Favorite Apple Beverage

Favorite Apple Beverage

• Apple Juice (14%)
• Apple Cider (71%)
• Apple Martini (6%)
• Blech...None of the Above! (9%)

Total Votes = 412

Unpasteurized cider that's been left in the mudroom for a few days, so it gets fizzy.

My Grandpa's cider, from the cellar where it got and stayed cold. But then we weren't allowed to have it when it began to get "fizzy" because that's when it belonged to Grandpa...and the reason he made it to begin with.

Oh, those were the days, many moons ago!

Donna

Apple soda is great. I am at a loss for what brands make it, though. Snapple makes and "OK" apple drink.
Matt

Apple cider......

From a very satisfied redtressed who just helped press over 200 gallons of the stuff the past two weekends.

Help,
Can someone tell me the difference between apple cider and apple juice? I used to think cider was cloudy and juice filtered. But I've seen cloudy juice and transparent cider. And I’ve seen fresh juice as well as from concentrate.
Thanks

The Apple beveridge that I like best is Applewood Julip served at the Applewood Farmhouse in Tennesse. It is a mixture of Apple juice, lemon juice, pineapple juice and orange juice mixed togther and chilled unitl almost slush. They always give you a small glass along with apple fritters and apple utter.

Warm apple cider with a little Jim Beam for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Cosmos

Warm apple cider with a little Jim Beam for me.

We spent the day at friends house to watch football and do the "trick or treat" bit. He served some sort of "witches brew" which include a little apple cider and a lot of rum. All I can say, is that it made a strong martini taste like an old maid's drink.

The only apple soda I can think of off the top of my head is Sidral Mundet

Cider is, by definition, apple juice. But that's like saying , champaigne is nothing but wine. True, but missing the point. Cider is apple juice raised to a much higher level, and when it is allowed to harden a bit, it is a wondrous drink - something apple juice will never attain.

Cheers, John

quote:

Originally posted by seafarer john

Cider is, by definition, apple juice. But that's like saying , champaigne is nothing but wine. True, but missing the point. Cider is apple juice raised to a much higher level, and when it is allowed to harden a bit, it is a wondrous drink - something apple juice will never attain.

Cheers, John

John,
I actually had an experience with an apple juice that had dreams of better things. I was in the hospital recovering from surgery & had been brought an apple juice on my breakfast tray. It was in one of those plastic cups with a foil lid. I didn't drink it, but sat it to the side for later. I forgot it was there. Now this had been major surgery & it was back in the days before the insurance companys threw your butt out as soon as possible. The juice sat on the table for a couple of days. All of a sudden one afternoon, there was as popping noise like a small balloon bursting. Upon investigation, I found the juice container with the lid blown off & the juice inside fizzing away!! Even though it hurt to laugh I enjoyed a good chuckle.

I can't get the cider that turns fizzy anymore. It's all pasturized and doesn't turn. I remember how good it was when it started to turn with a real crisp taste. Those were the days.

I understand what hard cider is, but I still do not understand the difference between regular cider and apple juice. If “Cider is apple juice raised to a much higher level,” then a higher level of what? Aren’t they both just squeezed apples?

Still Confused

I love apple cider, but the best for me is from Normandy it is a little bit hard but not overwhelming....Delicious and refreshing. Also the Germans make a great apple drink with a little bit of a kick I think it is called apfelwien. It is very light and not as heavy as wine or cider.

In New England the old timers used to put the hard cider outside in the frigid cold and freeze it they then put a hole in the block and put a straw down to a concentrate in the middle called apple jack, which was strong and good.

Apple or Hard Apple Cider for me! I enjoy both of them.. Luckily Michigan has an abundance of apple orchards, so there's fresh cider available just about everywhere!

How about some applejack???

quote:

Originally posted by halfday

I can't get the cider that turns fizzy anymore. It's all pasturized and doesn't turn. I remember how good it was when it started to turn with a real crisp taste. Those were the days.

The only place I know of the sells unpasteurized cider is a little supermarket in Center Harbor, NH. During our annual pre-Thanksgiving roadtrip, we buy a couple gallons and leave 'em in the mudroom when we get home. It's perfect on Thanksgiving Day.

Back in the 40's (1940's), we visited Uncle Lyman's farm in N.W. Conn. fairly often He had a huge cider press out in the barn, with which he custom pressed apples for people who brought their apples over for the service. I remember being sent up into the upper reaches in the barn to shove apples down a chute where they were ground into a pulp then spread onto huge burlap sheets on the press, where the beautiful amber liquid was extracted. The customers and Unc would hold a glass at the corner of the press to sample the new cider. Once in a while I, too, was offered some of this wonderful treat. When the place was sold at auction decades later, there was still a glass hanging on a hook in the corner of the barn near where the press was located. I carried it home to serve as a reminder of wonderful days gone by. A young friend and I would shoot pool on an ancient pool table in one room of the cellar of the house. In the dark, cool, front room of the cellar there were barrels lining the walls, filled with cider in various stages of fermentation. I recall one day, we snuck in there, took the siphon down from a nail in the rafters, and filled a few glasses with hard cider. My friend, David, had a low threshold for this sort of thing, I recall. I finally helped him out to the barn to sleep it off for a few hours before he had to get home for supper. Sorry to ramble on, but thought I'd share some "cider memories" with you folks.

quote:

Originally posted by Phishmonger

Back in the 40's (1940's), we visited Uncle Lyman's farm in N.W. Conn. fairly often He had a huge cider press out in the barn, with which he custom pressed apples for people who brought their apples over for the service. I remember being sent up into the upper reaches in the barn to shove apples down a chute where they were ground into a pulp then spread onto huge burlap sheets on the press, where the beautiful amber liquid was extracted. The customers and Unc would hold a glass at the corner of the press to sample the new cider. Once in a while I, too, was offered some of this wonderful treat. When the place was sold at auction decades later, there was still a glass hanging on a hook in the corner of the barn near where the press was located. I carried it home to serve as a reminder of wonderful days gone by. A young friend and I would shoot pool on an ancient pool table in one room of the cellar of the house. In the dark, cool, front room of the cellar there were barrels lining the walls, filled with cider in various stages of fermentation. I recall one day, we snuck in there, took the siphon down from a nail in the rafters, and filled a few glasses with hard cider. My friend, David, had a low threshold for this sort of thing, I recall. I finally helped him out to the barn to sleep it off for a few hours before he had to get home for supper. Sorry to ramble on, but thought I'd share some "cider memories" with you folks.

I will not forget the time that my husband's uncle stopped by in midmorning to pick my husband up. They were going out to buy cider from a friend of their's who had a small cider mill. Evidentally, the friend was not too busy that day so he introduced my husband and uncle to some of his "private stock". They spent the entire day there and arrived home around dinner time with a couple of jugs of the "private stock". I had a glass of it and to this day, I will never figure out how the uncle could even drive

plb.........

From the web:

A glass of fresh apple cider is one of our favorite fall treats, so we set out to answer your question with gusto. We searched on "apple juice apple cider difference" and soon learned the core difference. Both drinks are made from 100% liquid from an apple, but the distinction between the two depends upon where you live.
In the United States, apple cider refers to the unprocessed liquid that you get from apples. The apples are washed, cut, and ground into mash before being pressed. The resulting cider usually contains apple pulp and is dark, brown, and cloudy. The beverage is perishable and must be refrigerated. If this liquid is filtered and further processed, the resulting product is apple juice, which has a longer shelf life than cider.

In England, apple cider is an alcoholic beverage that is produced when the juice from freshly pressed apples is allowed to ferment. It's sometimes referred to as "hard cider."

Some ciders and juices have not been pasteurized and may pose a health risk. The FDA requires all unpasteurized drinks to be labeled.

When I was a teenager we froze a gallon of hard cider and tried drinking the dregs that didn't freeze. It was horrible stuff - undrinkable, even for a desperate teenager. I have read, as Santacruz states above, that it was an old trick in New England to do just that. All I can say is those old time New Englanders must have been really desperate for a drink to down that stuff.

What we call Applejack nowadays is distilled hard cider (called wine or beer in the trade). The only difference betwen Applejack and Apple Brandy is that the Brandy is aged in wooden barrels for a number of years (7 in Laird's case) before being sold, whereas, Applejack is ready to drink straight from the still.

I am told that the old timers around here, during Prohibition, used to distill Applejack directly from the fermented apple mash ( essentially hard Apple Cider together with the apple solids). Using this crude method, the stills sometimes clogged up and exploded resulting in loss of life and Applejack.

Once more, into the fray. I dont think there is any difference between cider and juice except that the juice is always filtered and pasteurized, while the cider is juice just as it comes from the press, and is frequently not pasteurized. Chezkatie's apple juice was probably, carelessly or mistakenly, exposed to some natural yeast after pasteurization - that's what made it "fizzy". Natural or wild yeast spores are all around us and if they land in even pasteurized cider, they will start a fermentation process. It is my understanding that some yeasts are "better" than others. Some yeasts will result in vinegar, or just awful tasting hard cider. Maybe someone out there can straighten me out on the vinegar producing process - it has always been a mystery to me, although we have had cider turn to vinegar sitting on our side porch. Not very nice tasting vinegar, I might add....

Cheers, John

To try to be more specific and answer pds' question.:It may not be that cider is raised to a "higher level" than apple juice. It is more like apple juice is processed down to a "lower level" than cider. That is, all the taste and fun have been processed out of the cider to make apple juice. I guess it's like what they do in Wisconsin to cheese. they take a perfectly good cheese and turn it into a rubbery tasteless glob called processed cheese. Try to think of apple juice as overprocessed cider.

Thanks Redtressed for your contribution toward answering the question . I ,like, I am sure, you , am willing to take my chances with unpasteurized cider and other natural products - what a dull damn world it would be if we read and honored the warnings posted on just about everything nowadays...

Cheers, John

lol....SF.....I had my first pasteurized cider last year at an event at Adam's elementary school , and I don't plan on sampling it again. It's certainly not the real thing. I've got some nice hard cider now both plain and cherry and pear flavors. Most of the apple I'll process on to make apple cider vinegar. The hard cider should be drinkable for a bit more time. I also have about 9 gallons in the fridge from the past weekend's pressing and will have a bit more from the pressing this weekend.

To make apple cider vinegar is fairly simple. Pour cider into large container until about 2/3 or 3/4 full. At this point you can choose to either add some yeast obtained at a wine making supply store or you can let it ferment on its own. I do use the yeast as it is more reliable in the full fermentation without as much risk of spoilage. The starter for this is one cake of yeast into one quart of cider and allow to sit for a few hours. One quart of this will ferment about 5 gallons of cider. I use milk jugs, so add equal amounts to each jug. Keep jugs uncapped, but you can use a bit of cheesecloth over the top to keep out contaminates. Keep in a rather dark enviroment at approximately 60 to 80 degrees max. Stir or softly swish within the containers daily. After 3 to 4 weeks and the vinegar smell becomes apparent, start to taste daily to decide how much fermentation you wish. After it does reach my desired sharpness I filter it through several layers of cheesecloth or coffee filters will work also. That rids it of the "Mother Yeast" and produces the traditional clear amber vinegar. Vinegar, as I like to keep it indefinitely, I do pasteurize by putting it into jars then a hot water bath, heating it to somewhere between 140 and 150 degrees. After removing from the bath......I add herbs such as tarragon to some bottles, garlic to others and raspberries to some, leaving some plain. I wrap these in cheesecloth bouquet garni style and leave in the vinegars about a week. Herbs I leave in permanently. Cap and store the vinegars in a cool , dark place and it will last indefinitely. Can't begin to tell you the difference in using these for salad dressings etc. You can also use them in refrigerating and frozen pickling, but not in shelf stored pickling as the acidity level cannot be determined , safely.

The Sundancer distinctly recalls a recent trip with Bushie where fresh apple cider was used with Canadian. I had never had that but Bushie assured me that it was a favorite with his folks. I tried it and I will attest that it was really good.

We enjoyed it at my dock and enjoyed the sunset and the friendship.

Here is to it with fresh apple cider and Canadian. It was really good and thanks to Bushie, I enjoyed it also.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Lucky Bishop

Unpasteurized cider that's been left in the mudroom for a few days, so it gets fizzy.

What's a good temperature for that? Fizzy cider is something I really miss from Michigan winters (we have apples in Georgia, but not as much cold)

Several years ago my husband and I were driving around the southwest coast of England. Heading north,we saw signs advertising "Old Scrumpy" with a picture of an old rooster with curled-up feet. We had to stop and buy some,of course. Wow-did that Scrumpy pack a punch!! Lots stronger than any apple jack we ever tasted but really yummy.

Redtressed:Thanks for the vinegar info. I just might get up the courage to try making some this Fall.

There are still some Mom and Pop cider mills in operation in our area. (A local farmer who had run a successsful small cider mill made it over into a huge operation . It was very successful, so much so, that Pepperridge Farms bought it and soon sold it to some other huge national food products company, who then shut down the entire operation.)

If any of you find yourselves in the Hudson Valley, Jenkins & Luekens Farms on Rt 299 a couple of miles west of New Paltz makes excellent cider, cider doughnuts, and has a wide variety of their own home grown apples, pears, and squashes. This is a family owned opertion and will, hopefully, be in business for a long time to come.
A few years ago I was talking to the now departed, Jack Luekens and I commented to him how difficult the apple market had become for local producers. His response was, "The market is always good for a guy like me, I sell every apple I produce right here out of my own stand, so it doesn't much matter how the market is". We've got to admire guys like that, they work hard, put out a quality product, and prosper.

Cheers, John

I have been chastised out her on the West Coast for even suggesting that the best tasteing apples come from the Hudson Valley. But from my humble tasteing of Apples from all over the country I would rank the Middle and Northern Hudson valley as right at the top. I think it has to do with the cold snaps in October and usually plenty of rain all year long. I do like the European hard ciders, but next to that the ones from Columbia county, Dutchess county and the adjoining area are excellent in quality, richness, sour-sweet flavor.
I used to get my Cider yearly from a place in Kinderhook NY. My family used to make cider at Poestenkill NY a long time ago.
I still grow apples in California, Gravenstiens good for pies and eating not so great for Cider.

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

The Sundancer distinctly recalls a recent trip with Bushie where fresh apple cider was used with Canadian. I had never had that but Bushie assured me that it was a favorite with his folks. I tried it and I will attest that it was really good.

We enjoyed it at my dock and enjoyed the sunset and the friendship.

Here is to it with fresh apple cider and Canadian. It was really good and thanks to Bushie, I enjoyed it also.

Paul E. Smith





The Sundancer will insist that the Bushie recipe with Canadian with unpasterized apple cide is one of the best drinks I have ever had. Truly a fall delight.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Vince Macek

quote:

Originally posted by Lucky Bishop

Unpasteurized cider that's been left in the mudroom for a few days, so it gets fizzy.

What's a good temperature for that? Fizzy cider is something I really miss from Michigan winters (we have apples in Georgia, but not as much cold)

Stop in your local homebrew supply house, or party store that sells homebrew supplies and get a packet of "Champagne Yeast" for about a buck... Sprinkle a pinch on top of your cider and let it sit at room temp for about a week or so... Cheers! as Seafarer would say!!