I only learned recently that people from Not America don’t specify hard cider and instead it’s just cider.
I know this is a small difference but it is surprisingly one I do sometimes have to lie down on the floor about.
I don’t like apple juice but I do like cider and every time I’ve said that around a person from English speaking Not America there’s a chance they might’ve thought I was talking about an alcoholic beverage but I was not.
The tiny tiny things that lead to tiny tiny false assumptions. They are everywhere. I can’t escape them. I need to lie down.
Basically unfiltered and very cloudy apple juice. Can be served hot or cold. When Americans talk about alcoholic apple beverage we say Hard Cider because to us cider is a sweet unfiltered fall beverage fun for the whole family.
Our international reputation must be even worse than I thought if people have just assumed that we’re giving children alcohol
ID: The first image is a post reply from queerasaurus-rexx: wait… what do americans think cider is? The second image is a screenshot of tags that read: #OH- #I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE JUST GIVING YOUR KIDS ALCOHOL #I mean to be fair it’s not that strange of an assumption- (End ID)
I mean, European children do very much drink hard cider. But more importantly, you can’t actually buy soft cider-equivalent beverages in the UK or in the European countries I’m most familiar with.
The comments imply that “cloudy apple juice” is the equivalent, but this is not cider. In the notes people are posting comparison pictures where both drinks look like this and the only difference is the presence or absence of bubbles. It’s literally just pictures of cloudy apple juice! Cloudy apple juice is abundant and not cider.
The cider I miss is dark brown and syrupy. It leaves sediment at the bottom of the jug. It doesn’t need to be mulled because it already tastes mulled. It isn’t juice and lots of kids don’t even like it because it’s a little strange. Sometimes it’s served hot with caramel and a cinnamon stick. And I can’t have any, because it isn’t fuckign cloudy apple juice, so, you know, thanks for that.
This is apple cider to a New Englander. It's hard to describe the taste of you haven't had it, but it's not just "unfiltered apple juice". Someone in the comments mentioned sparkling cider, and although they're right about it being a celebratory drink (my family gives it to kids in wine glasses at holiday meals so they don't feel left out of the fancy glass party) it is not the same thing as this.
This is the kind that you heat up and put mulling spices in, if you are so inclined.
Exactly, it’s oxidised (brown, like apple flesh turns when you expose it to air.) it’s slightly fermented-ish (the wild yeasts on the apple’s skin weren’t INSTANTLY MURDERED, so there’s almost a spicy/vinegar/prickly tang.) it contains sediment, like mother-of-apple-cider-vinegar, and is thick and syrupy. It isn’t cloudy so much as opaque.
Saying to the world that cider is “just cloudy apple juice” is like if I told Americans, “oh yeah, British people like brown sauce, but it’s really just Worcestershire sauce. Isn’t it cute and stupid and remedial of them to call it ‘brown’ sauce because it’s brown?” And the 10k notes are people going “lmao British people, can’t cook and all their names are baby talk” with a few lone Brits crying out that ACTUALLY THAT ISNT TRUE AT ALL, THEYRE VERY DIFFERENT, WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE IS A SALTY THIN FLAVORING FOR COTTAGE PIE AND BROWN SAUCE IS A THICK VINEGAR KETCHUP FOR FRY-UPS!!! STOP SAYING THIS, IT ISNT TRUE -
Anyway that would just be mildly annoying EXCEPT that I have had a moment of precognition in which some kindly friend, thinking they are bringing me a great gift and a treasured favor, will now visit me in the UK having brought (and ferried at great expense) a bottle of fucking apple juice I regularly buy at Tesco, pictured above, with the delighted expectation of me welcoming the treat of real American cider. I can picture it and it’s breaking my heart.
Australian who lived in Canada for a few years, here to help!
Okay, first of all, it's not America we're talking about but North America. So, Canada too.
Secondly, not 'cloudy apple juice' but literally 'pressed/crushed apples'. Barely filtered if at all. You can literally go to farms in season and get massive vats of their apples which have just been. crushed. and, as @elodieunderglass says, not sterilised in any way, SO.
Thirdly: I made cider out of the cider. A friend and I got a bunch of fermentation equipment and did several experiments with farm-cider, cloudy apple juice from a shop, and filtered apple juice, with five different types of wine or cider yeast.
The absolutely best results (in terms of flavour AND alcohol content) were. The farm cider with no extra yeast, just the natural yeasts present on the apple skin. In the other brews made from the same crushed apples, the wild yeast won out in the end over the commercial yeast, but because they had that fight to win they didn't have so much time to develop and ferment, so the flavour wasn't so developed as in the [hard] cider with no commercial yeast.
Make of that what you will.
Note: the thing where soft cider makes good hard cider? That’s why soft cider is a thing.
You also can’t get soft cider everywhere in the US. In a lot of areas it’s only available direct from orchards that do enough apple processing that they have cider equipment. And soft cider is not shelf stable, and it cannot be made stable. It will start fermenting into hard cider within a few days, so it’s super perishable if you want it as itself. And it tastes different from different farms.
I miss it, but I’ve had over 15 years to get used to not having it.
Pennsylvania has a LOT of apple orchards, and also, a lot of apple cider! You can make it shelf stable by pasteurizing it, but that kills a lot of the flavor. And most people who have had it fresh much prefer it unpasteurized. But in Pennsylvania, it is illegal to sell an unpasteurized beverage.
So what they do is, all the orchards will have roadside stands with cider made fresh that day ... which they do not sell.
Instead, they sell jugs! ... which happen to contain cider. And while this is a transparent ploy, no cop or government official would ever dream of trying to nail them for it, because then they wouldn't be able to buy cider.
Pennsylvania 🤝 New York
(Having absolutely fucking fantastic apple cider)
I'm from Ontario and having made (soft) cider I can confirm it's literally just crushing apples and zero other process. If you're lucky enough to be near an apple farm with old equipment, you can make it the exact same way they did back in Olden Times: you stick a bunch of apples into the hopper of what's essentially a large meat grinder, turn the crank, and collect the cider. It's best after a couple of days, right before it hits the proper fermentation stage, but you can drink it right away and it's still pretty good.
Jumpscared by seeing my Tesco apple juice from 2 years ago!
