American-style apple cider, left; Apple juice, right.

Apple cider is the name used especially in the United States and parts of Canada for a non-alcoholic beverage produced from apples by a process of pressing. It is more sour and cloudy than conventional apple juice, retaining the tart flavor of the apple pulp which is lost in conventional fruit juice production. You can aslo add bourbon for an achoholic drink and you can also add fruits to make it taste different. Download high resolution version (989x876, 72 KB)American style cider and apple juice photos by rmhermen File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (989x876, 72 KB)American style cider and apple juice photos by rmhermen File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A glass of clear apple juice, from which pectin and starch have been removed. ... This article is about the fruit. ... A glass of clear apple juice, from which pectin and starch have been removed. ...

Cider is mostly thought to be best in late autumn^{[citation needed]}, corresponding with the harvest season, and is a popular traditional beverage on Halloween and Thanksgiving, heated if the weather is especially cold. This article is about the temperate season. ... Look up Harvest in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the holiday. ... For other uses, see Thanksgiving (disambiguation). ...

Production

In the United States, well over 12,000,000 gallons^{[citation needed]} of apple cider are pressed each year. Apple cider was (like other forms of cider) traditionally fermented, but that alcoholic apple drink is now referred to in the United States as hard cider. Today in the US (and Canada to some extent), apple cider is a nonalcoholic beverage; a subcategory of apple juice traditionally made from early-harvest apples which have a lower sugar content and are more acidic, thus cider has a more tart, tangy taste than apple juice. It is generally (though not always) unfiltered, giving it a somewhat cloudier appearance from suspended solids. A ram press is a device or machine commonly used to press items with a mechanical ram, such as with a plunger, piston, force pump, or hydraulic ram. ... Cider in a pint glass Cider (or cyder) is an alcoholic beverage made primarily from the juices of specially grown varieties of apples. ...

Apple cider is rarely sold unpasteurized, generally on-site at small orchards. Some seek unpasteurized juice based on the common but disputed belief that less-processed products are healthier.^[1] A community apple orchard originally planted for productive use during the 1920s, in Westcliff on Sea (Essex, England) An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs maintained for food production. ...

Due to outbreaks of salmonellosis, enterohemorrhagic E. coli infections, cryptosporidiosis, cholera and other serious illnesses from unpasteurized fruit juices in general and apple cider in particular, the U.S. FDA now requires that virtually all fruit and vegetable juice producers follow HACCP controls, using either heat pasteurization, UV treatment or other proven methods.^[2] As a result, all apple cider sold in the United States, other than sales directly to consumers by producers (such as juice bars), must be produced using HACCP principles to achieve a 100,000 fold reduction in pathogens.^[2] While the use of certain UV treatments or other technologies meet legal requirements, heat pasteurization is the most commonly used method.^[3] Salmonellosis is an infection with Salmonella bacteria. ... adjective, Definition; Enterohemorrhagic - Causing bloody diarrhea and colitis, said of pathogenic microorganisms. ... Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an emerging cause of foodborne illness. ... Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic disease affecting the intestines of mammals that is caused by Cryptosporidium, a protozoan parasite in the phylum Apicomplexa. ... Cholera (or Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera) is an extreme diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. ... Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic method used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards, so that key actions, known as Critical Control Points (CCPs), can be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards being realised. ...

Even before the 2001 legislation, most apple cider distributed in the U.S. was pasteurized.^[1] Even so, unpasteurized cider was linked to approximately 16,000 to 48,000 cases of foodborne illnesses each year, according to the FDA.^[4]
Pasteurization is the process of heating food for the purpose of killing harmful organisms such as bacteria, viruses, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. ...

Variations

Unpasteurized Massachusetts cider.

Apple ciders are often made from blends of several different apples to give a balanced taste. There is some local competitiveness among cider mills in apple country for the highest quality blends, and makers keep their formulas secret. One trick used to add interest to a cider blend is the addition of a percentage of crabapples. Cider doughnuts are often sold at cider mills and contain cider in the batter. Visiting apple orchards in the fall for cider, doughnuts and you-pick apples is a large segment in U.S. agritourism. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2304x1728, 975 KB) Unpasteurized apple cider from Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, Massachusetts. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2304x1728, 975 KB) Unpasteurized apple cider from Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, Massachusetts. ... Species - Southern Crab - Siberian Crabapple - Sweet Crabapple - Apple - Japanese Crabapple - Oregon Crab - Chinese Crabapple - Prairie Crab - Asian Wild Apple - European Wild Apple Malus, the apples, is a genus of about 30-35 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including most importantly the domesticated Orchard or... For other uses, see Doughnut (disambiguation). ... Agritourism is a style of vacation in which hospitality is offered on farms. ...

Hot apple cider or mulled cider (also known as "Wassail") is a popular fall (autumn) and winter beverage^[5], consisting of apple cider, heated to a temperature just below boiling, with cinnamon, orange peel, nutmeg, cloves, or other spices added. Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, usually those connected with holidays such as Christmas, New Years and Twelfth Night. ... Binomial name J.Presl Cassia (Chinese cinnamon) is also commonly called (and sometimes sold as) cinnamon. ... Zest is the outer, colored shell of citrus fruit and is often used for baking. ... For other uses, see Nutmeg (disambiguation). ... Binomial name (L.) Merrill & Perry A single dried clove flower bud Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum, syn. ... For other uses, see Spice (disambiguation). ...

Another cider available in the US and Canada is sparkling cider, a carbonated nonalcoholic beverage made from filtered apple cider. A common brand of sparkling cider is Martinelli's.
For the chemical reaction forming calcium carbonate, see carbonatation. ... A bottle of Martinellis famous cider S. Martinelli & Company, better known by the brand name Martinellis, is a company based in Watsonville, California. ...

American definition

In the United States, the distinction between apple juice and cider is not legally well established,^[6] but cider is usually understood in common usage to be cloudier, unfiltered and less processed. Nevertheless, some large U.S. corporations continue to market the same clear, filtered, processed, and pasteurized apple juice as "apple cider".

References

1. ^ ^{a b} USDA Food Safety "New Juice Regulations Underway"
2. ^ ^{a b} Federal Register: January 19, 2001, HHS/FDA "21 CFR Part 120 Final Rule"
3. ^ FDA/CFSAN HACCP -- "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point: Juice HACCP"
4. ^ New York Times, October 11, 1998 "Those Quaint Apple Cider Stands Meet Up With the Long Arm of the Law" Acessed: 15 October, 2007
5. ^ Warm Up With Mulled Wine & Cider. Allrecipes.
6. ^ http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_048.html