Angrboda

you would have hated what I did to cider last night….i jug cider, 5 freshly cut ginger ‘coins’, 1pint blueberries, and 2 stems rosemary….yummy on a cold day…but not your speed if you don’t like ginger… :)

Leave out the ginger, and it would have been a lot more interesting to me. :) Rosemary strikes me as the odd one out there, though.

rosemary in apple cider is awesome…and so is the addition of seasonal cranberries

Do you serve it warm or cold? I have heard that some people take it hot, but that idea is foreign to me. It’s largely a summer-y drink here.

I do not hate ginger (not fresh ginger at least) but this also did not quite work for me.

cider is usually a autumn beverage, mulled with spices…..I personally have never been a great fan…then a number of years ago I was reading a cook book from a Buddhist temple and they suggested :
take 1/2 gal of favorite cider, bring to a simmer, drop 1 6" peice of fresh rosemary, take off heat, cover, and steep for 4-6 minutes. I usually cover the top of the liquid with fresh in-season cranberries (which once covered will pop and rupture transforming it into a crimson brew). You then remove the rosemary and serve warm/hot.

How different! In Denmark it’s usually served chilled and straight. I’ll have to try your method one of these days. Only, you know, without the ginger. :)

I love cider…warm, I prefer it to be spiced (I sometimes pop some chai in mine) but cold I just like it as is. Apply juice-y. : )

an often overlooked fact: the difference between apple juice and cider is merely filtration….so cold cider would seem to me like basically unfiltered apple juice….of which, I’m not a fan….but thank you for sharing your insight…I would love to visit Denmark….nordic climates suit me :)

I have wondered what the difference would be…I was thinking perhaps additives/sweeteners, but it’s always hard to compare local fresh cider to canned apple juice. : )

I feel really bitchy (sorry) to point this out, but I think the difference between cider and apple juice is the same as the difference between wine and grape juice – fermentation transforming sugar molecules into alcohol molecules. Filtration does eventually come into it, but it needs to ferment first. Just like grape juice needs to ferment to became wine (though tea fermentation is, I believe a different chemical process and should be called oxidation instead). You can not filter apple juice into cider, though juice might naturally ferment, specially if fresh. I am just mentioning this in case it saves anybody some disappointment in case they were going to try it, nevermind me otherwise.

Yes, the definition in Denmark is definitely what Cteresa says. Cider has a (small) alcohol content. Juice does not.

Does that mean, though, that above recipe should be made with cider or juice? I’m thinking with cider the alcohol would all just bubble away anyway.

while this is true…it is important to note…traditional apple cider is a seasonally consumed beverage as it is non-filtered and this allows for a natural fermentation to take place as well as a natural development of carbination…however, modern pasturization often kills this process and renders it alchohol free and so technically it is considered cider if it is non-filtered (in the US) and unsweetened. Apple juice is sweetened and filtered and pasturized/homogenized. The recipe can use either tradional apple cider (fermented and unfiltered) or modern (unfiltered/pasturized/non-fermented). Its the active pulp and natural bacteria in unfiltered ‘cider’ that allows for the fermentation to take place. Modern food sanitation is really such a messed up thing.

Might be a regional thing – I do not think you can sell “cider” in the EU which has no alcohol contents, I had never heard of non alcoholic-cider before. Though there is actually something “champagne” for kids which is bubbly apple juice without alcohol, but I do not think they can call it cider.

For a Canadian perspective, there is hard cider (alcoholic) and also “regular” cider which is available at grocery stores and markets, alcohol free.

Same in America, at least where I live. hard cider has alcohol, cider does not. I love a good, fresh cider, cold or hot.

Yes ^ Hard cider is delish! And cider of the non alcoholic variety is more often that not enjoyed hot and mulled with spices (in my home anyways), and I go for the hard cider cold in the summer. yum.

Round these parts (mediterranean to baltic, atlantic to black sea, I guess) cider has got to be “hard” to be cider o, that is alcoholic (or somebody would feel cheated!). Chocolate has got to have a minimum ammount of cocoa solids. Water bottlers are not allowed to put on packaging that it is “diet water”. A bunch of stuff has to be from a certain location and follow some rules to be called something, It is a little bit contro-freak-ish, but I got to confess I like it. I am used to it.

What Cteresa said. It’s the same here. If you try to sell something as ‘cider’ and it doesn’t have a small alcohol content, it’s false advertising and illegal. In the same way it’s SO illegal to sell something as juice if it contains alcohol. It’s all in the name of quality control and consumer trust and whatnot.

It’s interesting to me that cider is solely a term for an alcoholic drinking EU. All alcohol has it’s percentage listed in Canada but there are a couple of products (cider, lemonade) that have both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties.

I think if you ever mentioned the possibility of non alcoholic cider in some parts of Europe (Brittany, or any side of the Basque country) you might get murdered (or at least totally snubbed and ignore and maybe somebody would spit on your food behind your back). If the Eu allowed that, chances are the French and Spanish would rise in revolt.

(but seriously, proper labelling of foodstuffs and protected origins, like Champagne or Port or Parma Ham, are really important things in EU legislation)

and just to add, we do take alcohol very seriously on this continent :p

Not to mention feta cheese.

and just to add, we do take alcohol very seriously on this continent :p

Which is why it’s not cider if it’s not alcoholic. There must be no doubt as to whether something is alcoholic or not. You can’t sell Bacardi Breezers as ‘soda’ either no matter how fizzy, fruity and synthetic it is.

It’s totally just a difference of terms in Canada, not an improper labeling issue. haha just wanted to throw that in there :)

Same here. Cider is cider and hard cider is hard cider, not to be confused with moonshine, of course. ;)

This is the funniest thread ever! I concur that in America, cider is non-alcoholic. Alcoholic cider does exist as “hard cider.” But cider by itself, not so much. Also, I’ve found that cider is almost always served hot. I’m not sure of the fermentation process or whatnot, but I think of it as cider is hot, spiced, apple juice.