SPINNING THEIR WHEELS

Since 2006, the category hasn’t stood still. There’s been many cycles or phases of innovation. After modern apple ciders, came pear, then came cloudy ciders. Next a few producers such as Thatcher’s and Aspalls tried to convince us that more refined ciders (sometimes made with champagne yeast) were primed to replace wine and could and should be served from a champagne bottle into fluted glassware.

Eventually a mini craft movement emerged. Like the cottage industry that cider has always been, numerous smaller producers have launched, mainly found in their local areas, which is true craft really. Single orchard varieties, alongside vintages helped to introduce the concept of cider terroir to consumers.

And let’s not forget the new wave of let’s say, fashion ciders. Brands such as Grown (which describes its sleekly packaged ciders as ‘apple wines’) Sxollie Xider (which uses the marketing strapline ‘Cider that’s made like wine’) and Sassy are at the forefront of the modern wave of ciders. But even they aren’t doing much that’s new. Yes, we’ve seen the ‘cider is an apple wine approach’ before. However, at least brands such as Sassy with their bold artist and fashion designer collaborations on their packaging are helping to visually move the image of cider forward.