A refreshing fermented apple drink made mostly from culinary (table) apples — relatively high in acidity and low in tannin, with bright apple fruit and a clean, wine-like character. Typically 4.5–8% ABV, pale straw to gold, and made at any level of sweetness and carbonation.
In the glass
Origin
Cider — fermented apple juice — is one of the oldest fruit drinks, with apple fermentation documented for millennia and strong regional traditions in the West Country of England, northern France (Normandy and Brittany), and northern Spain (Asturian and Basque sidra). European colonists carried cider to North America, where it was an everyday staple through the 18th and 19th centuries before temperance, Prohibition, and the rise of mass-market lager nearly erased it. A craft revival began in 1980s New England and surged into a mass-market boom in the 2010s. The common (or “New World”) style reflects the fruit most widely available — ordinary table apples — rather than the tannic bittersweet cider apples of the old European traditions.
Notes
This is the approachable, everyday end of the cider spectrum: juicy and acid-driven rather than the tannic, earthy “spice” of English or French cider-apple styles. It is made anywhere from bone dry to sweet and from still to sparkling, so producers are expected to declare both. It contains no grain and is not a beer — it sits in the catalog as a cider for drinkers browsing beyond beer.
Defining examples
2 Towns BrightCider·Seattle Cider Dry·Tandem Ciders Smackintosh·Bellwether Liberty Spy