About Cider Notes
Do you know that feeling when you discover something amazing–That sudden realisation that you have come across something wonderful? This is what happened to me when I tasted quality cider for the first time. Ever since, I could not shut up about it, and Cider Notes is was born.
My Story with Cider
Hi, my name is Giulia and since I can remember I have been fascinated with different types of drinks. I have grown up with wine and grappa in my homeland Italy, discovered beer when I moved to the USA, experienced sake in my brief experience in Japan and learnt to appreciate whisky, gin and other craft beers since I moved (for good) to the UK. Yet, it was only several years after I moved here that I truly discovered what real cider is – at The Hop Inn in Hornchurch.
How did I not know that cider could taste so refined and wonderful? How had I not come across anything like that until that moment? I have had cider before of course. I bought bottles from supermarkets. I tried brands available in pubs and restaurants. But after the first few tastings, I found myself bored and underwhelmed as there wasn’t much difference in the different options available – all extremely sweet, forcefully bubbly and with some artificial nuances of different fruit flavors. If that was cider, it tasted really all the same and – to be quite honest — uninteresting to me.
The problem was that I had been always tasting the same style of cider – one that is mass produced, using juice concentrate, artificial flavourings, water, sugar and god knows what else.
What I didn’t know is that this is not cider. Not really. Real cider is made with real apple juice and without any flavoring or sugar added. Real cider is made with the same care and techniques used to make fine wine.
That is when I had my epiphany: cider is just wine made with apple juice rather than grape juice.
About this website
This website was born out of my desire to share what I discover about cider and, as such, it doesn’t aim to be a comprehensive guide to cider. Rather, it is a journey into the world of cider, or Ciderland to put it like Jane Payton does in her book “The Philosophy of cider” – “a parallel universe […], a rural realm where nature rules, life is slow, and time is dictated by growing season […]. The place that produces minimal intervention cider from fresh apple juice, also termed artisan, farmhouse or real cider, as opposed to cider made from juice concentrate.”
My personal hope is that one day cider will be elevated to the status that wine holds now, to be appreciated all over the world as the magnificent beverage that most people are unaware that it has always been, and continues to be today, if you only know where to find it.