatics that gave the drink structure and depth — much like wine grapes do. The sweeter style most Americans know today emerged much later, as industrial producers began making cider from ordinary grocery-store apples bred for sweetness and appearance rather than character. The modern craft cider movement has been, in many ways, a return to cider’s roots.
|
