Cider

cider a term with two meanings. In N. America since Prohibition it refers to unfermented, unpasteurized, and usually unfiltered apple juice. After processing so as to resemble European apple juice, it is called ‘sweet apple juice’. Alcoholic cider is now described as ‘hard’ cider. Cider apples have never been grown in America, juice being pressed from general purpose orchard varieties. American cider is cloudy and replete with sediment, but in current market conditions looks as if it will be displaced by imports from China. In Britain, cider is an alcoholic drink, for which special cider apples are used; this has some limited uses in cookery and in making cider vinegar and verjuice. This kind of cider is also made elsewhere in Europe, notably in parts of France and Spain. Cider is the source of the distilled spirits applejack and Calvados.