Apple Cider Varieties | How to Talk Like a Real Cider Expert Photo Credit : Thinkstock
APPLE CIDER VARIETIES
Apple Brandy
Distilled apple cider, the French Calvados being the best-known example; often used interchangeably with the term “applejack.”
Applejack
Also called cider oil; often used interchangeably with “apple brandy.” Originally, applejack referred to the strong drink now known as frozen heart or hollow heart, made by a process of freezing hard cider in which the water content was gradually removed and an apple-flavored alcohol remained (the chemical process is called fractional crystallization).
Cider
Originally used to mean a hard, alcoholic drink made from fermenting the juice pressed from apples; in England, “hard” cider is redundant. “Sweet cider” refers to unfermented cider.
New England Style Cider
A strong hard cider made with a variety of sugars, spices, and raisins.
Scrumpy
A slang term for particularly powerful hard cider; also refers to hard cider to which beefsteak or other meats have been added for flavor.
Stone Wall
Also known as stone fence; hard cider or applejack mixed with rum and spices, and sometimes brown sugar; prescribed for dispelling chills and restoring energy.
First published in the October 1996 issue of Yankee Magazine.
