Drink up thy zider!

Cider, the alcoholic drink produced from apples has probably been made for as long as people realised fruit could be used to make alcohol. It’s thought that when the Romans first arrived in Kent in 55BC they found the population were drinking a sort of cider… that’s two thousand years ago. I’m sure they weren’t just doing it in Kent, making and drinking it, but across the country whenever apples could grow. It would be one way of preserving and using the apples, and also the drink, not only would quench and cheer, but be pure compared to other water supplies… this was a greater problem in later millennia, but I’m sure it was always the case.

Our adopted county of Somerset is one of the great cider producing areas, not only in the country but in the world. It seems that there are glimpses of this all around us, whether it is the fabulous orchards, the product in the shops, pubs and bars, the lorries and wagons transporting it, the cider-producers themselves… within less than ten miles of us here I can think of three cider farms. The biggest and most successful, and well-respected, is Thatchers:

http://www.thatcherscider.co.uk/

Thatchers has been making cider for over a hundred years, and it is more popular than ever. As well as the premium and traditional ciders, the family make single variety drinks such as that made from Cox’s apples and also Katy apples, and more recently pear and fruit ciders.

We were out and about in Taunton and came across more evidence of the cider business in our county: