The word cider travelled from Hebrew through Greek, Latin and French to England
Old English speakers called fermented apple juice simply apple wine. The word cider arrived later by a winding road: from a Hebrew term for intoxicating liquor, through Greek, Church Latin and Old French. Today the British Isles drinks more of it per person than anywhere else on earth.
The earliest recorded mention links cider to Julius Caesar's first attempt on Britain in 55 BCE, when his troops reportedly found Celts fermenting crab apples and carried the idea back across Europe. In Middle English the word appears in the 13th century as sicer, meaning strong drink, and by the 14th it had narrowed to a drink made from fruit, then from apples. The Norman chronicler Wace used the French form for fermented apple juice around 1130 to 1140.
Local apples and habits split the drink into national styles. English makers favoured open vats and bittersweet crab apples, producing something dry and strong, while the French used sweeter fruit and a process called keeving to make a gentle, low-alcohol cidre. In Germany, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate produce a sharp version called Apfelwein, and Normandy, Brittany, Asturias and the Basque Country all have deep cider traditions.
Law has its own opinions. In the UK a cider needs only 35 percent apple juice, though the Campaign for Real Ale argues genuine cider should be at least 90 percent fresh juice; the US sets a 50 percent floor, and France insists on apples alone. Strength ranges widely, from about 1.2 percent to 8.5 percent or more in traditional English ciders and up to 12 percent on the continent. North Americans say hard cider to separate it from the unfermented sweet kind.
Making it starts with scratting, grinding apples to pulp, once done with stone troughs or mills turned by hand, water or horses. The pulp was pressed between layers of straw or haircloth, and the leftover pomace went to livestock as winter feed. Modern ciders from culinary apples such as Gala are tarter and lower in tannin; heritage ciders, using varieties like Kingston Black, carry more tannin. Newer styles add hops, spices, wood ageing or other fruit.
Source: Cider
